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Old Aug 25th, 2005, 05:40 PM       
I think someone said something about the establishment clause earlier.

Now, I'm not too familiar with US legal precedent on this one, but there is a distinct difference between establishment (declaring an official state religion) and government support of religion. The only thing the Constitution spells out is that the US government may not make a law respecting the establishment of religion, i.e. it may not establish a religion or outlaw any religion. Like I said, I don't know how courts have treated the issue thus far, but from a purely letter-of-the-law constitutional standpoint, the United States government or any segment thereof can support whatever religious groups or teachings it wants to just about any extent as long as there is no official statement saying "this is a Christian country." The only reason it's intelligent design now instead of plain old Genesis creationism is to stave off the vocal opposition a little more, not because the fundies really want to do something illegal and need to slip through a loophole.
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