Witness blasts school district's evolution policy

'Tremendously damaging' statement
Miller sharply criticized intelligent design and questioned the work that went into it by one of its leading proponents, Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe, who will be a witness for the district.

Under questioning from American Civil Liberties Union attorney Witold Walczak, Miller said he wasn’t even sure that Behe had done research on intelligent design.

“I have yet to see any explanation advanced by any adherent of design that says we have positive evidence for design,” he said.

The statement read to Dover students states that “because Darwin’s theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact.”

Miller said the statement is “tremendously damaging,” falsely undermining the scientific status of evolution.

“What that tells students is that science can’t be relied upon and certainly is not the kind of profession you want to go into,” he said.

“There is no controversy within science over the core proposition of evolutionary theory,” he added. On the other hand, he said, “Intelligent design is not a testable theory in any sense and as such it is not accepted by the scientific community.”

He also challenged the accuracy of “Of Pandas and People,” the intelligent-design textbook to which Dover students are referred.

Miller said the book omits discussion of what causes extinction. Since nearly all original species are extinct, he said, any intelligent design creator would not have been very intelligent.

During cross-examination, Robert Muise, another attorney for the law center, repeatedly asked Miller whether he questioned the completeness of Darwin’s theory.

“Would you agree that Darwin’s theory is not the absolute truth?” Muise asked.

“We don’t regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth,” Miller said.

The history of evolution litigation dates to the famous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, in which Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes was fined $100 for violating a state law that forbade teaching evolution. The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed his conviction on the narrow ground that only a jury trial could impose a fine exceeding $50, and the law was repealed in 1967.

In 1968, the Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas state law banning the teaching of evolution. And in 1987, it ruled that states may not require public schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching creationism.

President Bush has also weighed in, saying schools should present both concepts when teaching about the origins of life.

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