Intelligent design tied to creationism in Dover
trial By Bill Toland, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — Board members who succeeded in introducing “intelligent
design” to students in Dover Area School District were wary of evolutionary theory and explicit in their desire to balance the
teaching of evolution with a more Christian-friendly philosophy, three plaintiffs testified yesterday during the second day of a
landmark federal trial. …
“If evolution was part of the biology curriculum, creationism should be shared 50-50,”
[Aralene] Callahan quoted [Alan] Bonsell as saying.
[William] Buckingham, according to the testimony, expressed fears that the
biology textbooks he’d reviewed were “laced with Darwinism,” and too one-sided in their deference to evolution. At a board meeting,
Buckingham criticized a college student who studied evolution, saying the man had been “brainwashed.”
Buckingham said somebody
needed to take a stand for Jesus, witnesses said. His wife, Charlotte, quoted Old Testament verses during public board
meetings, one plaintiff testified.
accident or design?
As governor of Texas, George W. Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism
and evolution. Last month, he said intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution. “Both sides ought to be
properly taught,” he said, “so people can understand what the debate is about.”