US school boards weigh evolution and intelligent design teaching

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US school boards weigh evolution and intelligent design teaching

By Chris Herlinger, Ecumenical News International, November 15, 2005

New York (ENI). A controversy about the teaching of "intelligent design" which centres around the idea that the universe is created by a higher power, not referred to specifically as God, is gripping school boards in the United States.

The board of education in the state of Kansas approved new standards on 8 November for the teaching of biology that downplay the Darwinian theory of evolution. The 6 to 4 vote was seen as a victory for advocates of the "intelligent design" theory.

Still, voters in Dover, Pennsylvania, also on 8 November ousted a local school board that had promoted an "intelligent design" alternative to teaching evolution, and elected new candidates who promised to remove the concept from science classes.

President George W. Bush said publicly earlier this year that intelligent design theory and evolutionary theory should both be taught in US classrooms giving those advocating the theory a boost. Supporters of intelligent design say they are advocating a "balanced" debate about biological origins and seek intellectual freedom and free inquiry. Critics have said the Kansas decision and other moves are part of a conservative religious agenda creeping into US public education.

The move by the Kansas school board was not supported by State Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who warned the decision risked the region's economic future.

"If we're going to continue to bring high-tech jobs to Kansas and move our state forward, we need to strengthen science standards, not weaken them," she said.

The new Kansas standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts, The Associated Press reported. But they also declare that basic Darwinian theory has been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.

In its statement, the National Science Teachers Association said: "The [new] standards, as approved, contain significant errors regarding the scientific theory of evolution that compromise the document's integrity, as well as all of science."

Rob Crowther, a spokesman for the Discovery Institute which advocates research for intelligent design theory, said in a statement that reports about the Kansas decision were incorrect, and that the board had simply voted to approve new standards that included scientific criticisms of Darwinian theory.

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