Subject: [AthofSV] Intro to Intelligent Design as "Philosophy"

From: "Jim Bill" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 20:06:10 -1000

This story was also featured on tonight's ABC-TV "World News Tonight."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/13598830.htm 
FRESNO

School sued over course on `intelligent design'

A rural high school teaching a religion-based alternative to evolution was sued Tuesday by parents who said the class should be stopped because it violates the U.S. Constitution.

Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec violated the separation of church and state while attempting to legitimize the theory of ``intelligent design'' in a philosophy course taught by a minister's wife, according to the U.S. District Court suit filed by parents of 13 students.

The suit was filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which successfully blocked Dover, Pa., schools last month from using science courses to teach a theory that living things are so complex they must have been designed by a higher being.

Superintendent John Wight, who did not immediately return a phone call for comment, said last week that the class, ``Philosophy of Design,'' was not being taught as science and was an opportunity for students to debate the controversial issue.