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Debate over evolution flaring up yet again

By JOHN HANNA
Associated Press Writer

TOPEKA (AP) -- With national groups condemning proposed Kansas science standards, a leading intelligent-design advocate says people who question evolution face a ''panicky and hysterical response'' from the scientific establishment.

The debate over evolution flared again Thursday, first with criticism from the National Academy of Sciences and National Science Teachers Association. The groups said standards being considered by the State Board of Education, which express skepticism of evolution, would confuse and mislead students about the theory.

Hours later, a student group at Washburn University in Topeka welcomed Phillip Johnson, a retired University of California law professor who sometimes is called the father of the intelligent-design movement now questioning evolutionary theory.

''This is very scary to the Mandarins of science,'' he told about 75 people attending the Christian Challenge meeting at a local church's community building. ''There's been a panicky and hysterical response to this, some of which you've seen in your state recently.''

The state board doesn't plan to postpone a vote set for Nov. 8 on the proposed science standards, despite the two national groups' view that the standards are flawed. The groups objected to language -- sought by intelligent-design advocates -- suggesting some evolutionary theory isn't solid.

The groups' criticism came a day after they told the state it cannot use their materials. State officials will have to review the standards after the board's vote to ensure Kansas isn't borrowing language from the groups' publications, violating their copyrights.

''To say that evolution is sort of on the ropes is unfair to the students of Kansas,'' said Gerry Wheeler, executive director of the teachers' association. ''We care about the quality of education Kansas students are getting.''

The standards must be updated periodically under Kansas law, and existing ones treat evolution as a well-established theory, crucial to understanding science.

They are used to develop student achievement tests for measuring how well schools are performing, but don't mandate how science is taught in the 300 school districts.

Six of the board's 10 members have shown support for the proposed standards and argue they're trying to give students a more balanced view of evolution.

Johnson expressed a similar view, saying intelligent-design advocates have been branded unfairly as enemies of science.

''We're not out to damage science,'' he said. ''We're out to make science more interesting. We think we're friends of science -- true science.''

Johnson is best known for a 1991 book criticizing evolution, ''Darwin on Trial.'' Both advocates and opponents of intelligent design say the book helped give birth the movement.

He also is scheduled to give a speech at 7 p.m. Saturday at Washburn's student union.

''I just propose that we leave whether or not God is necessary as one of those things that ought to be investigated,'' he said. ''The other side operates to put out a constant stream of propaganda and condemnation.''

Intelligent design says some natural features are best explained by an intelligent cause because they're well-ordered and complex. Its advocates also attack evolutionary theory that natural chemical processes could have created the building blocks of life, that all life has a common origin and that apes and man have a common ancestor.

Detractors contend intelligent design is repackaged creationism, which the U.S. Supreme Court has banned from classrooms as promoting a narrow religious view.

As for evolution being a troubled theory, Wheeler said, ''That couldn't be any further from the truth.''

''There is not a single piece of data or evidence that conflicts with the theory of evolution,'' he said. ''Are there gaps in it? Sure.''