Radio Workshop

Scientists of Faith (Transcript)

by Piya Kochhar

KOCHHAR:

It is a spring afternoon in Riverside park and eight-year-old David Botello is contemplating a tree.

DAVID:

Kochhar: Where did this tree come from? David:I think God.

KOCHHAR:

David pauses for a moment and changes his mind.

DAVID:

Maybe not. I think somebody planted it or a farmer planted it. I don't know.

KOCHHAR:

Eight-year-old David has just summed up a rather complex idea about the origin of life. A small but growing group of people believe Darwin might have got it all wrong. They say, life forms are too improbably perfect to be the product of random genetic or molecular chance. This idea is called Intelligent Design, or ID. John Calvert is director of Intelligent Design Network, a nonprofit organization. Calvert says ID is a direct outgrowth of science. The more we study our genetic makeup, the more we see a pattern.

CALVERT:

...The genetic code, DNA being a quote blueprint, quote messenger RNA. Messenger, blueprints, codes are all design systems. They are systems worked out by a mind for a purpose.

KOCHHAR:

According to ID, life forms have not evolved. Rather, they have been designed. Now whether the designer is God, extraterrestrials or Calvin Klein;ID doesn't say.Though Calvert believes the designer is God. He says,those who believe in this idea think it should be taught in classrooms as an alternate theory to Evolution. And this is where the debate begins. Surprisingly though, for some New York educators the debate is not so much about Church and State as it is about the nature of science.

AMB:

Eel sounds.

KOCHHAR

It is a rainy school day afternoon at John Bowne High school in Flushing, Queens. Electric Eels swim across Robert Soel's computer screen, emitting strange deep sea sounds. Soel is head of the science department here.

SOEL:

If in Intelligent Design the premise is that all aspects of a living thing are designed to work that way because that's the way the designer wanted them to work. Then that doesn't explain why such a designer would create things which are seemingly imperfect. A cancer tumor. A birth defect..and so on and so forth.

KOCHHAR:

Soel speaks almost religiously about why teaching Intelligent Design as science is doing a disservice to his kids-- as he calls his students.

SOEL:

You're basically telling students not to wonder the cause of things happening or developing certain ways. You simply put up your hands and say it is that way because the designer designed it that way. And, that's a poor way to teach science.

MEYERS:

What the hell is science anyways?

KOCHHAR:

Mark Meyers is in charge of creating the curriculum for a new elementary school affiliated with Columbia University opening this Fall. He plans to include ID.

MEYERS:

Science is a way of knowing and so is religion;a way of knowing;so is sociology; it's human beings struggling to come to terms with the world or universe in which they're living and trying to figure out just how the hell they fit in.

KOCHHAR:

Meyers believes Intelligent Design is an idea...And he says all ideas are valid topics of study.

MEYERS:

That's what I'd respond to anyone who asks 'well why're you teaching this?' It's not as though we're promoting it. We're putting it on the table as we would any topic.

KOCHHAR:

Meyers views are not common among most educators. The National Biology Teacher's Association has explicitly said Intelligent Design is not Science and therefore does not belong in the classroom. Neither do any other quote "supernatural" explanations for the origin of life such as Creationism, the Association says. Taking its cue from the Association, the New York State Department of Education does not even mention ID in its accepted topics of study for Biology curriculums. Jim Miller heads up the Science and Religion department at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or the triple A. S.

MILLER:

So far ID advocates have not been able to establish scientific crediblity.

KOCHHAR:

The Triple A.S. released a formal statement in December 2002 advising schools against teaching ID.

MILLER:

It's not a matter of censoring an idea in particular. But rather that the advocates of ID have not yet produced research results that are judged appropriate and fitting to the scientific practice.

KOCHHAR:

While some Scientits dismiss ID, it is gaining ground. Especially among more conesrvative communities. Over the past year, Schools in Georgia and Ohio have voiced formal support for teaching ID in classrooms. Like the debate on Creationism, it seems there is no middle-ground for believers on either side of the Intelligent Design debate.

KOCHHAR:

Piya Kochhar, Columbia Radio News.