Thomas Cahill, an Irish Catholic, is author of How the Irish Saved Civilization (Anchor, 1996) and served for a time as the North American education correspondent for the Times of London.

A 2000 poll from People for the American Way found that 66 percent of respondents say the issue of whether to teach evolution in public schools is too important to leave to individual localities to decide and say they favor a national approach.

Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on the ruling against ‘intelligent design’ in science class.

Read a New York Times story on the federal judge’s ruling of ‘intelligent design’ as “unconstitutional” to be taught in high school science classes due to it’s connection to “a particular version of christianity.”

Read an Associated Press article about Judge John E. Jones’ decision to ban ‘intelligent design’ from the school’s biology curriculum.

Laura Hobgood-Oster is a professor of religion at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Her areas of expertise include animals in the history of the Christian tradition and contemporary religious-ethical issues related to other-than-human animals. She is the author of Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition (2008).

Carol J. Adams is an independent scholar and self described “feminist-vegan” based in Dallas, Texas. She writes and lectures widely. She has written about the relationships between religion and animals.

Stephen Kaufman is a physician and a clinical assistant professor of surgery at Northeast Ohio Medical University in Canton, Ohio. He has been involved in leadership of the Christian Vegetarian Association. He has written on animal experimentation as well as Christian spirituality and vegetarianism.

Lawrence J. McCaffrey is author of The Irish-Catholic Diaspora in America (Catholic University of America Press, 1998) and professor emeritus of history at Loyola University in Chicago.