Evolution and Intelligent Design in Kansas

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Charles Darwin has been taking a beating this week in Topeka, Kansas. The Kansas Board of Education has been holding hearings on new proposed science standards that would encourage teachers and students to question Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. Scientists who support the teaching of evolution are boycotting the hearings, so the Kansas Board is listening almost exclusively to proponents of an alternate approach to evolutionary thinking called intelligent design. NPR's Greg Allen has more.

GREG ALLEN reporting:

Supporters say intelligent design is not creationism. It's a belief that the complexity of life shows that it could only have come about through the work of an unspecified designer. Intelligent design advocates say they have no idea who the designer might be. They avoid mentioning God or the Bible. Although most of the people appearing at the hearings this week are proponents of intelligent design, they were not there to talk about their ideas but about the problems they see with the theory of evolution as it's taught in Kansas schools. One of those testifying was Jonathan Wells, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a think tank in Seattle devoted to promoting intelligent design. He spent nearly an hour discussing technical details involving molecular data, embryo development and the Cambrian explosion.

Mr. JONATHAN WELLS (Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute): There are discrepancies between Darwin's theory of evolution and the evidence from molecule fossils of embryos. Science students should know about them.

ALLEN: Many in Kansas are embarrassed by the hearings, which have kindled comparisons with the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. Although scientists and others who support evolution have refused to testify at the hearings, which continue today, their point of view is being represented by Pedro Irigonegaray, an attorney who cross-examined Wells. In response to Irigonegaray's questions, Wells said he believes the Earth is 4.5 billion years old but that he sees no evidence that humans are related to other primate species or that they were descended from prehominids. Irigonegaray pressed further.

Mr. PEDRO IRIGONEGARAY (Attorney): And would you agree that intelligence at times must in the end conclude that a designer was involved?

Mr. WELLS: If something is actually designed, then a designing mind had to do it.

Mr. IRIGONEGARAY: So the answer which ID attempts to provide is a supernatural one, is it not?

Mr. WELLS: I won't go there.

ALLEN: Wells said science doesn't benefit by a discussion of the natural vs. the supernatural. When Isaac Newton first wrote about gravity, he said, that also was dismissed as supernatural.

Intelligent design supporters aren't asking that their ideas be taught in Kansas schools. The 20-some changes sought in the science standards mostly encourage students and teachers to view evolution as an unguided process in which human beings are, quote, "accidents of nature." Outside of the hearing, high-school teacher Jack Krebs, one of those fighting the proposed changes, reacted angrily.

Mr. JACK KREBS (High-School Teacher): They are arguing right there that if we teach science the way it's taught, we are teaching children that they're as good as atheists, that all of life is just a chance occurrence. Many religious people believe that the search for naturalistic causes is not in conflict with their religious beliefs.

ALLEN: Six years ago when Kansas last had this debate, most of the support for the changes came from young Earth creationists, people who adhere to the biblical account of how life began. This time around, it's intelligent design proponents who are leading the charge, but strict biblical creationists aren't far behind, people like Reverend Jerry Johnston, pastor of First Family Church in Overland Park, Kansas. Johnston says evangelical Protestants worked with Catholics and others on passing Kansas' ban on same-sex marriages. He says in Kansas and around the country, evolution is their next target.

Reverend JERRY JOHNSTON (First Family Church): I see the same big-tent cooperation here whether you're younger, older, all the semantics involved. The fact of the matter is evolution is a non-scientific theory; it needs to be enunciated as such.

ALLEN: Although the hearings in Topeka still have two more days, it's already clear that some version of the new science standards will be adopted. That's because conservatives who support the changes hold a majority of seats on the Kansas Board of Education. What's not as clear is what effect the new standards will have on education in the state. In Kansas, local school boards retain control over their curricula. Six years ago after standards were temporarily changed, the main impact was a political backlash that ousted some conservative board members. Greg Allen, NPR News, Kansas City.

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