<p>Attorneys for and against a lawsuit challenging evolution disclaimers on biology textbooks in a suburban Atlanta school district made their final arguments before a federal judge Friday.</p><p>Lawyers for Cobb County, which is being sued by several parents for stickers that call evolution "a theory, not a fact," argued the stickers were meant to encourage tolerance.</p><p>"Science and religion are related and they're not mutually exclusive," said Linwood Gunn, a lawyer for the county. "This sticker was an effort to get past that conflict and to teach good science."</p><p>Meanwhile, lawyers for the parents said the sticker amounts to a government-sanctioned question mark about the theory's teaching _ which is only challenged on religious grounds.</p><p>"The Cobb County school board is doing more than accommodating religion," argued attorney Michael Manely. "They are promoting religious dogma to all students."</p><p>Cobb County schools put the disclaimers in biology texts two years ago, after more than 2,000 parents complained the books presented evolution as fact without mentioning rival ideas about the origin of life.</p><p>U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper, who heard the case, said he plans to make a ruling "as quickly as possible."</p><p>Attorneys say they expect the ruling to take at least a month.</p>
