Designs for change

Two skeptics lead charge against evolution

BY JOSH FUNK

The Wichita Eagle


Two men rally support for intelligent design -- evolution's competition

The lawyer and the research scientist who are at the heart of Kansas' debate over how evolution should be taught say they are driven by logic and a love of science.

Both men are Christian, but they say faith is not why they want schools to take a more critical approach to evolution, the central tenet of biology. They want schools to encourage the debate they say scientists are reluctant to allow.

Both think intelligent design offers a better explanation of life than evolution. But both want evolution taught in schools.

Evolution is "the most important theory in biology," said Bill Harris, the research scientist. "It may be the most important theory of science because it affects your world view."

But students also should be taught the shortcomings of evolution and what it can't explain, they say. They don't think intelligent design should be required to be taught -- yet.

"It's not ready," said John Calvert, the lawyer. "We think it will be one day."

Calvert is a former agnostic who chose early retirement in 2000 to spend more time pressing this fight.

Harris started questioning evolution as graduate student because of what he saw as the huge differences between man and his closest relatives, apes.

Together the two run the Intelligent Design Network --based in Calvert's suburban Johnson County home -- that has helped spread the argument for intelligent design nationwide.

They have influenced discussions in Ohio, New Mexico, North Carolina, Minnesota, Georgia, Montana and California.

In Kansas, Harris influences the debate by serving on a state committee proposing changes to science standards.

But Calvert has the higher profile, serving as the network's public face and frequenting public meetings where evolution is likely to come up.

Their aim is to convince politicians to do what they think scientists won't.

"People say we're trying to make an end run around the scientific community," Calvert said. "And, to some extent, that's true because the institutions of science won't allow the debate."

'It just makes sense'

Both Calvert and Harris acknowledge that the concept of intelligent design fits well with Christianity and other religions, but they said logic and scientific evidence convinced them of its validity.

Intelligent design is an inference that certain features of living things, such as DNA, are best explained by an intelligent cause because they are too complicated to have occurred naturally and because no scientific law explains them.

"The more I see of the intricacy and inner life of cells, that's greater evidence for a designer," Harris said.

While he was in graduate school in the late 1970s, Harris started to question evolution and its idea that humans and other life developed from a common ancestor over millions of years through gradual changes.

But after completing his doctorate in nutrition and biochemistry, he didn't give evolution much thought because it didn't affect his research into how diet related to heart disease.

His questions about evolution remained dormant until the mid-1990s, when he read "Darwin on Trial" by Phillip Johnson and other books.

"I'd never heard the term intelligent design until I read Johnson's book, and it made a lot of sense," Harris said.

Calvert said he read some of the same books written by scientists affiliated with the Discovery Institute in Seattle, a think tank that has promoted intelligent design and criticism of evolution since 1996.

But long before the Discovery Institute got involved, Calvert kept track of developments in DNA research and legal fights over evolution during the 1980s and 1990s. That reading was part of his lifelong fascination with science.

When he read about the detailed code embedded in DNA, he said, he was reminded of the Morse code he learned in the Army.

"I thought, 'How can this not be designed?' " Calvert said.

He earned a bachelor's degree in geology and planned to pursue a doctorate in the sciences later.

But after prosecuting discipline cases as a battalion adjutant during a two-year stint in the Army, he was drawn to law instead.

In his youth and early adulthood, Calvert had been an agnostic and a fan of Ayn Rand's objectivism philosophy. But after his first marriage ended in divorce in 1978, he turned to religion for answers.

Before converting to Christianity, he read the Bible and the Koran and researched other faiths.

"The Bible really made the most sense," Calvert said. "I'm a logical guy, and it just makes sense."

The bigger picture

The Intelligent Design Network has satellite chapters in New Mexico and Minnesota and is part of a larger national movement.

Joe Renick, executive director of the New Mexico chapter, said he liked Calvert's approach to the topic and his willingness to acknowledge his faith and the religious implications of the debate.

So Renick borrowed from Calvert's playbook to combat the perception that this is a covert religious attack on science.

"Part of why this is so exciting to me is that it's complementary to my Christian beliefs, but that's no reason not to talk about it," Renick said.

John West, associate director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute, commended what Calvert and Harris have done to advance the cause.

"We know John and we know Bill Harris, and we think they're doing good work," West said.

Jack Krebs, who serves on the Kansas standards committee, said Calvert uses his legal skills to build a strong case for his point of view.

But Krebs, who is vice president of pro-evolution Kansas Citizens for Science, said Calvert refuses to answer some questions about the evidence for intelligent design or about Christians who accept evolution.

"There's some really fatal flaws in his talk, but being a lawyer, he is used to building a case and won't answer questions," Krebs said.

Calvert denied dodging questions.

"If you can show me a question I refused to answer, I'd be happy to answer it," Calvert said.

Krebs said the Intelligent Design Network is trying to use science to validate a religious belief and weaken the theory of evolution.

"There is no doubt about it -- though they will deny it -- that the motive is to include a certain religious point of view in the classroom," Krebs said.

Calvert does deny that his motives are religious, and he said all he is trying to do is persuade schools to be objective.

"We think science can't be constitutionally objective unless (intelligent design) is allowed," he said.

Kansas debate

Harris said scientists and most science standards won't allow discussion of anything besides evolution.

"I have no question that evolution should be taught," he said. "But we need to have all the evidence for and against."

He and Calvert hope the State Board of Education will agree with them when science standards are approved later this summer.

Conservative Republicans control Kansas' 10-member State Board of Education. They plan to hold six days of hearings on the evidence for and against evolution in May.

Those hearings may resemble the annual "Darwin, Design and Democracy" conferences the Intelligent Design Network has held.

Those conferences, featuring 20-25 researchers, have been important to the growth of the network and its influence in other states.

Five of the conferences have been held since 2000, each time attracting several hundred people from several states and helping spread the network's message.

But the format of the hearings the state board plans and the final content of the standards remain uncertain.

Harris volunteered to recruit experts to argue the intelligent design side at the hearings, but the state board has so far been unable to attract anyone to speak for mainstream science.

For the lawyer and the scientist, this will be one more step along what they acknowledge is a long road. But they hold logic and science on their side, they say. And they won't give up.

"We're fighting for objectivity," Calvert said. "It's going to happen. It's just going to take persistence."

http://kansas.com