"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his
God, I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof' thus building a
wall of separation between Church and State." -- Thomas Jefferson
"Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone.
I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life
to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right." --
Thomas Jefferson (to Joseph Willard 1789)
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is
always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of
his own." -- Thomas Jefferson
"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no
position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no
more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or
whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of
God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that
are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.
They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100
percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue,
they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly
sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen
that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who
do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to
dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who
must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some
God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning
them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral
convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'" -- Senator Barry
Goldwater (R)
The latest struggle over the teaching of evolution in the public schools of Kansas
provides striking evidence that evolution is occurring right before our eyes. Every
time the critics of Darwinism lose a battle over reshaping the teaching of biology,
they evolve into a new form, armed with arguments that sound progressively more
benign, while remaining as dangerous as ever.
For a brief period between 1999 and 2001, Kansas science teachers had labored
under state standards that de-emphasized evolution. In 2004, voters once more
gave conservative religious members a majority on the state's Board of Education;
as a result, science standards are to be rewritten yet again, in a way that
deprecates evolution and permits discussion of intelligent design.
The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of
this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board’s ID Policy violates the
Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the
seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and
moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious,
antecedents.
