http://www.heraldnet.com/Stories/01/8/12/14199390.cfm

The Herald - Everett 8/12/01
Darwin Debate is Still Evolving

By Todd C. Frankel
Herald Writer

To understand, talk about the eyes.

Jonathan Wells does not believe humans developed eyes
through the natural selection process of Darwinian
evolution. He believes the eyes were assembled by an
intelligent designer to achieve the goal of sight.

It was not a random, meaningless event. It was part of
a plan.

"I can't prove it," says Wells, a developmental
biologist in Poulsbo, "but I think it makes more sense
than the Darwinian explanation."

This is intelligent design, the newest entry in the
timeless debate over the origins of life. It is an
anti-evolution movement, but it isn't creationism.
Design theory is a sophisticated, clever idea that has
blurred the lines between the traditional
science-vs.-religion arguments.

Intelligent design proponents believe the complexity
and diversity of life cannot be explained solely by
Darwinian natural selection and "survival of the
fittest." Something else is at work, they say. And
that something else -- which is often left undefined
-- is what is troubling to many.

"Intelligent design doesn't prove there is a God. But
if there is a God, he may have had a hand in this,"
said Jay Richards of the Discovery Institute in
Seattle, a research institute that promotes
conservative causes. "You don't know who designed it.
So it's theologically suggestive to some people.

"This," he said, "is the focus of the whole debate."

The debate appears headed for Snohomish County.

The Marysville School District has hired a Skagit
Valley teacher who made national headlines for
injecting design theory into his biology classes.
Roger DeHart claims he merely wanted to present
students at Burlington-Edison High School with
different views about the origins of life. He says he
never mentioned "God" during the course.

But controversy followed as the community divided over
the issue and the ACLU threatened to sue. This summer,
the school district finally decided to move him from
biology to earth sciences, where he wouldn't teach
evolution. As a result, he quit.

DeHart is scheduled to begin teaching in Marysville
this fall. Already, he made news as he and school
officials gave conflicting accounts about his new
role. DeHart claimed he was hired to teach high school
biology. School officials said he was hired for an
earth sciences position.

Wherever he goes, the debate is sure to follow. When
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National
Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif., heard
DeHart was headed for Marysville, she was blunt.

"What he's doing is teaching a very subtle form of
creationism," Scott said. "This is old wine in new
bottles. The content of the science he's teaching
these kids is really bad."

But intelligent design supporters say they are just
putting forth a competing idea to explain inadequacies
in Darwinism.

They are certainly not alone in wanting more from
Darwin's theory of natural selection. Polls show that
a majority of Americans believe in some form of
creationism.

One of the intelligent design readings DeHart tried to
give to his Skagit County class was an article written
by Wells, the Poulsbo biologist.

Wells is a Discovery Institute fellow with the
institute's Center for the Renewal of Science and
Culture. He is one of about 35 scientists paid by the
institute to look for signs of intelligent design.
Much of the fellows' work focuses on the molecular
level, looking at the engines of life for hints of a
design.

It is here, looking at the smallest things, that
design theory has its greatest successes. As
scientists look deeper and deeper into cell biology,
design theorists argue that the complexity of
biological structures points to a designer.

Design theory is merely "the fine-tuning of physics,"
explained Richards, program director at the science
center.

He used the analogy of a billiards table to explain
design theory, saying that the balls must first be set
into place before putting them in motion. So it is
only once the balls are sliding across the table that
the natural process takes over.

"Most design theorists believe that explains some
things, that is, the survival of the fittest,"
Richards said. "But does it explain the arrival of the
fittest?"

Wells has worked instead on debunking the tenets of
evolution. In his book, "Icons of Evolution," he
attacks biology textbooks for embarrassing mistakes in
some of the examples given as proof of evolution.

One of the better-known examples include the
19th-century drawings of biologist Ernst Haeckel,
which claimed to show the early embryonic stages of
animals such as chicken and fish were virtually
identical to humans. This was used as evidence of
common ancestors for all living things.

Haeckel's drawings have since been set aside as
perhaps overblown, or exaggerated, examples of
evolution. But evolutionists say that doesn't mean you
get rid of the theory. Wells differs on that point.

"I don't think we have to hold on to a bad theory
until we have a substitute," Wells said.

Wells and other design theorists are more comfortable
with a collective "confession of ignorance" about the
origins of life.

But there is not a consensus about much behind
intelligent design. The prominent scientists and
scholars who support the theory do not agree on the
force behind it. Some say it is God, others credit an
inanimate life force or an extraterrestrial life force
or a meteorite that started the chain reaction of
life.

Many design theorists don't doubt the estimated age of
the earth at billions of years. Others do, approaching
the "young earth" belief held by many creationists.

What makes people most uncomfortable is where design
theory veers near and even overlaps with creationism.

But Wells dismissed that as a legitimate problem.

"Darwinism closes the door to any supernatural,
otherworldly agent," says Wells. "Intelligent design
opens that door. I don't think science can deal with
that."

Scott of the National Center for Science Education
said she doesn't mind DeHart teaching in a capacity
where he can't get into a discussion on evolution and
intelligent design.

"I think Marysville will find he'll make an excellent
earth science teacher," she said.

You can call Herald Writer Todd C. Frankel at
425-339-3429 or send e-mail to frankel@...

=====
Chris Ashcraft
Creation Science Resource
http://www.geocities.com/ashcrac

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