The Episcopal Church, at its 1982 General Convention, resolved that creationism is unsuitable science for public education. In the past ten years or so, an updated version of creationism, called "intelligent design" theory (ID) has been proposed as legitimate science. ID is a well-dressed form of "scientific creationism," and its primary spokespersons are Michael Behe (a biochemist), William Dembski (a mathematician), and Philip Johnson (a lawyer). However, ID is not science at all--it's a God-of-the-Gaps argument, an theological gloss on unsolved scientific problems. It is a updated version of William Paley's "watch-maker" argument.
In 2002, the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) adopted a position statement opposing efforts to have ID included as part of public science ecucation. The leaders of the ST&F Network endorse this position statement.
The AAAS Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion, with its goal of assisting religious communities as they seek to understand contemporary science and its religious and ethical implications, organized a workshop on 12-13 January in Washington, D.C. to help clarify the issue for religious communities and to examine their relationship to the teaching of evolution in public schools. The ID movement was discussed historically, philosophically, and practically in relation to the efforts of its proponents to influence public science education. Proponents of ID are well-funded and organizing to get ID into public school science curricula, preferably to the exclusion of evolution. The major organization of the ID movement is the Discovery Institute, based in Seattle. Their recent onslaughts have centered on state science standards and state list of approved textbooks. Their "wedge" strategy is to advocate "teaching the controversy"--meaning that teachers should give ID equal time with evolution in the science classroom.
Workshop presentations included current scientific investigations of the origins of life, biological evolution, and the origins of Homo sapiens were reviewed. Scientists, science educators, and representatives of several Christian denominations discussed the roles of the churches in their theological, educational and public policy functions with respect to support for the integrity of public science education.
Representing the Episcopal Church were two members of the Network Steering Board, the Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran and Deacon Phina Borgeson. They set five goals to propose to the Steering Board of the Network and its associated arm in the national church structure, the Executive Council Committee for Science, Technology and Faith. These goals are as follows:
- review, update, and strengthen the resolution of the 1982 General Convention on creationism as unsuitable science for public education
- continue working on a "Creation Catechism," an educational tool for parishes in confirmation classes and adult Christian education
write a lead article for the next Network Newsletter, about the false claims of ID as science [you're reading it]
- ask our Network members to check out the shelves of their cathedral bookstores, and to give a short bibliography to the bookstore managers. [For instance, the National Cathedral bookstore has many books on ID, which may imply to some that ID is endorsed by our church as good science for the science-and-religion discussions.]
- start work on a "creationism & ID" section for the ST&F Committee's proposed Internet Resource Center
