The intelligent design movement has conducted an organized campaign largely in the United States that promotes a pseudoscientific, neo-creationist religious agenda calling for broad social, academic and political changes centering on intelligent design.
International context
Though creationism and intelligent design are not supported by many mainstream scientists, there are significant minorities in the general public in most developed countries that say they doubt or reject the theory of evolution, likely because of their religious beliefs. In underdeveloped countries where rates of religious belief are much higher, support of evolution is consequently lower.
Europe In Europe, religion generally has much less influence on politics than in the United States or the developing world. Despite this, there are pockets of creationist and intelligent design activity.
Council of Europe The Council of Europe's Committee on Culture, Science and Education released a report in June 2007 entitled "The Dangers of Creationism in Education". One of the council members, Anne Brasseur said that the aim of the report was to anchor evolution in school curricula, and warned that there was still resistance in many European countries. She provided the following examples in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel: A former deputy education minister of Poland called the theory of evolution a lie. Activism against teaching evolution in grade school by some Russian parents A 2004 proposed decree against evolution A proposed "Genesis-Land" theme park in Switzerland based on the Creation Museum in Kentucky. Creationist lectures and symposia in the United Kingdom The publication and free distribution of the "Atlas of Creation" by Harun Yahya in Turkey The Ministry of Education for the German state of Hesse allowing the teaching of theory of creation in biology class The publishing house "Studiengemeinschaft Wort und Wissen" is now publishing the sixth edition of a grade school textbook that includes the theory of intelligent design.
North America
Canada Unlike in the United States the issue has never been the subject of a major Supreme Court case, nor does it figure prominently in the national media.
In Canada, education is the constitutional responsibility of the provinces. No province has taught creationism in its official public school curriculum in modern times, however, there are various different approaches to the teaching of evolution and religion across the country, as well as various exceptions for separate schools (publicly funded religious school, primarily Catholic), private schools, alternative schools, Reserve schools, charter schools, and so on. In most provincial curricula (excluding Quebec, where it has been mandatory in elementary schools since 2004) evolutionary theory is only required in Grade 11 or 12; however, it can be taught earlier at the discretion of local school boards and teachers.
Around 63,000 Canadian children attend "Christian" (primarily evangelical) schools outside of the provincial systems (which include both the public [secular] and Catholic schools), where they are generally taught creationism rather than evolution.
In 2006, the ministry of education in Quebec ordered unlicensed private evangelical Christian schools to start teaching evolution and sexual education, otherwise the schools would be closed. In Ontario, private schools are not required to teach either evolution or sex education.
In 2009, the government under the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta introduced Bill 44 which allows parents to pull their children out of public school classrooms if they disagree with the controversial subject matter being discussed (such as evolution or homosexuality). Later amendments to the bill clarified that parents could choose to pull their children from religion classes, but not from science classes.
United States A number of specific political strategies and tactics have been employed by intelligent design proponents. These range from attempts at the state level to undermine or remove altogether the presence of evolutionary theory from the public school classroom, to having the federal government mandate the teaching of intelligent design, to 'stacking' municipal, county and state school boards with intelligent design proponents. The Discovery Institute has been driving force in most cases, providing a range of support from material assistance to federal, state and regional elected representatives in the drafting of bills to supporting and advising individual parents confronting their school boards.
A feature of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns has been extensive lobbying and public relations campaigns conducted on behalf of intelligent design proponents in order to overcome professional setbacks such as that of Guillermo Gonzalez, Richard Sternberg and Francis Beckwith. These efforts are focused on two efforts: the Teach the Controversy and Critical Analysis of Evolution campaigns. These campaigns gained prominence after the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial where Judge John E. Jones III ruled that teaching intelligent design or presenting it as an alternative to evolution was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because intelligent design is not legitimate science but essentially religious in nature. available at Ruling, Kitzmiller v. Dover, Conclusion
Both the Teach the Controversy and Critical Analysis of Evolution strategies and resources for them come from the Discovery Institute and its Center for Science and Culture, the hub of the intelligent design movement. These strategies are seen as another iteration of the Discovery Institute's campaign to "defeat [the] materialist world view" represented by the theory of evolution in favor of "a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions".. Cited in According to the Center for Science and Culture's weblog,Evolution News and Views at least 10 state legislatures are now considering legislation reconsidering how evolution is taught. Many of these initiatives benefit from significant legal assistance from a number of conservative legal foundations including the Thomas More Law Center, the Alliance Defense Fund, and Quality Science Education for All (QSEA). All have litigated extensively on behalf of the movement.
Specific cases
1999 & 2005 creationist Kansas Boards of Education
In 1999 the Kansas Board of Education voted to delete references to evolution from Kansas science standards. This had the net effect of removing the teaching of evolution from the state's science curriculum. The move angered the mainstream science community which predicted a resulting loss of rigor and quality in science education. The Board's decision was in part influenced by the presence of recently elected conservative Christians to the board and heavy lobbying by the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, then known as the "Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture" (CRSC). Subsequent elections altered the membership of the school board and led to renewed backing for evolution instruction in 2001.
Elections in 2004 gave religious conservatives a contentious 6-4 majority. The board in 2005 was finalizing new science standards which would have guided teachers about how and what to teach students. A proposal advanced by conservatives and intelligent design proponents, with support from the Center for Science and Culture, was similar to the Critical Analysis of Evolution plan for which the Center lobbied the Ohio Board of Education in 2002. It would not have eliminated evolution entirely from instruction, nor would it require intelligent design to be presented as an alternative to evolution, but the Critical Analysis of Evolution plan treated evolution as a flawed theory, a position that defied mainstream scientific views.
On 8 November 2005, the Kansas Board of Education, chaired by veterinarian Steve Abrams, approved new science teaching standards that included the Critical Analysis of Evolution. The Discovery Institute was key in the drafting and adoption of the new standards which were approved by 6 to 4, reflecting the makeup of religious conservatives on the board.https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-11-08-kansas-science-standards_x.htm, Greg Toppo, USA Today
Critics of the new Kansas standards noted that they promoted the teaching of intelligent design. Kansas standards previously supported evolutionary theory, which held that all life had a common origin. Creationists claimed that theory had been challenged by their interpretation of fossils and molecular biology. They had also echoed the standard intelligent design argument that there is a controversy as to whether changes over time in one species can lead to a new species.Mercury News
After the board of education decided to include more criticism of evolution in its school science standards, a University of Kansas professor, Paul Mirecki, proposed to teach a class called "Special Topics in Religion: intelligent design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies." The class was cancelled and the professor was forced to resign as chairman of the university's religious studies department. Mirecki had alleged that he was also assaulted and beaten by creationists who opposed his teaching of the class, CNN
In primary election held on August 1, 2006, pro-creationist conservative Republicans lost their 6-4 board majority when incumbent Connie Morris from Cheyenne County, Kansas, was defeated by moderate Republican Sally Cauble, of Liberal, Kansas. Another slot which until then was held by a retiring conservative whose son-in-law from Idaho, Brad Patzer, ran for her office, was won by Jana Shaver, a pro-evolution Republican from Independence, Kansas.
Morris had described evolution in a taxpayer-funded constituent newsletter as "an age-old fairy tale" and "a nice bedtime story" unsupported by science.
The fate of Education Commissioner and former Koch brothers Kansas Policy Institute director, Bob Corkins, was sealed by the ouster of the anti-evolutionists in 2006. He was an appointee of the board's creationists and endured strong criticism for his lack of previous educational leadership experience. Republican state Sen. John Vratil, characterized Corkins' hiring as education commissioner as "sort of like making Saddam Hussein president of the United States." The executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, Paul Houston, had written a letter referring to Corkins as an "amateur."He Don't Need No Education, The Pitch, Justin Kendall, December 1, 2005. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
2000 Congressional briefing In 2000, the leading intelligent design proponents operating through the Discovery Institute held a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., to promote intelligent design to lawmakers. Sen. Rick Santorum was (and continues to be) one of intelligent design's most vocal supporters. One result of this briefing was that Sen. Santorum inserted pro-intelligent design language into the No Child Left Behind bill calling for students to be taught why evolution "generates so much continuing controversy," an assertion heavily promoted by the Discovery Institute.
2001 Santorum Amendment
The Santorum Amendment was a failed proposed amendment to the 2001 education act No Child Left Behind of 2001. The inclusion of the amendment in the Act was heavily lobbied for by the Discovery Institute, which also participated in the drafting of the original language of the amendment. Although only a modified form of the amendment appeared in the conference report, the amendment itself was not included in the legislation that President George W. Bush signed.