Joe Wolf, president of Florida Citizens for Science, sent the following letter to Brevard County school board members today in reference to yesterday’s post:
Dear (name of School Board Member),
It has recently come to my attention that one of your Board members, Amy Kneessy, has suggested the biology text, “Biology: The Dynamics of Life,†published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, for adoption. The book contains an out-of-context reference to divine origins and intelligent design in two paragraphs at the end of a chapter on the history of life. Our group, Florida Citizens for Science (https://www.flascience.org) strongly opposes the adoption of this textbook with those two paragraphs included. “Intelligent Design†is another label for creationist arguments that have been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S Supreme Court (Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987). The notion that these paragraphs put the study in a ’social or historical context’ is absurd and does not shield the school district from previous court rulings.
If you wish to learn more on this subject, I suggest that you read the decision in the US District Court for the Middle District Pennsylvania by Judge John E. Jones III on the Dover PA. School Board case. In his rebuke against the Dover school board, this conservative Republican appointed by President Bush wrote a very complete description of “Intelligent Design†and its legal implications. The text of the decision is available at
http://www2.ncseweb.org/kvd/all_legal/2005-12-20_kitzmiller_decision.pdf. If downloading that text is inconvenient, I am sure the District administration can get you a copy.
Judge Jones ruled that “intelligent design’ is creationism and thus it is unconstitutional to have it included in the classroom. In the aftermath of the trial, all eight school board members up for election were defeated. This also reflects the experience of the community in Darby, MT, whose school board proposed introducing “intelligent design†into the science curriculum. The primary difference between Dover and Darby was that in Darby, the election occurred before the policy could be implemented; the school board members in favor of the “intelligent design†policy were defeated.
In the Dover case, the school board ignored the advice of its counsel and proceeded with their “intelligent design†policy. By choosing outside counsel to represent the school district, the Dover school board lost any insurance coverage they might have had, exposing the school district to a significant liability. In fact, the plaintiffs’ legal team submitted a bill for $2.5 million dollars, which was reduced in negotiation with the new school board to an even $1 million dollars. Proceeding with policies to advocate creationist argument in school classrooms is both irresponsible and ill-advised.
“Intelligent design†and other labels for creationist arguments, such as “teach the controversyâ€, are an establishment of religion. The arguments themselves are anti-science, and foster misapprehensions of what the scientific method is and a mistrust of scientists and the results of scientific investigation. They have no positive effect on pedagogy, so there can be no successful claim that their instruction meets a secular purpose.
Science and faith are not incompatible. This is perhaps best shown by the over-10,000 U.S. clergy who have signed the internet Clergy Letter Project. These clergy of many faiths and denominations have signed a letter stating that science and faith are compatible, and teaching science effectively is in our best interests. The letter itself is too long to include here but can be found at http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/religion_science_collaboration.htm.
Sincerely
Joseph Wolf
President
Florida Citizens for Science
