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Would teaching intelligent design violate the Establishment Clause of First Amendment of the Constitution?

April 26, 2017Amendment clause Constitution design establishment intelligent Teaching violate

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Would teaching intelligent design violate the Establishment Clause of First Amendment of the Constitution?

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The Short Answer: No, definitely not. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” The current authoritative case over the teaching of origins in public school science classes is Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) where the United States Supreme Court majority stated that a legislature can pass an acceptable bill regarding the teaching of science if purpose is to increase the “comprehensiveness” and “effectiveness” of science education and teaches “scientific” theories of origins. Thus, if intelligent design is a bona fide scientific theory (which it is) and if a legislature chose to advocate the teaching of intelligent design theory for the purpose of enhancing the effectiveness of science education (which it could) then intelligent design theory could be taught.