Re: Judge Jones sided with the Discovery Institute and ruled against the Dove...

I believe that the new chair of the Dover school board stated that the board
intends to designate elective courses in social sciences that may introduce
the subject of ID. There is nothing in Judge Jones' decision that prohibits
this course of action. He only enjoined ID from being presented in natural
science classes.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: <drsyme@cablespeed.com>
To: "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck@gmail.com>; "Pim van Meurs"
<pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: Judge Jones sided with the Discovery Institute and ruled
against the Dove...

> What if the Dover school board had wanted to get ID into the public
> schools, by proposing that ID be taught in philosophy classes instead of
> science classes? Assuming the motivations otherwise were the same, would
> ID in philosophy classes violate the establishment clause?
>
> If so, then a determination that the actions of the school board violated
> the establishment clause should be sufficient, if not then the question of
> whether or not ID is science or not seems relevant.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> A. The "endorsement" test under the establishment clause looks to the
>> relevant public's perception of the government's actions: would the
>> public
>> percieve a government endorsement of religion.
>> B. The "purpose" prong of the Lemon test asks about the government's
>> motives: did the government intend to promote religion or did the policy
>> have a valid secular motive.
>> C. Neither the question of public perception nor the question of
>> government
>> intent relate to any external, expert classification of a governmental
>> policy as "science," "not science," or anything else. These are questions
>> of
>> subjective perception and motive, to be determined based on each case's
>> factual setting. They are not questions of ontology or ultimate
>> objective
>> meaning.
>> D. Therefore, the broad question of whether something is or is not
>> "science" is irrelevant to an establishment clause case. Q.E.D.
>>
>> As
>
Received on Tue Jan 10 18:02:30 2006