Darwin's struggle. Darwinian theory of beauty. World | Americas | Victors hail US evolution ruling. A US court decision to ban the teaching of "intelligent design" has been hailed by anti-creationism campaigners. A federal judge ruled in favour of 11 parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, who argued that Darwinian evolution must be taught as fact in biology lessons. School administrators had argued that life on Earth was too complex to have evolved on its own. Intelligent design activists criticised the ruling, saying it would marginalise beliefs based on religion. For those fighting the policy of the Dover school board, the judicial ruling offered a boost to the separation of church and state. About 20 US states have seen some form of challenge at local level to the pre-eminence of Darwinian evolution theory in the curriculum of publicly-funded schools since 2001.
"We have a federal judge ruling that intelligent design is in fact non-science and that it is religion," said Rob Boston of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. 'Breathtaking inanity' Wider issue. Darwin Pond.