The Kansas City Star recently published an interview with John Jones III, the judge who presided over the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial in Pennsylvania.
The trial was the first time in US history that a public school district was taken to court for requiring the presentation of "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution in science classrooms. Jones ruled that teaching intelligent design in public school biology classes violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States because it is not science and "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."
One interesting revelation from the interview was that Jones had never heard of intelligent design prior to being assigned to the trial.
Jones: "I was on my way home from my chambers that day, and I had the local radio station on in Harrisburg. And I heard about this big, bombastic press conference regarding an establishment clause challenge involving a concept known as intelligent design that had been filed in federal court.
And I remember having two distinct thoughts as I was driving home. One was that I consider myself reasonably well-read, but I didn't remember ever hearing about intelligent design. It was off my radar, which is funny now. And the second one was, I wonder who's going to get that case. I didn't know until the next morning that it was me."
And I remember having two distinct thoughts as I was driving home. One was that I consider myself reasonably well-read, but I didn't remember ever hearing about intelligent design. It was off my radar, which is funny now. And the second one was, I wonder who's going to get that case. I didn't know until the next morning that it was me."
Audio of the interview (mp3) is available here.
posted by Jeremy Mohn
