Evolutionary Design

I can’t help but notice the current education debate in the US regarding the teaching of evolutionary theory vs ‘intelligent design’; the first being development based primarily on small selection pressures with an element of randomisation and the second based on the premise that something, somewhere had a hand in guiding the development of life, because obviously humans are far too perfect to have got here by chance 😉 In Kansas, the Board of Education has formally voted to include alternative theories in their teaching of science, no doubt encouraged by President Bush’s enthusiasm for the idea.

I thought that in the US the church could not influence the state (hence such things as removing school prayers), but what do you call this? And do other countries teach alternative views of evolution based on their religious preferences?