give me a friggin break
"Intelligent design" debate goes to kids' TV
Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:57 PM ET
By Jamie McGeever
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The debate over whether children should be taught "intelligent design" in U.S. public schools as an alternative to evolution is moving to children's television.
"There's a fight going on the science room," says Linda Ellerbee, presenter of "Nick News," a news magazine on the children's TV cable channel Nickelodeon.
The channel is tackling the subject on Sunday by presenting both sides of the controversy in "God, Science, Politics and Your School."
Supporters of intelligent design say that nature is so complex that it must have been the work of an unnamed creator, rather than the result of random natural selection as outlined in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
"The goal of this show is not to debate the issues of evolution, intelligent design or creationism," Ellerbee said in a statement.
"We just want to give kids a better understanding of what all the shouting is about. We also want to hear from kids affected by these disputes."
The controversy, stirred by a recent court case in Pennsylvania, centers on whether teaching intelligent design violates U.S. constitutional separation of church and state.