I am in the process of reading the Kitzmiller v. Dover case.
http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf
I was thinking about the history of creationists trying to get their "theory" taught in public schools.
Creationism Only: Failed in court.
Teach Both/Equal Time: Failed in Court
Teach Creation "Science" This is where they hide Genesis in scientific sounding language. Failed in Court
Intellegent Design: Failed in Court
I am not sure they have "won" a case in court since Scopes. (Later overturned because of some technicality).
Now, my question is, what will they do next to try to sneak creationism in class. As I see it they have several options.
1) Just try again in different venue. I don't think so. You had your best chance in Dover. Conservitive Judge..appointed by president who basically said.."let them teach it." Still got blown out of the water.
2) They can try I.D. again MUCH later. Part of their problem is that they didn't have any real scientists backing them up. They had scientists who had written EXTENSIVELY about creationism. Another problem was the book they wanted to use. All Pandas was was a creationist book that was literally cut and pasted into a I.D. book. They are going to have to get some biological scientitsts on their side who don't have a record of trying to force their aganda on anyone. (Gonna be tough to do that) Additionally, they would still need to draft an entire textbook from scratch. Personally, I think they MAY try to do this but it's going to be tough to go against a court system which has already had a federal judge declare I.D. is not science.
3) They can name it something else but still maintain the same core concepts of I.D. Still probably won't work.
4) Change the definition of Science AND then try I.D. again. They have already done this in my state of Ohio. Science used to be defined as...blah blah blah..."a natural explanation for natural phenomena" Now science is defined as....blah blah blah..."more acurately explains natural phenomenon" THEY TOOK OUT THAT IT HAS TO BE A NATURAL EXPLANATION???? They did this in 2003 and i am assuming they did this because they were going to try to get I.D. through the court system here in Ohio. Now, I think that after I.D.'s crushing defeat in Dover....any School System may be leary of doing anything beyond changing the definition.
The broader point here is that it appears that our judicial system is working. Trust me..there are some dumb judges out there. However, most are smart..and don't like being overturned...especially on HUGE cases like this would be. They don't like being made out to be fools by higher courts. They are NOT being politically swayed by fundamentalists who think I.D. and "creation science" are real science.
Judge Jones did something smart here. He actually wrote that attacking evolution has been done historically by the religious community. He used these attack as evidence that when I.D. was attacking evolution...it was doing it for religious purposes....not scientific purposes. That is a HUGE thing to put in an opinion. It may help other courts to keep creationism out of classrooms.
It appears that out entire judicial system is not buying these fake attacks on evolution. It appears that the ONLY people who are dumb enough to buy these attacks on evolution are the creationists themselves.