The Kansas School Board has recieved a letter signed by 38 Nobel Prize Laureates to incite them to reject the proposed education standards. If you have not been following the news on this front, the proposed standards, which could come up for final Board of Education approval later this year, are designed to expose students to more criticism of evolution but state in an introduction that they do not endorse intelligent design. This reform even got the approval of President Bush.

In response to this reform, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity has written to the Board to express what everyone in the scientific community was thinking. Below you will find a big part of the letter (link to pdf) signed by NObel laureates from all fields of science, from 1976 to 2004.

The United States has come a long way since John T. Scopes was convicted for teaching the theory of evolution 80 years ago. We are, therefore, troubled that Darwinism was described as “dangerous dogma” at one of your hearings. We are also concerned by the Board’s recommendation of August 8, 2005 to allow standards that include greater criticism of evolution.

Logically derived from confirmable evidence, evolution is understood to be the result of an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection. As the foundation of modern biology, its indispensable role has been further strengthened by the capacity to study DNA. In contrast, intelligent design is fundamentally unscientific; it cannot be tested as scientific theory because its central conclusion is based on belief in the intervention of a supernatural agent.

Differences exist between scientific and spiritual world views, but there is no need to blur the distinction between the two. Nor is there need for conflict between the theory of evolution and religious faith. Science and faith are not mutually exclusive. Neither should feel threatened by the other.

September 20th, 2005 | General Science