lmc@denelcor.UUCP (Lyle McElhaney) (07/10/85)
(AP) - New Orleans - Louisiana's law requiring creation science to be given equal weight with the teaching of evolution in public schools was ruled unconstitutional Monday by the federal appeals court. "The act's intended effect is to discredit evolution by counterbalancing its teaching at every turn with the teaching of creationism, a religious belief", the fifth circuit court of appeals said in its ruling. The court upheld US District Judge Adrian Duplantier's ruling against the 1981 law, which never has been enforced. It was the only such law still on the books in the nation, and differed only slightly from the one struck down in Arkansas in 1982. Creation science is the theory that the Earth and everything on it was created all at once some thousands of years ago. It is in accordance with the Bible's version of creation in the Book of Genesis. The theory of evolution holds that life began billians of years ago and has developed gradually from simpler forms. Martha Kagel, New Orleans director of the American Civil Liberties Union which fought the law in court, was jubilant. "With the decision today, the federal appeals court made it very clear, abundantly clear, that creationism is religion, that it is not science, and that the courts will not tolerate governmental promotion of religion in the science classroom."