CAIRO, February 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – American scientists are seeking assistance from religious groups to promote the teaching of the Darwinian theory of evolution in the US schools, The Independent reported on Tuesday, February 21.

Wrapping up its annual meeting on Monday, February 20, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general science organization, appealed for the help of mainstream religion in its quest.

It maintained that religion and science were not incompatible, saying many religious leaders had stated they saw no conflict between evolution and religion.

"We and the overwhelming majority of scientists share this view," the ASAS said in a statement.

The debate began when the school board in Dover, a central Pennsylvania town, voted last year to require ninth-grade biology teachers to read a four-paragraph statement casting doubt on Darwin's theory of evolution.

The mandatory statement said that the theory of intelligent design offers an alternative theory for the origin and evolution of life.

The board members made little secret of their own views, which hewed not so much to intelligent design as to Young Earth Creationism, a Christian belief that the world is but 6,000 years old and that Noah's flood shaped the earth.

The theory of evolution, first articulated by British naturalist Darwin in 1859, is based on the idea that life organisms developed over time through random mutations and factors in nature that favored certain traits that helped species survive.

The theory of intelligent design says life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, implying that a higher power must have had a hand in creation.

The ASAS denied reports of "disagreements" within the scientific community on the theory of evolution or encouraging non-scientific alternatives to Darwin, such as intelligent design.

"There is no significant controversy about the validity of the theory of evolution," said the statement.

"The current controversy about the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one," added the group.

It rebuked 14 states that are considering legislation that would undermine evolution teaching.

The ASAS warned that the various bills, before legislatures in states including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, risk weakening the US science education.

"They threatened not just the teaching of evolution, but a student's understanding of the biological, physical and geological sciences."

School administrators had earlier sought to have intelligent design inserted into science curriculum.

But a federal judge ruled the move would have violated the constitutional separation between church and state.

US President George Bush has voiced support to teaching the intelligent design to US students.

In August, Bush told reporters that science instructors should teach intelligence design alongside the traditional views about the origin of life.

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