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Video Worksheet for Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial 1. What was the 20

ID: 93678 • Letter: V

Question

Video Worksheet for Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

1. What was the 2005 Dover court case about?

2. What is intelligent design (ID), and how does it differ from Darwin’s theory of evolution by means of natural selection?

3. Why is ID considered not to be science by the scientific community?

4. Is there a difference between ID and creationism?

5. Why are scientists opposed to “equal time” for creationism/ID in science classes?

6. What evidence is put forward during the trial to support evolution and counter ID?

7. What evidence is put forward in support of ID? Does it hold up to scientific scrutiny?

8. What is ID’s notion of “irreducible complexity” and how is it refuted by evolutionary biologists?

9. Do you agree or disagree with the Judge’s decision in this case? Why?

Explanation / Answer

1. The United States federal courts first tested a public school (Dover Area School district) district policy that denied the evolutionary theory of the explanation of the origin of life, instead gave preferances in the intelligent design.This was the first challenge brought in the court.

2. According to Charles Darwin, species originated from shared ancestors and differences in organisms is caused by adaptatipns to different environments. The best fit individual will survive and pass their genes to the next generations by reproduction.

According to intelligent design (ID), natural selection is not the sole reason for the aspect of life, rather it is the intelligent designer that brought life into existence in all its form.

3. ID which supports supernatural agent, conflicts science, but has not yet provided any peer-reviewed article or evidence supporting their basis. Hence, it is not considered to be science.

4. According to creationism, there is God who created life forms on earth. In the view point of ID, the scientific nature is intelligently designed.

6. The theory of evolution was proposed after experimenting and studying thousands of animal and plant samples for two decades. All of these have clear inferences drawn from observed similarities and differences. This counter ID as it has no such elaborate evidences.