Intelligent Design on Trial Today

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a comic of lovable drunk Andy Capp explaining Intelligent Design -- don't fret, I am sure that the Garfield catalog has a take or two...They've got to be in the chapters between Lasagna and Mondays.

HARRISBURG, Pa. The latest chapter in the legal debate over teaching evolution in public schools unfolds in Pennsylvania today. The Dover Area School district is defending its policy that ninth-grade students have to hear about "intelligent design" before biology lessons on evolution.

Dover is believed to be the first school system in the nation to require students be exposed to the concept.

Intelligent design holds that Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms. It implies that life on Earth was the product of an intelligent force.

Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism camouflaged in scientific language, and it does not belong in a science curriculum.

Eight Dover families say the policy violates constitutional separation of church and state.