Well the verdict is in! Judge Jones has ruled in the case of Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District, and he has decided to rule broadly against the teaching of Intelligent Design Creationism in public school science classes calling the whole endeavor an “inherently religious” alternative to the theory of evolution. This is excellent news not only for students in the Dover School District, but for students and teachers all across America. The Judge’s ruling which is well written and very, educational for a scientist with no legal training, ruling can be found here. Perhaps I’ll do another post after reading the whole thing. As you might expect the ruling is being discussed around the blogosphere right now. PZ Meyers has rapid-fire posted several thoughts on the ruling, and has even beaten me to the Discovery Institute’s sadly typical reaction. (This blogging thing may be more competitive than I thought! Oh well, we may never sing the lead, but at least we can add another voice to the choir.) The Discovery Institute's reaction is standard issue political fare these days, attack the other side, attack the judges "/The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate,../" Judge Jones of course is a Bush appointee, Bush himself has said he supports teaching both sides of the debate. Not to mention scientific ideas are spread through publishing them in peer-reviewed journals not through indoctrinating school children. (The original case that ruled the teaching of Creationism in public schools is Edwards v. Aguillard.) The only blog inspired by a bumper sticker.