Laura Lynn Brown, "Between evolution and creation. Intelligent design advocates are the latest voices in the evolving discussion over what should be taught in public school classrooms" (2005)

Between evolution and creation. Intelligent design advocates are the latest voices in the evolving discussion over what should be taught in public school classrooms

BY LAURA LYNN BROWN

While school officials in Beebe are deciding what to do about evolution disclaimer stickers in science textbooks, the nearby state of Kansas is deciding whether to change the very way science is defined in public schools.

   Both are threads in the fabric of a movement to include a theory called intelligent design in classroom study.

   Not many question the existence of microevolution, or changes that happen in a single species over time. Darwin's theory of natural selection was based on his observations of birds in the Galapagos islands.

   For example, the beaks of finches evolved according to which island they were on and what kind of food was available there. The finches didn't evolve into an entirely different kind of bird, but their beaks adapted to their environment.

   It's macroevolution that the intelligent design proponents have a hard time with - the theory that all animals trace their lineage back to simple organisms, that mammals and birds and reptiles share common ancestors.

   Phillip Johnson, professor emeritus of the University of California Berkeley School of Law and a Presbyterian, is generally credited with coining the term "intelligent design." Johnson became a Christian as an adult, and his belief in the concept of intelligent design was seeded when he read two books, The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins and Evolution: A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton. Johnson eventually wrote his own book, Darwin on Trial, in 1993.

   Intelligent design has two main branches: Cosmology, or where the universe came from, and biological design, where living creatures came from. It's based on the idea of "irreducible complexity," a term coined by biochemist Michael Behe, one of the movement's most prolific writers. 

   Proponents explain irreducible complexity this way: Even organisms like bacteria have many parts, and if any one part is absent, the organism ceases to function, much as a watch will not function if one tiny cog or spring is missing. Advocates of intelligent design theory believe this is evidence that organisms were designed with a purpose in mind and didn't simply evolve randomly.

   Some who question the addition of intelligent design theory to classroom science education say the "designer" is clearly a reference to God, and that any reticence to name the designer is simply a way to accomplish what creation science supporters wanted to achieve in the 1980s with a law that stated that public schools in Arkansas "shall give balanced treatment to creation-science and to evolution-science."

   (Creation science is the theory that God created the world and that it might be as young as 10,000 years old. The Arkansas law to give it equal classroom time was overturned in 1982.)

   Some adherents of intelligent design say that teaching their theory is not teaching religion because it doesn't go so far as to say who the designer is.

   However, a "wedge strategy" written in the 1990s makes no secret of the movement's Christian foundation. The Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Washington, an intelligent design think tank, states as part of its goal the desire "to replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God."

   Both critics and advocates of intelligent design in the classroom claim that scientific evidence is on their side and that the other side's arguments are insupportable because they can't really be tested in experiments.

   So far, most attempts to legislate the teaching of intelligent design have failed. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., sponsored an amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, calling for schools to teach that evolutionary theory is a matter of debate. Although the amendment was passed by the Senate, it didn't make it into the final version of the act.

   But Santorum's state is the first to have a public school district adopt a science textbook based on intelligent design. Last October, the Dover, Pa., school board chose Of Pandas and People as its ninth-grade biology text starting this fall. The text is published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics, an organization with a stated mission "to restore the freedom to know to young people in the classroom, especially in matters of world view, morality and conscience."

SCIENCE AND FAITH
> In the Arkansas Legislature, then-Rep. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, sponsored a failed bill in 2001 to have state science textbooks refer to evolution as a theory.<p>

   Rep. Mark Martin, R-Prairie Grove, sponsored a bill in March calling for public schools to teach intelligent design along with evolution. The bill went nowhere because it wasn't sent to the education committee.

   In explaining his bill, Martin used the rallying cry used by proponents of intelligent design theory: "Teach the controversy."

   "The public schools are operating under a system that actually precludes the existence of God," he said. "It's not separating religion from education but putting in a different kind of religion. That religion is secular humanism."

   A product of Arkansas public schools, Martin said that in high school, "I had reached a point where I was beginning to question my faith." Teaching the intelligent design theory along with the theory of evolution would restore some neutrality to the subject, he said.

   Science and faith are not mutually exclusive, he added. While working toward a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, he read a book about entropy that suggested evidence of a continuing creator's work. "At that point I realized that my Christian faith was not in conflict with science."

   Martin says he plans to run for re-election. If he wins, he might reintroduce the bill, but only after investigating "whether or not it would be worth my time." He has a 6-year-old daughter who is home-schooled.

STICKING TO THE IDEA
> The current epicenter of the debate in Arkansas is in Beebe public schools, where stickers were placed more than a decade ago on science textbooks for fourth through 12th grades. The stickers say, in part, that evolution is a &quot;controversial theory that some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things.&quot;<p>

   The stickers became an issue earlier this year when parents complained about them to the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which investigated and asked the school board to remove the stickers.

   The stickers are still in the books, said Kieth Williams, Beebe school district superintendent. Williams, who is retiring at the end of June, has referred the matter to the school board. He thinks the stickers may be on the July board meeting agenda.

   Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas office of the American Civil Liberties Union, says that even with an anonymous designer, intelligent design is a religion-based theory, and she is aware that the stickers are still in the Beebe textbooks.

   "I don't see how anybody can see an intelligent designer behind the order of the universe as anything other than a religious concept," she said. "That 's not to say it's a bad concept. ... The thing is, you cannot demonstrate that scientifically. It's been presented to the scientific community, and the scientific community has rejected it. "

   The ACLU will pursue the matter of the Beebe stickers, Sklar said. "We'll do what we have to do. It may mean litigation."

   As far as Sklar knows, the Beebe stickers are the only official example of the concept making its way into Arkansas public schools.

   "We are aware that there are school districts that are not teaching evolution," she said. "We think that there are some teaching creationism."

   Sklar declined to name where those schools might be.

This story was published Saturday, June 25, 2005

Copyright Š 2005, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
> This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.<p>