But should "intelligent design" be taught in high school science classes along with evolution?

No way.

What I happen to believe is faith. Evolution, for all the holes some people like to poke in the theory, is science.

I have the right to believe what I want to believe. I also have the right to teach my children what I believe and to encourage them to attend a synagogue where they can learn more about the religion they inherited.

But I can’t demand that a public high school science class teach anything but science and still call myself a good American.

To tell you the truth, this "origin of the universe" stuff has always given me fits.

I have no trouble buying into the whole "Big Bang Theory" about how between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago an unimaginably powerful explosion hurled matter in every direction.

What I can’t fathom is what happened before that.

What created all that matter in the first place? What filled up all the space the universe exists in now? If God created it, then who created God?

If you think about it long enough in those terms, then the universe can’t possibly exist because you can’t create something out of nothing. Therefore, our very existence is impossible, and you probably wasted the dollar you spent on this newspaper.

Smart people I’ve talked to about this tell me I have to let go of my conception of time. All time, they tell me, is relative. Albert Einstein proved that, so there really isn’t any "before" and the origin of the universe makes sense.

That’s usually when my head starts to hurt and I feel an irresistible urge for a vanilla malted.

Einstein had a lot to say about science vis-a-vis religion, but his most famous utterance on the subject was: "God doesn’t play dice with the universe."

OK, I’ll go along with that. My personal solution is to reason that somehow God was always there. There was no "before" and I see His miracles in every sunrise and in the fact that the Yankees somehow made the playoffs.

I believe there is one God because that is a tenet of my Jewish faith and because the universe seems to run far too well for it to be the product of a committee.

But I’ll be darned if anyone should teach What Pollak Thinks in any classroom and call it science.

A court case in Dover, Pa., is getting a lot of press because last year the town’s school board ordered that biology students be taught about "intelligent design" and perceived flaws in the theory of evolution.

Several parents and — of course — the American Civil Liberties Union, are suing to block the policy.

This year, it’s called "intelligent design." A few years ago, it was "creationism." I liked it a lot better by the name it went by before that:

"Religion."

For the last 20 or 30 years or so, many evangelical Christians — frustrated by what they perceive as misguided federal and state politicians — have really worked at getting elected to school boards and other grass-roots posts.

While I disagree with virtually all of their stands on separation of church and state, I applaud them for exercising their rights as citizens and doing the tough spadework necessary to effect change.

"Nearly 2,000 years ago, someone died on a cross for us," said Dover board member William Buckingham, an advocate of teaching "intelligent design" in ninth-grade science classes. "Shouldn’t we have the courage to stand up for him?"

Sure, but stand up in church, not the school.

I don’t know Mr. Buckingham, but he’s probably a fine man and a pillar of his community. He clearly wants Christianity taught in the Dover schools.

At least he’s not trying to get religious dogma in through the back door like some advocates who say intelligent design is the answer because evolution can’t explain certain elements of life, such as some aspects of cell structure.

I’ve often asked myself whether I would be so absolutely opposed to promoting religion in public schools if kids would be getting an earful about Moses and not Jesus.

I really want to believe I would be just as strident about separation of synagogue and state as I am about church and state. There’s no scientific proof of that, of course.

I guess, like so many other things, it’s something I’ll have to take on faith.

———

Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.