Questions addressed by Creationists who insist on teaching the Biblical creation of all living things in the public school science curriculum have always been disputed in the United States. In Japan these controversies have been considered as rare cases in the United States and only seen remarkable in that they represent an excessive demand for freedom of religion by the religious rights. In this paper, I have mainly analyzed the dispute over education policy concerning the teachings of the origin of life at the stage of secondary education in the Cobb County Board of Education in Georgia, USA. My aim is not to analyze whether creationism is science or religion, though, as most Japanese researchers have attempted. I rather pay attention to their criticisms toward public education, which they found in the process of introducing their own belief in the public education. At first, the historical backgrounds and strategic transitions of the creationist movement have been precisely traced. Even though creationists cleverly change their strategy every time they lose in court, questions they point out to the public education system seem to be consistent. These are, first, why are things which most families want to teach their children properly rejected as a unilateral idea by public education, and, second, whether the monopoly of professionalism of the science curriculum may cause bureaucracy in public education. Their claims have never been approved by the courts because these were mostly considered as an unlimited request for parental rights, and such claims might cause the disorganization of public education. Recently, however, creationists have tried to override these court decisions by introducing a new type of theory called Intelligent Design (ID). Proponents of ID define their movement as an intellectual movement that challenges widely held scientific viewpoints such as methodological materialism. Unlike the former creationism, it is clear that the proponents of ID are not only trying to request unlimited parental rights by introducing ID in the public science curriculum. In the strategy of introducing their own beliefs, they now seem to be trying to harmonize the conflict between professionalism and layman control in public schools. Although their efforts have been thought to be based on religious motivations, there is something we can learn from their attempt.
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