Assault on evolution

The religious right takes its best scientific shot at Darwin with "intelligent design" theory.

By Larry Arnhart

Feb 28, 2001 | The debate over teaching Darwinian biology in public schools has become the hottest battle in the culture war. The Darwinians cheered their victory on Feb. 14, when the Kansas Board of Education decided -- in a 7-3 vote -- to require the teaching of evolution in public schools across the state, thereby reversing a decision in August 1999 to remove evolution from the statewide guidelines for teaching and testing. But those Darwinians who think that in winning this battle they have won the war are mistaken.

What really happened in Kansas is that the opponents of Darwinism tested a new intellectual weapon. As they become more skilled in the use of that weapon, the tide in this protracted battle could shift in their favor. The new weapon is called "intelligent design theory," or IDT.

Until recently, the critics of Darwinism have championed creationism -- the idea that a literal reading of the early chapters of the Bible offers a more accurate account of human origins than Darwinian biology does. The Darwinians have easily defeated this position by dismissing it as a religious belief unsupported by material evidence and inappropriate in science teaching.

But now intelligent design theorists are claiming that scientific data show evidence in the living world for "irreducible complexity" or "specified complexity," which can only be explained as the work of an intelligent designer. Whether this cosmic designer corresponds to the biblical God, they admit, is a metaphysical or theological question that defies empirical science. Nevertheless, they argue, the observable evidence for design is scientifically compelling.

Steve Abrams, a Kansas school board member who voted with the majority in 1999 and with the minority on Feb. 14, argued vigorously that teaching IDT as an alternative to Darwinism does not depend upon religious belief at all. After the Feb. 14 decision, Abrams insisted that intelligent design is based on "what is observable, measurable, testable, repeatable, falsifiable, good empirical science." The Discovery Institute, which identifies itself as "an intelligent design think tank" in Seattle, issued a press release condemning the decision in Kansas. Its spokesman, Mark Edwards, declared, "What is heralded as the triumph of science is instead a victory for censorship and viewpoint discrimination. This is not what science, or America, is about; discussion of the dissenting scientific opinion on Darwinism should be allowed in science classrooms."

The Discovery Institute is led by conservative Republicans who promote IDT as a strategy for defeating what they regard as the immoral materialism of modern science. They hope to influence the new Bush administration. Their ultimate objective is to win a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that would uphold the constitutionality of teaching IDT in public school biology classes.

The institute's legal strategy is laid out in a recent Utah Law Review article by David DeWolf and Stephen Meyer, who are associated with the organization. Over the past 20 years, the Supreme Court has said that teaching "creation science" in the public schools is an unconstitutional establishment of religion. But the court has also ruled that teaching alternative scientific theories of origins that challenge Darwinian biology is constitutional. And the court has said that when public schools create public forums for the free discussion of ideas, they must not practice "viewpoint discrimination" by suppressing ideas that might have some connection to religion.

DeWolf and Meyer argue that unlike creation science, IDT rests on purely scientific evidence rather than biblical doctrine, and that therefore it represents a scientifically defensible alternative to Darwinism that can and should be taught in the public schools. And although some religious believers will see intelligent design as confirming their religion, DeWolf and Meyer explain, public schools that exclude the teaching of IDT because of this connection to religion are practicing the viewpoint discrimination prohibited by the Supreme Court.

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