IU community to debate intelligent design today

The debate about the teaching of evolution and creationism in public schools has gained more public attention with the recent push to incorporate the "intelligent design" theory into some public schools.\nOpponents say the teaching of intelligent design in public schools violates the separation of church and state in the Constitution. Supporters say it is necessary to expose students to both sides in order to allow them to make their own decisions.\nAt 7 p.m. today in the Auditorium, Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, will address the issue at a lecture titled, "The Pillars of Creationism and the Teaching of Evolution."\nShe will present her argument on the evolution and intelligent design debate, which has become more well-known as a result of the recent proposal and debate in Kansas to teach intelligent design as a theory alongside evolution. Intelligent design, according to The Associated Press, teaches that the development of life is too complicated to have happened naturally and therefore required the intelligence of a higher power to plan it out. \nIt differs from traditional creationist theories because it teaches that life has evolved over time. It differs from evolutionist theories because it teaches that evolution was governed by a supernatural power.\nThe debate has been given more public attention in the last few months because of the proposal by the Kansas State Board of Education to add the teaching of intelligent design to the state standards and encourage schools to teach it, according to The Associated Press. \n"The creationism and evolution controversy is a very broad one," Scott said. "I'll be talking a little bit about evolution and the different forms of creationism, as well as presenting the current status of the creationism and evolution controversy."\nThe Union Board, along with 16 other organizations, is sponsoring today's event. The Union Board itself spent about $1,300 to organize and sponsor this event.\n"I like to really bring debate to campus and bring real, pertinent issues and strong opinions," said Allen Andreas, Union Board Director of Debates and Issues. "Evolution and the debate about it is one of the most controversial and strongest topics I've ever seen."\nThe National Center for Science Education, which Scott has directed, does not consider intelligent design a theory and does not support its teaching in schools.\n"We believe that good science and not religion should be taught in science classrooms," Scott said. "The intelligent design theory is not science -- it is a new form of creationism. Since that can't be tested scientifically, it isn't science."\nScience education professor Valarie Akerson believes intelligent design should be allowed to be taught in schools, just not as a science.\n"I don't even think there should be a debate," Akerson said. "Religion is one way of knowing, and science is another. They're not necessarily incompatible."\nAndreas believes this lecture will be useful and interesting to all students, but particularly to those studying or interested in biology, political science, religious studies and sociology.\n"This is important, first of all, because it brings up debate about separation of church and state," Andreas said. "It also involves the defense of science and biology, because modern biology is based on evolution."\n"The Pillars of Creationism and the Teaching of Evolution" is open and free to the public.