An article in Murfreesboro, Tennessee’s Daily News Journal, ironically titled “American history slips into oblivion,” shows just how dramatic the media’s misconceptions of intelligent design are. Ed Kimbrell writes “look at Kansas and Georgia, where the boards demanded that intelligent design be taught along side evolution.” But neither Kansas nor Georgia taught intelligent design.

The text of the Cobb County, Georgia, School Board’s disclaimer, which has nothing to do with intelligent design, may be found here, and it merely states “Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” Even Judge Cooper’s terrible original ruling, which was vacated by an appellate court, recognized that “the issue before the Court is not whether it is constitutionally permissible for public school teachers to teach intelligent design.”

We have had many posts discussing how Kansas never required teaching intelligent design (see here, here, here, here, here, and here). Perhaps Kimbrell himself could use a lesson in history. After all, the Kansas Science Standards themselves explain to teachers that “the Science Curriculum Standards do not include Intelligent Design.” Rather, they focus on teaching the scientific strengths and weaknesses of evolution without getting into alternative views like intelligent design.

If Kimbrell can’t check his facts to find out what’s in science standards, how do we know he is correct to assert that intelligent design is “religion, not science” simply because a court said so?