Profs join intelligent-design fight

Last Wednesday, 32 University of Pennsylvania professors and the chairman of the physics department wrote an open letter to the Dover, Pa., Area School Board, condemning its incorporation of a religiously-loaded explanation for biodiversity into science classrooms.

Dover recently instituted a policy requiring teachers to preface biology lectures with an alternative to the evolutionary theory of biological diversity. Known as intelligent design, the alternative idea incorporates many tenets of creationism and posits that living organisms are so complex that a divine being must have created them.

Paul Sniegowski, an assistant professor of biology at Penn, argued that the Dover District's attempts to include intelligent design theory are "as absurd as suggesting that life was parked here by aliens."

Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center -- a non-profit Christian organization -- responded by sending an open letter to the Penn professors last Friday, accusing them of trying to "spoon feed students" and "establish dogma."

Thompson argued that to omit intellectual design theory obstructs the critical thinking processes of students and "keeps them in the dark."

Penn professors, on the other hand, argued in their letter to the Dover District that students must be taught "real science."

Michael Weisberg, an assistant professor of philosophy, claimed that students should be taught only "well-confirmed theories that are accepted by the scientific community" in the science classroom.

High-school science teachers in the Dover district seem to agree with this sentiment, as all but one signed a petition on Thursday to "opt out" from reading the intelligent design theory statement to their students.

Though Thompson stated that intelligent design is a viable scientific theory, many Penn professors --including Weisberg and Sniegowski -- argue that the theory and other religious thoughts are best kept out of the science classroom. They suggest alternative forums, such as religion, philosophy or other courses of study for such discourse.

For Thompson, science has inherent religious implications that extend beyond the "test tube."

"Theory is tentative ... scientific belief is always based on faith," he said.

Members of the Dover County administration could not be reached for comment.

Creationism controversy

Much of the banter about the teaching of intelligent design -- a religiously based theory for biodiversity -- in the Dover, Pa. high-school science classroom has come in the form of open letters. Below are excerpts from the written correspondence between three of the parties involved.

Dover Area School District Assistant Superintendent to local parents: "Because Darwin's Theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence."

Thirty-three Penn professors to the Dover Area School Board: "Science education should be based on ideas that are well supported by evidence. Intelligent design does not meet this criterion: It is a form of creationism propped up by a biased and selective view of evidence."

Non-profit, Christian-affiliated Thomas More Law Center President Richard Thompson to Penn professors: "If the level of inquiry supporting your letter is an example of the type of inquiry you make before arriving at scientific conclusions, I suggest that at the very least, your students should get their tuition money back, and more appropriately, the University should fire you as a scientist."

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