Board (State Board of Education) gets a taste of evolution debate [View All]

Posted on Thu, Apr. 14, 2005


Board gets a taste of evolution debate

The State Board of Education questions intelligent design proponents in a preview of next month's hearings.

BY JOSH FUNK

The Wichita Eagle

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The minority group has lined up 24 witnesses, while no one has yet agreed to represent the pro-evolution majority view -- partly because some mainstream scientists have called for a boycott. "Opposition to the hearings mystifies and troubles me," said John Calvert (a retired lawyer who runs the Intelligent Design Network), who helped summarize the minority group's proposals along with former middle school science teacher Greg Lassey.


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Moderate board member Carol Rupe of Wichita reused some of Calvert's words to make her own point during the questioning, saying "It's opposition to science that mystifies and troubles me."


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Case and Williamson responded to questions about details of the majority's draft and explained why most members of the committee opposed the minority group's proposals. The way science is described in the standards -- as a search for natural explanations to natural phenomena -- is one sticking point.


The minority group says using the word "natural" in the definition makes the standards biased in favor of evolution because alternative theories might cite a supernatural cause for changes in life on Earth. "The current definition inserts a bias and that prevents critical analysis of evolution," said Lassey, the former science teacher. "In other words, it's a science stopper."


But the majority of the standards committee says describing science that way simply reflects its limitations because scientists can test the natural world only.




more........

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/11389545.htm


R E L A T E D L I N K S
• Draft of proposed state science standards
• What's covered in Wichita biology courses
• The Intelligent Design Network
• Kansas Citizens For Science
• The Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture
• The National Center for Science Education