JEFFERSON CITY A Republican lawmaker from Harrisonville wants all students in Missouri public schools, as well as those in introductory college courses, to be taught intelligent design alongside evolution in their science classes.</p><p> Rep. Rick Brattin said his bill is about teaching both sides of a debate in &#x201C;an objective manner.&#x201D; But his critics contend he&#x2019;s just trying to inject religion in the classroom.</p><p> &#x201C;Intelligent design is a religious philosophy, not a science,&#x201D; said Josh Rosenau, programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education.</p><p> Proponents of intelligent design believe the world is so complex that there had to be a designer. Most of them believe the designer is God. The leading proponents of intelligent design are associated with the Discovery Institute, a politically conservative think tank based in Seattle. </p><p> Brattin, who is serving his first term, said his bill is not about religion. Evolution is not a proven fact, he argued, so keeping a competing idea about the origin of humanity like intelligent design out of the classroom is wrong.</p><p> &#x201C;I&#x2019;m not advocating that we teach Adam and Eve in schools,&#x201D; Brattin said. &#x201C;But we don&#x2019;t know what happened a billion years ago, so why not have a fair discussion about all the possibilities? The jury is still out on evolution.&#x201D;</p><p> But the scientific community is not divided over the issue, Rosenau said. Evolution has been investigated for 150 years, he said, and is regarded by every leading scientific body around the world as the foundation of modern biology.</p><p> &#x201C;The science of evolution is not in dispute,&#x201D; he said.</p><p> Francis Eberle, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, said there is no controversy about evolution within the discipline.</p><p> &#x201C;Science has to be based on evidence that is tested over and over and over and over again,&#x201D; Eberle said. &#x201C;There is no evidence to support intelligent design.&#x201D;</p><p> Rosenau said the intelligent-design movement came into existence to circumvent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that banned the teaching of creationism in public schools.</p><p> The idea of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution already has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court, Rosenau noted. </p><p>After a school district in Dover, Pa., required intelligent-design education, a judge ruled that the concept is not science and that it &#x201C;cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.&#x201D; Because of this, teaching it in the classroom violates the constitutional separation of church and state, the judge said.</p><p> Similar legislation has been introduced in Missouri over the years with limited success. Brattin&#x2019;s bill differs from those efforts by expanding the mandate to include higher education. </p><p> Brattin said he will discuss his legislation with Republican House leadership this week with the hope of getting a committee hearing scheduled. He remains optimistic about the bill&#x2019;s chances.</p><p> &#x201C;I keep pointing to a Gallup poll that shows 90 percent of Americans believe in a higher power,&#x201D; Brattin said. &#x201C;And yet our schools only teach that we emerged from primordial ooze. I think students should get both sides of the issue and get to come to their own conclusions.&#x201D;