`Intelligent design' and public schools: covert evangelism? (Editorials).

In recent years, creationists and their arguments have evolved. Criticizing science for being unbiblical is out; promoting "competing ideas" about human origins is in. Asking schools to teach the Book of Genesis is passe; encouraging school boards to include "intelligent design" concepts in science class is in vogue.

No one should be fooled. Intelligent design isn't science, it's a scheme to circumvent the Constitution and promote religion in public schools. Since Religious Right activists can't ban evolution or force teachers to put creationism on an even par with modern science, they have simply adapted and created a new strategy to undermine church-state separation.

Intelligent design's supporters claim that life is too complex to have developed naturally, and therefore must be the creation of a supernatural "designer." Proponents argue that they draw no conclusions about who the "designer" is. In their zeal to appear dispassionate about religion, some go so far as to suggest life on earth could have been the product of extraterrestrials. Shades of the "X Files"!

When one cuts through the rhetorical sleight of hand, however, everyone knows the "designer" Religious Right activists are referring to is God. Opponents of religious neutrality in public schools are simply seeking official imprimatur for their theological beliefs on human origins.

To protect individual rights in a diverse nation, our public schools have to remain neutral on matters of religion. Questions about faith should be answered by parents, families and religious leaders, not teachers and state education officials. This argument applies equally to coercive government-sponsored prayer, promoting religious texts such as the Ten Commandments and advancing religious ideas in public school science classes.

In Ohio and elsewhere, advocates of intelligent design carefully shun religious motivations in public. They insist that their concerns are purely related to "academic freedom," and "evidence" for and against different ideas. This strategy is a masquerade, and in private, these same activists acknowledge a religious agenda.

Philip Johnson, for example, is one of the intelligent design movement's most articulate spokespeople. When he admits in speeches to friendly audiences, however, that he attacks evolution so people will be open to learning the "truth of the Bible" and then can be "introduced to Jesus," it becomes difficult to believe Johnson's concern is for quality science.

It's a shame these activists feel it necessary to cloak their beliefs and intentions, but it's worse when they try to pass off their religious doctrines as science and call for lessons about religious concepts in public school classrooms.

Church and state both do best when there is a clear line of demarcation between them. The intelligent design crusade seeks to erase that critically important line.

This battle is heating up, and skirmishes are being fought on fronts ranging from Washington, D.C, to local school boards around the country. Those who value church-state separation and religiously neutral public schools must be ready to defend these two vital facets of our national life.