The Israeli government has taken the unusual step of cutting all ties with an American preacher, the television evangelist Pat Robertson. The move came after Robertson's comments last week about the massive stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who remains gravely ill. Robertson has been working to set up a massive Christian tourism center in Israel, and that deal is now in question. Robertson's statement is the latest in a string of pronouncements that have left Robertson isolated from other conservative Christians.

The opening salvo in the next battle over intelligent design has been fired. Coming off a major legal victory in Pennsylvania last month, opponents of intelligent design are seeking to replicate that win in California. Last month, a federal judge in Harrisburg, Pa., ruled that intelligent design cannot be taught in public school science class as an alternative to evolutionary theory. Intelligent design posits that life is too complex to have evolved through random mutation, but must have been guided by an "intelligence."

While debate rages in this country over teaching science and so-called "intelligent design," the Roman Catholic Church is in the midst of a renewed discussion over the compatibility of evolution and faith.

A federal judge Tuesday prohibited mentions of intelligent design in Dover, Pa., public school biology classes. The case was closely watched by school districts around the country, and the decision is likely to put a damper on other such efforts.

A federal judge strikes down a policy in the Dover, Pa., schools that required biology students to hear a statement supporting alternatives to evolution. The ruling is a major blow to backers of intelligent design in public schools. They say life is too complex to have evolved entirely through natural means. But in strong language, the judge said the school board's policy was a thinly veiled attempt to force religion into the teaching of science -- and therefore unconstitutional.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania is expected to rule in a case about whether ninth-grade biology students in Dover, Pa., could hear intelligent design mentioned in the classroom. At issue is whether public schools can teach alternatives to evolution.

Steve Inskeep discusses the current state of intelligent design in American classrooms with Barbara Bradley Hagerty and with Greg Allen, who covered the intelligent design movement in Kansas.

After publishing an article backing intelligent design, a scientist is targeted for retaliation. Intelligent design—the idea that life is too complex to have evolved through Darwinian evolution—is stirring up controversy not only in high school classrooms but also at universities and scientific research centers. Richard Sternberg, a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health, is puzzled to find himself in the middle of a broader clash between religion and science—in popular culture, academia and politics.

A federal trial begins Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., over a Dover school district disclaimer that introduces the idea of "intelligent design" in high school biology classes. It is the first major test of the issue in a federal court.

The teaching of evolution fuels a dispute over modern approaches to the topic in Cecil County, Md., The case comes as historians note the 80th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tenn.

Owen Gingerich, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University and senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, discusses the role of evolution and the creationist movement called Intelligent Design. Gingerich, a Christian, says he has a problem with Intelligent Design taught as an alternative to evolution.