Scientists oppose intelligent design

"We are not rolling over on this," said Alan Leshner, the association's chief executive and publisher of the journal Science, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. "It's too important to the nation and to the nation's children."

Teachers, for the first time, were invited to attend the association's annual meeting to speak against intelligent design -- a theory that posits life is to complex to have been the result of evolution and a supernatural "designer" must be involved.

The teachers reported on finger-wagging parents who insist they abandon high school biology texts in favor of biblical creationism or intelligent design, the Post-Dispatch reported. The teachers said students were being torn between academics and Sunday school learning.

Eugenie Scott, the director of the National Center for Science Education, told a weekend news conference it was time for the faith community to "step up to the plate," The Times of London reported.

She said the idea one is either a Christian creationist or an atheist is believed by many people.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International