Intelligent Design Arguments

An article from February 13, 2006 contained a story about the debate of teaching intelligent design in school. During the month of February, the School Board of Ohio decided to examine the teaching of intelligent desgin in Ohio's public schools. They felt that a certain lesson plan from a biology class was trying to teach intelligent design, and want to put a stop to it. This case in Ohio is only one of many fights against the teaching of intelligent design, happening all over the United States. The most well-known cases occured in California, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. In Wisconsin especially, a ban was proposed on teaching intelligent design altogether, which was the first such proposal ever. The School Board of Ohio is having an even harder time working on this decision, because it is being pressured by outside presences and anti-intelligent design groups. Also, polls taken by the people of the state of Ohio are affecting the state's decisions, because the people are saying that schools should teach that evolution is incorrect, and that it should be a choice of the students to learn intelligent design. In past years in Ohio, this argument has risen several times, but was never resolved. In the early 2000's, a plan was desgined to teach both evolution and intelligent design, but it failed. Later, the school board had an emergency meeting, which stopped the teaching of the lesson, and took a "critical analysis" approach to teach. At this February meeting, the state considered ending the lesson of intelligent design completely, including "critical analysis".
This event is almost a perfect parallel to another event in American history, known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial". During 1925, a school teacher in Tennessee decided to teach evolution to his class, which was against the law in the state of Tennessee. Scopes was sued, and the case was brought to the Supreme Court. The case became known throughout the country, and the famous William Jennings Bryant worked the case against Scopes. The case determined that it was unlawful to teach evolution, so Scopes was found guilty, and the case was over. But, the argument over evolution in schools did not stop there.