Evolution fight flares at UC-Berkeley

A civil lawsuit has been filed against operators of a University of California-Berkeley Web site that's designed to help instructors teach evolution.

The California couple who filed the suit, Jeanne and Larry Caldwell told the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News they are not proponents of intelligent design -- which claims life so complex it must have been created by a higher intelligence -- but they object to the teaching of evolution as scientific fact.

The suit also objects to Web site's linking to doctrinal statements from a variety of religions to demonstrate "most Christian and Jewish religious groups have no conflict with evolution.''

That, the lawsuit says, amounts to a government endorsement of certain religions over others.

Roy Caldwell, director of the Museum of Paleontology and a professor of integrative biology at UC-Berkeley, told the newspaper, "The thing that disturbs me the most is that this is not just an attack on evolution; it's an attack on science.''

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