Kansas evolution hearings
Encyclopedia
The Kansas evolution hearings were a series of hearings held in Topeka
, Kansas
, United States
May 5 to May 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education
and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution
and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school science classes. The hearings were arranged by the Board of Education
with the intent of introducing intelligent design
into science classes via the Teach the Controversy
method.
The hearings raised the issues of creation and evolution in public education
and were attended by all the major participants in the intelligent design movement
but were ultimately boycotted by the scientific community over concern of lending credibility to the claim, made by proponents of intelligent design, that evolution is purportedly the subject of wide dispute within the scientific and science education communities.
The Discovery Institute
, hub of the intelligent design movement, played a central role in starting the hearings by promoting its Critical Analysis of Evolution
lesson plan which the Kansas State Board of Education eventually adopted over objections of the State Board Science Hearing Committee, and campaigning on behalf of conservative Republican candidates for the Board.
Local science advocacy group Kansas Citizens for Science
organized a boycott
of the hearings by mainstream scientists, who accused it of being a kangaroo court
and argued that their participation would lend an undeserved air of legitimacy to the hearings. Board member Kathy Martin declared at the beginning of the hearings "Evolution has been proven false. ID (Intelligent Design
) is science-based and strong in facts." At their conclusion she proclaimed that evolution is "an unproven, often disproven" theory.
"ID has theological implications. ID is not strictly Christian, but it is theistic," asserted Martin. The scientific community
rejects teaching intelligent design as science; a leading example being the United States National Academy of Sciences
, which issued a policy statement saying "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science
." (See also List of scientific societies explicitly rejecting intelligent design)
On February 13, 2007, the Board voted 6 to 4 to reject the amended science standards enacted in 2005.
that sought to establish new science education standards consistent with conservative Christian
beliefs, both in the state and nationwide, and reverse what they saw as a domination in science education by actual science, specifically the scientific theory
of evolution
, which they viewed as atheistic
, in direct conflict to their religious beliefs.
Kansas Board of Education elections in 2004 gave religious conservatives a 6-4 majority. In 2005, prompted by the Kansas Intelligent Design Network
and the Discovery Institute
, the board sought new high school science standards. The revisions did not entirely eliminate evolution from instruction, but presented it as a theory greatly challenged and disputed, in line with the Discovery Institute's Teach the Controversy
campaign. The new standards presented intelligent design as an alternative to evolution through the Institute's Critical Analysis of Evolution. Board member Connie Morris sent a taxpayer-funded newsletter to constituents calling evolution an "age-old fairy tale" that was defended with "anti-God contempt and arrogance." Describing herself as a Christian who believes in a literal interpretation of Genesis, Morris wrote that evolution was "biologically, genetically, mathematically, chemically, metaphysically and etc. wildly and utterly impossible."
The Intelligent Design Network originally proposed over 20 pages of revisions to the science standards. Their proposals were rejected by the science standards committee (made up of Kansas scientists and educators) appointed by the Board of Education, and were also rejected by 12 independent scientists who reviewed the proposed revisions.
Each side was invited to provide witnesses to testify before the board for intelligent design or evolution, with the taxpayers of Kansas covering the travel expenses. The scientific community refused to participate en masse. The pro-intelligent design group, the Intelligent Design Network, invited 22 witnesses. Among these were a number of non-scientists, and a number of scientists with no professional experience in biology.
The Discovery Institute has consistently insisted that its Critical Analysis of Evolution lesson plan is not another attempt to open the door of public high school science classrooms for intelligent design, and hence supernatural
explanations. Discovery Institute spokesman Casey Luskin in February 2006 coined the term "false fear syndrome" of those who said it was, and said:
In response, Nick Matzke
says that it has proved that Critical Analysis of Evolution is a means of teaching all the intelligent design arguments without using the intelligent design label.
The Kansas science standards as proposed by the Discovery Institute and adopted by the state were said to be "ID in disguise" by an assistant of a Discovery Institute Fellow, confirming the criticisms of opponents to the standards. In discussing Discovery Institute radio commercials supporting their campaign airing in Kansas on the blog of William A. Dembski
, Dembski's research assistant and co-moderator of the site, Joel Borofsky, said:
To the statement that the Kansas science standards had nothing to do with intelligent design but were only about teaching evolution in a "balanced" way, Borofsky responded:
In response to the reception to his comments, Dembski's research assistant issued a clarification, stating that he was only voicing his personal opinion, not that of others in the movement, and that he is Dembski's "assistant on theological work, not necessarily the ID movement."
The Discovery Institute continues to deny allegations that its true agenda is religious, and downplays the religious source of much of its funding. In an interview of Stephen C. Meyer
when ABC News asked about the Discovery Institute's many evangelical Christian donors the institute's public relations representative stopped the interview saying "I don't think we want to go down that path."
Both the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Science Teachers Association
spoke out against the new science standards; in addition to separate statements from each opposing the standards, the two groups issued a joint statement that the new Kansas standards are improved, but as currently written, they overemphasize controversy in the theory of evolution and distort the definition of science. The National Academy of Sciences and National Science Teachers Association offered to work with the board to resolve these issues so the state standards could use text from the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards and National Science Teachers Association's Pathways to Science Standards, though they ultimately declined to grant use of the text due to Kansas State Board of Education members insisting on language "emphasizing controversy in the theory of evolution" and "distorting the definition of science."
The position of the scientific community is that there is no controversy to teach, that evolution is widely accepted within the scientific community as a valid, well-supported theory and that such disagreements that do exist are about the details of evolution's mechanisms, not the validity of evolution itself.
For example the National Association of Biology Teachers in a statement endorsing evolution as noncontroversial quoted Theodosius Dobzhansky
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." and went on to state that the quote "accurately reflects the central, unifying role of evolution in biology. The theory of evolution provides a framework that explains both the history of life and the ongoing adaptation of organisms to environmental challenges and changes." They emphasized that "Scientists have firmly established evolution as an important natural process" and that "The selection of topics covered in a biology curriculum should accurately reflect the principles of biological science. Teaching biology in an effective and scientifically honest manner requires that evolution be taught in a standards-based instructional framework with effective classroom discussions and laboratory experiences."
, the Discovery Institute
and its Center for Science and Culture
, played a central role in bringing about the Kansas evolution hearings, first by supporting ID proponents in their bids for seats on the board, and later in aggressively lobbying for a "Teach the Controversy
" solution. Teach the Controversy is a controversial political-action campaign originating from the Discovery Institute that seeks to advance an education policy for US public schools that introduces intelligent design to public school science curricula and seeks to redefine science http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/barbara_forrest/naturalism.html to allow for supernatural explanations by eliminating "methodological naturalism
" from science and replacing it with "theistic realism
". Teach the Controversy proponents portray evolution as a "theory in crisis."
As well as proposing its own draft science standards to the Kansas State Board of Education and Critical Analysis of Evolution high school lesson plan, the Discovery Institute participated in presenting a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education from Institute associate, Dr. Philip S. Skell
. A notable intelligent design proponent, Dr. Skell's letter to the board touts the alleged benefits of the Teach the Controversy approach, as well his credentials as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, despite the fact the National Academy of Sciences issued a policy statement against the Teach the Controversy solution and intelligent design as a concept.
Two intelligent design proponents, John H. Calvert, a lawyer and a Managing Director of Intelligent Design Network, Inc., and William S. Harris, Ph.D., co-author with Calvert of Intelligent Design: The Scientific Alternative to Evolution (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Autumn 2003) were instrumental in pushing for the successful adoption of the new standards, including submitting a Suggested Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and numerous other documents. Both are active participants in the intelligent design movement.
Discovery Institute fellows used the media coverage of the hearings to take their message to the public. The Institute's vice president and program director, Stephen C. Meyer
, appeared on the Fox News show The Big Story
with John Gibson
, where he debated Eugenie Scott
, executive director of the National Center for Science Education
. There Meyer sought to convey the Institute's message that debate over evolution is not a ploy to get religious ideas into public schools, that evolution is a theory in crisis, and that students were currently being taught in error there was no scientific controversy over evolution.
The proposed changes were not supported by most of the 26 members of the panel that reviews state science curriculum.
and one in crisis, and that ID must be considered a viable alternative to evolution.
advocates or other forms of creationists
, or advocates of some other form of anti-evolution.
April 19, 2005 (Prehearings Statements)
May 5, 2005
May 6, 2005
May 7, 2005
May 12, 2005 (Closing Statements)
Kansas joined Ohio
in adopting the Discovery Institute's Critical Analysis of Evolution
public school science standards during that period. While other states were backing away from teaching alternatives to evolution, the Oklahoma House passed a bill Thursday, March 2, 2006 that contained Discovery Institute language encouraging schools to expose students to alternative views about the origin of life. Popular reaction included the creation of the intelligent design parody Pastafarianism (the worship of a Flying Spaghetti Monster
). Its founder insisted it should be offered as a "third" theory on origins, suggesting possible legal action if it was not included and intelligent design was.
On August 1, 2006, 4 of the 6 conservative Republicans who approved the Critical Analysis of Evolution
classroom standards lost their seats in a primary election. The moderate Republican and liberal Democrats gaining seats, largely supported by Governor Kathleen Sebelius
, vowed to overturn the 2005 school science standards and adopt those recommended by a State Board Science Hearing Committee that were rejected by the previous board.
One of the members who lost her seat, Connie Morris, a conservative from St. Francis
in the northwest corner of the state, pointed to the "liberal media" for her loss, noting that "liberal opportunists" do not mind "slandering people and harming their families and their reputation and their business and their communities and their state ... It's a shame, and I feel bad for them when they face God on Judgment Day." Although four born-again Christians remained on the Board, she believed that the new board would waste no time adopting new science standards, expecting that in the following January, when the new members are sworn in, the Board would rescind existing standards and adopt new ones that "let government schools teach children that we are no more than chaotic, random mutants."
On February 13, 2007, the Board voted 6 to 4 to reject the amended science standards enacted in 2005. The definition of science
was once again returned to "the search for natural explanations for what is observed in the universe."
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
May 5 to May 12, 2005 by the Kansas State Board of Education
Kansas State Board of Education
Kansas State Department Board of Education is Kansas's Board of Education, headquartered in Topeka. The board of education that controls the department is a constitutional body established in Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution. The ten members of the Board of Education are each elected to...
and its State Board Science Hearing Committee to change how evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
and the origin of life would be taught in the state's public high school science classes. The hearings were arranged by the Board of Education
Board of education
A board of education or a school board or school committee is the title of the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or higher administrative level....
with the intent of introducing intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
into science classes via the Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
method.
The hearings raised the issues of creation and evolution in public education
Creation and evolution in public education
The status of creation and evolution in public education has been the subject of substantial debate in legal, political, and religious circles...
and were attended by all the major participants in the intelligent design movement
Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
but were ultimately boycotted by the scientific community over concern of lending credibility to the claim, made by proponents of intelligent design, that evolution is purportedly the subject of wide dispute within the scientific and science education communities.
The Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
, hub of the intelligent design movement, played a central role in starting the hearings by promoting its Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution is the name of both a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design and a tactic to promote design using Teach the Controversy promoted by the American think tank, Discovery Institute, originators of the intelligent design movement, as part of...
lesson plan which the Kansas State Board of Education eventually adopted over objections of the State Board Science Hearing Committee, and campaigning on behalf of conservative Republican candidates for the Board.
Local science advocacy group Kansas Citizens for Science
Kansas Citizens for Science
Kansas Citizens for Science is a science advocacy organization, incorporated as a not-for-profit 501, that "promotes a better understanding of what science is, and does, by: advocating for science education, educating the public about the nature and value of science, and serving as an information...
organized a boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of the hearings by mainstream scientists, who accused it of being a kangaroo court
Kangaroo court
A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...
and argued that their participation would lend an undeserved air of legitimacy to the hearings. Board member Kathy Martin declared at the beginning of the hearings "Evolution has been proven false. ID (Intelligent Design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
) is science-based and strong in facts." At their conclusion she proclaimed that evolution is "an unproven, often disproven" theory.
"ID has theological implications. ID is not strictly Christian, but it is theistic," asserted Martin. The scientific community
Scientific community
The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...
rejects teaching intelligent design as science; a leading example being the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, which issued a policy statement saying "Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
." (See also List of scientific societies explicitly rejecting intelligent design)
On February 13, 2007, the Board voted 6 to 4 to reject the amended science standards enacted in 2005.
Background
The hearings were one of a number of Discovery Institute intelligent design campaignsDiscovery Institute intelligent design campaigns
Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns are a series of related public relations campaigns conducted by the Discovery Institute which seek to promote intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolutionary biology, which the Institute terms "Darwinism." The Discovery Institute is the...
that sought to establish new science education standards consistent with conservative Christian
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
beliefs, both in the state and nationwide, and reverse what they saw as a domination in science education by actual science, specifically the scientific theory
Scientific theory
A scientific theory comprises a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties, together with rules that express relationships between observations of such concepts...
of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
, which they viewed as atheistic
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, in direct conflict to their religious beliefs.
Kansas Board of Education elections in 2004 gave religious conservatives a 6-4 majority. In 2005, prompted by the Kansas Intelligent Design Network
Intelligent design network
The Intelligent Design Network is a nonprofit organization formed in Kansas to promote intelligent design. It is based in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. The Intelligent Design Network was founded by John Calvert, a corporate finance lawyer with a bachelor's degree in geology and nutritionist William S....
and the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
, the board sought new high school science standards. The revisions did not entirely eliminate evolution from instruction, but presented it as a theory greatly challenged and disputed, in line with the Discovery Institute's Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
campaign. The new standards presented intelligent design as an alternative to evolution through the Institute's Critical Analysis of Evolution. Board member Connie Morris sent a taxpayer-funded newsletter to constituents calling evolution an "age-old fairy tale" that was defended with "anti-God contempt and arrogance." Describing herself as a Christian who believes in a literal interpretation of Genesis, Morris wrote that evolution was "biologically, genetically, mathematically, chemically, metaphysically and etc. wildly and utterly impossible."
The Intelligent Design Network originally proposed over 20 pages of revisions to the science standards. Their proposals were rejected by the science standards committee (made up of Kansas scientists and educators) appointed by the Board of Education, and were also rejected by 12 independent scientists who reviewed the proposed revisions.
Each side was invited to provide witnesses to testify before the board for intelligent design or evolution, with the taxpayers of Kansas covering the travel expenses. The scientific community refused to participate en masse. The pro-intelligent design group, the Intelligent Design Network, invited 22 witnesses. Among these were a number of non-scientists, and a number of scientists with no professional experience in biology.
New science standards
On November 8, 2005 the Kansas Board of Education approved the following changes to its science standards:- Add to the mission statement a goal that science education should seek to help students make "informed" decisions.
- Provide a definition of science that is not strictly limited to natural explanations.
- Allow intelligent design to be presented as an alternative explanation to evolution as presented in mainstream biology textbooks, without endorsing it.
- State that evolution is a theory and not a fact.
- Require informing students of purported scientific controversies regarding evolution.
Opposition to new standards
In addition to the over 70 scientific societies, institutions and other scientific professional groups that have issued statements supporting evolution education and opposing intelligent design, the Kansas Board of Education was presented a letter from 38 Nobel laureates, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Nobel Laureates Initiative, calling upon the Board of Education to reject intelligent design and support the teaching of evolution. It stated:"Logically derived from confirmable evidence, evolution is understood to be the result of an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection. As the foundation of modern biology, its indispensable role has been further strengthened by the capacity to study DNA. In contrast, intelligent design is fundamentally unscientific; it cannot be tested as scientific theory because its central conclusion is based on belief in the intervention of a supernatural agent."
The Discovery Institute has consistently insisted that its Critical Analysis of Evolution lesson plan is not another attempt to open the door of public high school science classrooms for intelligent design, and hence supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
explanations. Discovery Institute spokesman Casey Luskin in February 2006 coined the term "false fear syndrome" of those who said it was, and said:
"This is simply another instance of Darwinists attempting to oppose critical analysis of evolution by pretending that it is equivalent to teaching intelligent design. This is a political tactic based upon misinformation, misrepresentation, emotions, and false fears."
In response, Nick Matzke
Nick Matzke
Nicholas J. Matzke is the former Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education and served an instrumental role in NCSE's preparation for the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial...
says that it has proved that Critical Analysis of Evolution is a means of teaching all the intelligent design arguments without using the intelligent design label.
The Kansas science standards as proposed by the Discovery Institute and adopted by the state were said to be "ID in disguise" by an assistant of a Discovery Institute Fellow, confirming the criticisms of opponents to the standards. In discussing Discovery Institute radio commercials supporting their campaign airing in Kansas on the blog of William A. Dembski
William A. Dembski
William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...
, Dembski's research assistant and co-moderator of the site, Joel Borofsky, said:
"My hope is that ID will be taught properly in Kansas. Having been born and raised there I would love to claim to be from the first state to teach ID. There is a lot of movement among science high school teachers to never teach ID, even if it becomes a law because "we don't know how to teach philosophy."
It would be nice to see them learn. I worked in a school and grew tired of hearing them speak of how it's wrong to point out the weaknesses in Darwin's theory because, "even if it is weak, it's still the best theory out there." (Shades of Dawkins anyone?)"
To the statement that the Kansas science standards had nothing to do with intelligent design but were only about teaching evolution in a "balanced" way, Borofsky responded:
"It really is ID in disguise. The entire purpose behind all of this is to shift it into schools...at least that is the hope/fear among some science teachers in the area. The problem is, if you are not going to be dogmatic in Darwinism that means you inevitably have to point out a fault or at least an alternative to Darwinism. So far, the only plausible theory is ID. If one is to challenge Darwin, then one must use ID. To challenge Darwin is to challenge natural selection/spontaneous first cause...which is what the Kansas board is attempting to do. When you do that, you have to invoke the idea of ID."
In response to the reception to his comments, Dembski's research assistant issued a clarification, stating that he was only voicing his personal opinion, not that of others in the movement, and that he is Dembski's "assistant on theological work, not necessarily the ID movement."
The Discovery Institute continues to deny allegations that its true agenda is religious, and downplays the religious source of much of its funding. In an interview of Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...
when ABC News asked about the Discovery Institute's many evangelical Christian donors the institute's public relations representative stopped the interview saying "I don't think we want to go down that path."
Both the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
and the National Science Teachers Association
National Science Teachers Association
The National Science Teachers Association , founded in 1944 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is an association of science teachers in the United States and is the largest organization of science teachers worldwide...
spoke out against the new science standards; in addition to separate statements from each opposing the standards, the two groups issued a joint statement that the new Kansas standards are improved, but as currently written, they overemphasize controversy in the theory of evolution and distort the definition of science. The National Academy of Sciences and National Science Teachers Association offered to work with the board to resolve these issues so the state standards could use text from the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards and National Science Teachers Association's Pathways to Science Standards, though they ultimately declined to grant use of the text due to Kansas State Board of Education members insisting on language "emphasizing controversy in the theory of evolution" and "distorting the definition of science."
The position of the scientific community is that there is no controversy to teach, that evolution is widely accepted within the scientific community as a valid, well-supported theory and that such disagreements that do exist are about the details of evolution's mechanisms, not the validity of evolution itself.
For example the National Association of Biology Teachers in a statement endorsing evolution as noncontroversial quoted Theodosius Dobzhansky
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Theodosius Grygorovych Dobzhansky ForMemRS was a prominent geneticist and evolutionary biologist, and a central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the unifying modern evolutionary synthesis...
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." and went on to state that the quote "accurately reflects the central, unifying role of evolution in biology. The theory of evolution provides a framework that explains both the history of life and the ongoing adaptation of organisms to environmental challenges and changes." They emphasized that "Scientists have firmly established evolution as an important natural process" and that "The selection of topics covered in a biology curriculum should accurately reflect the principles of biological science. Teaching biology in an effective and scientifically honest manner requires that evolution be taught in a standards-based instructional framework with effective classroom discussions and laboratory experiences."
Support for new standards
The hub of the intelligent design movementIntelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
, the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
and its Center for Science and Culture
Center for Science and Culture
The Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
, played a central role in bringing about the Kansas evolution hearings, first by supporting ID proponents in their bids for seats on the board, and later in aggressively lobbying for a "Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy
Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
" solution. Teach the Controversy is a controversial political-action campaign originating from the Discovery Institute that seeks to advance an education policy for US public schools that introduces intelligent design to public school science curricula and seeks to redefine science http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/barbara_forrest/naturalism.html to allow for supernatural explanations by eliminating "methodological naturalism
Naturalism (philosophy)
Naturalism commonly refers to the philosophical viewpoint that the natural universe and its natural laws and forces operate in the universe, and that nothing exists beyond the natural universe or, if it does, it does not affect the natural universe that we know...
" from science and replacing it with "theistic realism
Theistic realism
Theistic science, also referred to as theistic realism, Augustinian science or Islamic science is the viewpoint that methodological naturalism should be replaced by a philosophy of science that is informed by supernatural revelation and/or allows occasional supernatural explanations. The viewpoint...
". Teach the Controversy proponents portray evolution as a "theory in crisis."
As well as proposing its own draft science standards to the Kansas State Board of Education and Critical Analysis of Evolution high school lesson plan, the Discovery Institute participated in presenting a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education from Institute associate, Dr. Philip S. Skell
Philip Skell
Philip S. Skell was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jacob and Molly Lipfriend Skell. He married Margo Fosse on December 25, 1948, in Taft....
. A notable intelligent design proponent, Dr. Skell's letter to the board touts the alleged benefits of the Teach the Controversy approach, as well his credentials as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, despite the fact the National Academy of Sciences issued a policy statement against the Teach the Controversy solution and intelligent design as a concept.
Two intelligent design proponents, John H. Calvert, a lawyer and a Managing Director of Intelligent Design Network, Inc., and William S. Harris, Ph.D., co-author with Calvert of Intelligent Design: The Scientific Alternative to Evolution (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Autumn 2003) were instrumental in pushing for the successful adoption of the new standards, including submitting a Suggested Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and numerous other documents. Both are active participants in the intelligent design movement.
Discovery Institute fellows used the media coverage of the hearings to take their message to the public. The Institute's vice president and program director, Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer
Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...
, appeared on the Fox News show The Big Story
The Big Story
The Big Story, which debuted in 2000, was an American news/talk television program on the Fox News Channel, hosted by John Gibson and Heather Nauert weekdays. It was taken off in March 2008, replaced with America's Election Headquarters, an hour of news related to the 2008 United States...
with John Gibson
John Gibson (media host)
John David Gibson is an American radio talk show host. As of September 2008, he hosts the syndicated radio program The John Gibson Show on Fox News Radio. Gibson was formerly the co-host of the weekday edition of The Big Story on the Fox News television channel.-Early career:Gibson earned a BA...
, where he debated Eugenie Scott
Eugenie Scott
Eugenie Carol Scott is an American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education since 1987...
, executive director of the National Center for Science Education
National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
. There Meyer sought to convey the Institute's message that debate over evolution is not a ploy to get religious ideas into public schools, that evolution is a theory in crisis, and that students were currently being taught in error there was no scientific controversy over evolution.
The proposed changes were not supported by most of the 26 members of the panel that reviews state science curriculum.
Decision
On November 8, 2005, the Board of Education voted to instruct science students along the lines of the Discovery Institute, that evolution could not rule out a supernatural or theistic source, that evolution itself was not fact but only a theoryEvolution as theory and fact
"Evolution is both fact and theory" is a statement that appears in numerous publications on biological evolution. The statement is framed to clarify misconceptions about the philosophy of evolution primarily in response to creationist statements that "evolution is only a theory"...
and one in crisis, and that ID must be considered a viable alternative to evolution.
List of participants
The following is a list of those who testified in the Kansas evolution hearings (in order), most of whom are affiliated with the Discovery Institute and all of whom are intelligent designIntelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
advocates or other forms of creationists
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
, or advocates of some other form of anti-evolution.
April 19, 2005 (Prehearings Statements)
- Pedro L. Irigonegaray (for mainstream scienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
)
May 5, 2005
- William S. Harris - Biochemist, Professor of Medicine, University of Missouri at Kansas City, Director of the Lipoprotein Research Laboratory, St. Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism, and co-author, with John Calvert, of Intelligent Design: The Scientific Alternative to Evolution.
- Charles ThaxtonCharles ThaxtonCharles B. Thaxton is an intelligent design author and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.-Biography:Thaxton earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from Iowa State University...
- Editor of the book Of Pandas and PeopleOf Pandas and PeopleOf Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins is a controversial 1989 school-level textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon and published by the Texas-based Foundation for Thought and Ethics...
, Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. - Jonathan Wells - author of Icons of EvolutionIcons of EvolutionIcons of Evolution is a book by the intelligent design advocate and fellow of the Discovery Institute, Jonathan Wells, which also includes a 2002 video companion. In the book, Wells criticized the paradigm of evolution by attacking how it is taught...
and Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. - Bruce Simat - Associate Professor of Biology at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.
- Giuseppe SermontiGiuseppe SermontiGiuseppe Sermonti is a retired Italian professor of genetics. Sermonti is well known for his criticism of natural selection as the deciding factor of human biology.- Early life and career :...
- Chief Editor of Rivista di Biologia/Biology Forum and author of Why Is a Fly Not a Horse? which is published by the Discovery Institute. - Ralph Seelke - PhD Professor of Microbiology, University of Wisconsin - Superior, self-described Christian apologetist, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.
May 6, 2005
- Edward Peltzer - Oceanographer, Associate Editor, Marine Chemistry, Senior Research Specialist Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.
- Russell Carlson - Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Georgia, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. Member of DI research fellow William Dembski's The International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID)
- John C. SanfordJohn C. Sanford-Academic career:Sanford graduated in 1976 from the University of Minnesota with a BSc in horticulture. He then went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he received an MSc in 1978 and a PhD in 1980 in plant breeding and genetics. Between 1980 and 1986 Sanford was an assistant professor at...
- Cornell University Associate Professor of Horticultural Sciences, inventor of the "gene gunGene gunA gene gun or a biolistic particle delivery system, originally designed for plant transformation, is a device for injecting cells with genetic information. The payload is an elemental particle of a heavy metal coated with plasmid DNA...
," intelligent design advocate. - Robert DiSilvestro - Biochemist, Professor of Nutrition, Ohio State University, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism.
- Bryan Leonard - High school biology teacher, involved in a doctoral thesis controversy in which he was supported by the Discovery Institute.
- Dan Ely - Professor of Biology, University of Akron in Ohio, self-described intelligent design teacher who assisted in drafting the adopted lesson plan.
- Roger DeHart - High school biology teacher, Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, California, who claims teaching intelligent design cost him two jobs. Author of a companion study guide Icons of Evolution- A Study Guide to Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution.
- Jill Gonzalez-Bravo - eighth grade Kansas science teacher, who endorsed the Discovery Institute-promulgated science standards in her testimony and in an interview conducted by the Discovery Institute. Additionally, Gonzalez-Bravo appeared in a commercial favoring the teaching of intelligent design.
- John Millam - Software developer, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism, denier of common dissent, advocate of intelligent design.
May 7, 2005
- Nancy Bryson - Former Division Head of the Dept of Science and Mathematics at Mississippi University for Women who claims to have lost her position over a presentation Critical Thinking on Evolution that presented alternatives to Darwinian evolution which a senior professor of biology derided the speech as "religion masquerading as science." Bryson is often cited by the Discovery Institute as one who was "demonized and blacklisted" by "Darwinian fundamentalists."
- James Barham - Scholar, author, intelligent design advocate specializing in evolutionary epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the foundations of biology, known for "Why I am not a Darwinist" in Debating Darwin, From Darwin to DNA and quoted in Dembski's Uncommon Dissent...Intellectuals Who Find Darwinism Unconvincing.
- Stephen C. MeyerStephen C. MeyerStephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute , which is the main organisation behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at...
- Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, Discovery Institute co-founder, signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. - Angus Menuge - philosopher of science, Dept. of Philosophy Concordia University, Mequon, Wisconsin, who participated in Discovery Institute sponsored symposia leading up to the 2006 election for seats opening in the state Board of Education. Menuge also describes himself as someone whose interests "now are in promoting Christian teaching and scholarship...".
- Warren Nord - Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Education, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictKitzmiller v. Dover Area School DistrictTammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design...
defense witness who withdrew before testifying along with other Discovery Institute associates William Dembski, John Campbell, and Stephen C. Meyer. - Mustafa AkyolMustafa Akyol-Early life and education:Akyol was born to renowned right-wing journalist Taha Akyol and received his early education in Ankara. He later graduated from the Istanbul Nişantaşı Anadolu Lisesi and the International Relations Department of Boğaziçi University...
- Columnist in the Turkish daily newspaper Referans, and freelance writer in the U.S., vocal advocate of intelligent design. - Michael BeheMichael BeheMichael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
- Biochemist at Lehigh University and prominent intelligent design proponent, Center for Science and Culture Fellow, and signer of the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism, presented irreducible complexityIrreducible complexityIrreducible complexity is an argument by proponents of intelligent design that certain biological systems are too complex to have evolved from simpler, or "less complete" predecessors, through natural selection acting upon a series of advantageous naturally occurring, chance mutations...
with the claim that it was supported by a paper he had co-authored with David SnokeDavid SnokeDavid W. Snoke is a physics professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society "[f]or his pioneering work on the experimental and theoretical understanding of dynamical optical processes in...
. - John Calvert - Lawyer who has worked closely with the Discovery Institute in finding constitutionally allowable ways to bring intelligent design and failing there, Teach the ControversyTeach the ControversyTeach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute campaign to promote intelligent design, a variant of traditional creationism, while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses...
, into public schools. Managing Director of Intelligent Design network, inc., an organization that seeks intelligent design taught in public education.
May 12, 2005 (Closing Statements)
- Pedro L. Irigonegaray (for mainstream scienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
) - John Calvert (for intelligent design)
Result
The Kansas Board of Education voted 6–4 August 9, 2005 to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but it decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote. The standards received final approval on November 8, 2005. The new standards were approved by 6 to 4, reflecting the makeup of religious conservatives on the board. In July 2006 the Board of Standards issued a "rationale statement" which claimed that the current science curriculum standards do not include intelligent design. Members of the scientific community critical of the standards contended that the board's statement was misleading in that they contained a "significant editorializing that supports the Discovery Institute and the Intelligent Design network’s campaign position that Intelligent Design is not included in the standards", the standards did "say that students should learn about ID, and that ID content ought to be in the standards", and that the standards presented the controversy over intelligent design as a scientific one, denying the mainstream scientific view.Kansas joined Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
in adopting the Discovery Institute's Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution is the name of both a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design and a tactic to promote design using Teach the Controversy promoted by the American think tank, Discovery Institute, originators of the intelligent design movement, as part of...
public school science standards during that period. While other states were backing away from teaching alternatives to evolution, the Oklahoma House passed a bill Thursday, March 2, 2006 that contained Discovery Institute language encouraging schools to expose students to alternative views about the origin of life. Popular reaction included the creation of the intelligent design parody Pastafarianism (the worship of a Flying Spaghetti Monster
Flying Spaghetti Monster
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of the parody religion the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pastafarianism...
). Its founder insisted it should be offered as a "third" theory on origins, suggesting possible legal action if it was not included and intelligent design was.
On August 1, 2006, 4 of the 6 conservative Republicans who approved the Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution
Critical Analysis of Evolution is the name of both a proposed high school science lesson plan promoting intelligent design and a tactic to promote design using Teach the Controversy promoted by the American think tank, Discovery Institute, originators of the intelligent design movement, as part of...
classroom standards lost their seats in a primary election. The moderate Republican and liberal Democrats gaining seats, largely supported by Governor Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius
Kathleen Sebelius is an American politician currently serving as the 21st Secretary of Health and Human Services. She was the second female Governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address, and chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors...
, vowed to overturn the 2005 school science standards and adopt those recommended by a State Board Science Hearing Committee that were rejected by the previous board.
One of the members who lost her seat, Connie Morris, a conservative from St. Francis
St. Francis, Kansas
St. Francis is a city in and the county seat of Cheyenne County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,329.-Geography:St. Francis is located at...
in the northwest corner of the state, pointed to the "liberal media" for her loss, noting that "liberal opportunists" do not mind "slandering people and harming their families and their reputation and their business and their communities and their state ... It's a shame, and I feel bad for them when they face God on Judgment Day." Although four born-again Christians remained on the Board, she believed that the new board would waste no time adopting new science standards, expecting that in the following January, when the new members are sworn in, the Board would rescind existing standards and adopt new ones that "let government schools teach children that we are no more than chaotic, random mutants."
On February 13, 2007, the Board voted 6 to 4 to reject the amended science standards enacted in 2005. The definition of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
was once again returned to "the search for natural explanations for what is observed in the universe."
Further reading
- National Science Education Standards; National Academy Press; 1996 (Fifth Printing February 1998); ISBN 0309053269.
- Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); 1993; ISBN 9780195089868.
External links
- Summary of Key Changes to Kansas Science Standards adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education (PDF)
- Review of the Kansas Science Education Standards by the National Academy of Sciences (PDF file)
- Joint Statement from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association (PDF file)
- Transcripts of Kansas Evolution Hearings
- "Echoes of Scopes Trial Heard in Intelligent Design Hearing" from the Boston Globe
- "Evolution Hearings Open in Kansas" from CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
- Creationism: God's gift to the ignorant, Richard DawkinsRichard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, May 21, 2005