Washington ? “Intelligent design” should not be taught in public school science classes because it violates the Constitution, undercuts America’s commitment to diversity and jeopardizes our children’s future.

As a lawsuit under way now in federal district court will show, intelligent design – or ID – is a religious concept, not a scientific theory. ID advocates say the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a designer. Although they stop short of saying that the designer is God, they offer no other plausible explanation.

Members of the Dover, Pa., School Board were a little more candid about their sectarian agenda when they voted last year to require schools to offer ID as an alternative to evolution in biology class.

When the resolution was adopted, one school member said, “Two thousand years ago, someone died on a cross. Can’t someone take a stand for him?”

In other words, the school board majority is using the school system to advance a particular religious perspective, and that violates the separation of church and state. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on two occasions that elected officials cannot change the science curriculum to please religious pressure groups.

In a 1968 case, the justices overturned an Arkansas law banning the teaching of evolution; in a 1987 case, they struck down a Louisiana statute requiring schools to give equal time to “creation science” and evolution.

Those decisions reflect sound constitutional law and also common sense. America is home to 2,000 denominations and faith groups. They each have their own perspectives on the origins of human life and the universe. Even if it were constitutional, it would be impossible to teach them all in science class. And it is certainly wrong to select one and leave out all the others.

I am an ordained Christian minister, and I deeply appreciate the constitutional right of all faith traditions to disseminate their religious viewpoints. But I strongly believe that public school science classes are not the place to do it.

In America, we do not allow the government to meddle in religious matters. Decisions about faith are left up to each individual, and politicians and bureaucrats are forbidden to trespass in that very personal corner of our lives.

Our nation is increasingly diverse when it comes to religion. Out of respect for and recognition of that pluralism, we must ensure that our public schools leave religious instruction to parents. Some families will choose a particular faith, and some will choose no religious path all.

We must also think about the effect of this issue on our public schools and the students who learn there.

America is increasingly challenged to compete in a world economy. If our children are to be ready for that competition, they must have the best instruction possible in the sciences as well as other parts of the curriculum. The National Academy of the Sciences has repeatedly urged teachers to offer sound science instruction in their classes, regardless of the religious and political pressures to do otherwise.

Earlier this year, NAS President Bruce Alberts warned that there is “a growing threat to the teaching of science through the inclusion of non-scientifically based ‘alternatives’ in science courses throughout the country.” He called on members of the academy to resist these efforts wherever they crop up.

One of the parents challenging ID in court in Pennsylvania summarized the issue well. Said Bryan Rehm, “As a parent and a person of faith, I want to share my religious beliefs with my own children. But as a high school physics teacher, I believe it would be a great disservice and fallacy to teach students that a perfectly valid faith constitutes scientific knowledge.”

That’s a pretty good short sermon, and I’d like to add my hearty, “Amen!”