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Intelligent designFrom Letters, GSA Today, January 2002 The GSA position statement on evolution ("Council Approves Two Position Statements," GSA Today, October 2001, p. 32) reviews the tenets of "creation science," i.e., the literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis as a scientific account of the origins of the earth and life. The statement provides an excellent summary of the overwhelming geologic evidence refuting such an interpretation. Few geologists, religious or otherwise, would disagree with the statement on this issue. The position statement goes somewhat beyond this, citing the intelligent design theory as also unworthy of mention in a science classroom. But while it is exhaustive in its refutation of creation science, the statement is silent on intelligent design theory, except for its unqualified dismissal. The scientific evidence cited by proponents of that theory (some of whom are scientists of international repute) is not reviewed, and no opposing arguments, geologic or otherwise, are offered. A proposal to exclude a widely cited interpretation of scientific data from science classrooms is a serious matter — one that should hardly be offered, in the name of a major scientific organization, with no supporting argument. It would be disheartening to think that the Society's research into these matters was so cursory as to confuse intelligent design theory with creation science, and disheartening indeed to think that GSA's attitude toward the intelligent design question is a matter of adherence to, for lack of a better word, dogma. — Gordon D. Bennett |
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