HARRISBURG -- Intelligent design is creationism in disguise and has "utterly no place" in science classrooms, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

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The decision by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones stops the Dover Area school board in nearby York County from requiring ninth-graders to hear a statement about intelligent design before they learn about Darwinian evolution.

"We had no idea how this would end up, but I'm glad we're here today in victory," said lead plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller, a parent. "Eleven ordinary citizens stepped forward and made a difference."

The decision was seen as a setback for the intelligent design movement, which recently gained ground in Kansas, where the state school board voted to add intelligent design to its science program.

Intelligent design proponents say some complex aspects of the natural world, yet unexplained by evolution, best are attributed to an unnamed and unseen intelligent designer -- usually believed to be God.

"Intelligent design had its day in court and it lost," said Witold Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Association of Pennsylvania, which, along with the Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton, represented the plaintiffs.

The decision could have a ripple effect throughout the country as judges in other jurisdictions refer to Judge Jones' reasoning as they decide their own cases.

"This is a carefully reasoned, highly detailed decision that goes through all the issues that would be raised in any school district," said Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The judge was trying to write a decision that would be a guide to everyone else."

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which represented the school district and describes its mission as defending the religious freedom of Christians, said: "What this really looks like is [a personal] attack on scientists who happen to believe in God."

During six weeks of testimony this fall, board members argued that they wanted to improve science education and to promote critical thinking. Evidence, though, showed their true intent was to promote religious views, Judge Jones wrote.

"Their asserted purposes are a sham," he wrote. "The district's purpose was to advance creationism, an inherently religious view, both by introducing it directly under the label ID and by disparaging the scientific theory of evolution so that creationism would gain credence by default."

In his decision, Judge Jones blasted school board members for lying in sworn depositions to conceal religious motives and to hide the fact that a church donated funds to place copies of "Of Pandas and People" -- an intelligent design textbook -- in the school library.

Proponents of intelligent design say the judge went too far in his ruling when he disparaged their views, saying they are based on "flawed and illogical" arguments and not scientific research.

He should have considered only whether board members acted out of religious motives, said John West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle.

"Reaching well beyond the immediate legal questions before him, Judge Jones offered wide-ranging and sometimes angry comments denouncing intelligent design and praising Darwinian evolution," Dr. West said.

The American Family Association of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, decried the decision as an attack on academic freedom and said students should be encouraged to keep open minds.

"Why the apparent fear to allow students to hear a simple statement saying that Darwinism is a theory and there are other theories out there?" said Diana Gramley, the association's president. "Pennsylvania students have just been hamstrung by a federal judge and the effort by the outgoing Dover Area school board to expand the students' knowledge has been destroyed."

Judge Jones expected such backlash.

"Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred," he wrote. "Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case."

The controversy prompted community debate and interest from more than 500 news media organizations as far away as Thailand and New Zealand. It also sparked the ouster of eight incumbent school board members in November's election. Elected instead were eight opponents of the intelligent design requirement.

The new board agrees with the plaintiffs and is not expected to appeal.

Board members required teachers -- or administrators, if teachers refused -- to read students a disclaimer before lessons about evolution. The disclaimer, which students could opt out of hearing, cautioned that evolution is not based in fact, mentioned intelligent design is an alternative theory, stipulated that teachers could not answer questions and directed students to "Of Pandas and People" for more information.

Early editions of that book included many references to creationism. Months after a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prevented the teaching of creationism in public schools, a new edition was released that replaced references to creationism with the term "intelligent design."

The case divided the small rural community in York County.

"The students, parents and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources," Judge Jones wrote.

Plaintiffs, their children and their supporters said they've been called unpatriotic atheists and faced scorn in the community.

"Taking a stand was a difficult thing to do and it is especially difficult when it has divided a community so much," said plaintiff Christy Rehm. "We're here because we care extremely about our community of Dover and because we care about education."