June 8, 2000
Contact: Intelligent Design
NATIONAL SCIENCE STANDARDS PROPOSED BY KANSAS CITIZENS FOR SCIENCE
Shawnee Mission, Ks. - John Calvert, a Managing Director of Intelligent Design network, inc., announced today that IDnet had mailed a letter to each member of the Boards of Education of the 304 Unified School Districts in Kansas. The IDnet letter urges the board members to reject an April 30 proposal of Kansas Citizens for Science to replace the standards recently adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education with a set of Standards backed by several National Science Organizations.
The IDnet letter may be found on the "publications" page of IDnet's web site. The specific address is:
William Harris, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist and IDnet Managing Director, said: "Our concern deals with what students will be taught about the origin of life and its diversity. The National Standards teach that life results only from the laws of physics and chemistry (a mixture of chance and necessity or "natural law"). The National Standards censor the teaching of evidence which supports the competing theory that life is designed - that it is the product of some kind of mind or intelligence. This censorship is driven by the philosophy of naturalism, not by logic or good science. I have looked at the data and the evidence for design is very compelling."
"The Standards adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education last year allow science educators to take an evidence based approach to the issue of origins," said Jody Sjogren, a certified medical illustrator, aviation artist and the third Managing Director of IDnet. "The New Standards define science as the activity of seeking 'logical explanations' for what we see in the world around us. By contrast, the National Standards would limit teaching to only 'natural explanations,' so that a teacher could teach only one side of the controversy about the cause of life and its diversity. The evidence supporting design would be ignored, not because it doesn't exist, but because of an a priori philosophical assumption that natural causes are all there is."
"An inference based on observations of bio-molecular complexity that living systems are designed is not a religion. It is merely an inference," said John Calvert, who is also a lawyer. "Just as religious implications arise from a design inference, atheistic ones arise from naturalistic explanations. Accordingly, any public school system that censors the evidence of design to allow only the naturalistic explanation is treading on very thin ice constitutionally. The Supreme Court has held that schools must approach such issues neutrally. Obviously, if the evidence of design is philosophically censored, so that only the view having atheistic implications will be taught, we are not being neutral with regard to this most important issue."
IDnet's letter urges each of the Kansas Boards to implement the New Standards by adopting a no censorship curriculum statement. The Board members are also invited to attend the IDnet National Symposium on "Teaching the Evidence in Science Education" that is being held at the Rose Theater, Rockhurst High School, on July 15, 2000. A program for the event and registration information may be found at www.IntelligentDesignnetwork.org.
Intelligent Design network, inc. is a member based nonprofit organization. IDnet promotes evidence-based science education with regard to the origin of the universe and of life and its diversity. It also seeks to increase public awareness of the scientific evidence of intelligent design in the universe and living systems.