Pa. school board at the center of evolution debate

JOHN RILEY

January 14, 2005

DOVER, Pa.

Steve Farrell believes in God, with huge enthusiasm and little doubt. He says he was ‘born again’ several years ago when God helped him get through the death of a 4-day-old daughter with multiple birth defects. Then Farrell prayed again and God cured a hernia. Then, God cured his mother of breast cancer. Then, in answer to his prayers, God ended a drought in this rural York County township south of Harrisburg, rescuing the nursery business he runs just north of the village from a sharp decline.

Proponents of “intelligent design” argue there are gaps in the fossil record used to prove Darwin’s theory, and that the very complexity of living organisms is evidence they are the work of an intelligent being.

Advocates of the policy say the Supreme Court never banned scientific alternatives to evolution, and argue that it’s educational to expose students to intellectual controversy.

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