Evolution debates in legislatures and on campaign trail

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Feb. 12 marks the birthday of Charles Darwin and the celebration of Darwin Day, an observance that highlights the theory of evolution set forth in Darwin’s 1859 work, The Origin of Species. But in state legislatures and on the campaign trail, the debate over evolution is about more than science.

fossilLegislatures in several states have introduced or are planning to introduce bills that would mandate the teaching of Bible-based theories of the origin of the world and human beings – such as creationism or intelligent design.

Other bills would require teachers to include materials that call evolution into question.

Surveys also continue to show that a significant portion of the American public embraces religious or supernatural theories on the origin of man over purely scientific explanations, and those views are also being reinforced in the political arena, especially in the Republican nominating contest.

As these bills move through the legislatures and as the election season heats up, the debates over evolution are also likely to spark questions about the relationship between faith and science, believers and nonbelievers, and religion and the public square.

This edition of ReligionLink provides resources and experts for reporters covering these hot-button issues.

What the states are doing

What the people are saying

  • A January 2012 survey of Protestant pastors, conducted by LifeWay Research, shows that by a wide margin most of them believe that God did not use evolution to create humans and think Adam and Eve were literal people. It also found that ministers are almost evenly split on whether the Earth is thousands of years old.
  • A September 2011 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, in partnership with Religion News Service, showed that a majority of Americans (57 percent) believe in evolution. But white evangelicals and Tea Party members — a core constituency for the GOP — are significantly less likely to believe in evolution.

Where the candidates stand

  • Two of the front-runners in the GOP field have expressed nearly identical ideas about evolution. Newt Gingrich said in May 2011 that he sees no conflict between faith and science with regard to life’s origins; in a 2006 interview, the former House speaker said that “evolution should be taught as science, and intelligent design should be taught as philosophy.” Mitt Romney made similar comments in 2007, saying that God likely used evolution as a tool when creating humanity. As for intelligent design, he said, “I’m not exactly sure what is meant” by it. Romney opposed the teaching of intelligent design in Massachusetts science classes during his governorship there.
  • Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum wants creationism taught in public schools; instead, he says, “the left” and “the scientific community” aren’t allowing that because they don’t want classroom discussions about God.
  • U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said in 2007 that evolution is a theory, “and I don’t accept it.” He called it inappropriate to question presidential candidates about scientific matters.
  • Of the former GOP candidates, only Jon Huntsman accepts evolution. He has chastised Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his evolution comments, saying such a stance puts the Republican Party in danger of being “anti-science.” Perry has said he firmly believes in intelligent design, while evolution is merely a theory — and one with “some gaps in it.” Michele Bachmann also is skeptical about evolution. The Minnesota congresswoman favors teaching public school students about competing theories, including intelligent design, “and then letting students decide.”
  • President Barack Obama believes in evolution and has praised the work of Charles Darwin.

Background and resources

The debate tends to be framed this way: Does evolution/Darwinism defeat the idea of a higher being at work in the development of life? Or is it merely a theory — one with much left to prove — that should be taught side-by-side with other theories that allow for a divine agent at work? The principal alternatives are:

  • Intelligent design, or ID, is the theory that the complexity of life points to a higher being at work. See the RNA Stylebook entry for “intelligent design.” (Scroll down.)
  • Creationism is the belief that the world was created in accordance with the account in the first chapter of Genesis. There are, however, two principal schools of thought within creationism: Young Earth creationists believe the world was made in six 24-hour days less than 10,000 years ago. Old Earth creationism is a term that comprises variations of theories positing that the biblical creation process could have occurred over a long period of time, and that a single “day” in the biblical account should not be equated with a single 24-hour period. See the RNA Stylebook entry for “creationism.” (Scroll down.)
  • A third path for many is the belief that Darwinism, evolution and the idea of a beneficent creator who made the world and all its creatures with intention and purpose can co-exist.

ID and creationism are not necessarily in accord with each other, and in fact proponents of each camp can argue as vociferously as Darwinists and anti-Darwinists.

Note: The full title of Darwin’s 1859 book is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Subsequent editions shortened the title to The Origin of Species.

POLLS

  • ReligiousTolerance.org summarizes what it says are the three main belief systems Americans tend to hold regarding the origin of our species. The site includes links to pages on what scientists and the general public (in the U.S. and elsewhere) have told pollsters about it through the years.
  • Read a Gallup analysis of a poll question the organization has asked since 1982, with the most recent survey from December 2010. The data show relatively stable opinions, with the latest figures showing 40 percent of Americans believe that “God created man in present form,” 38 percent believe that man developed with “God guiding the process,” and 16 percent believe that “God had no part in the process.”
  • Among those who consider themselves part of the Tea Party, 51 percent reject evolution, according to a September 2011 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. Sixty-one percent of independents and 64 percent of Democrats accept evolution, the survey found.
  • Pollingreport.com has a section on science and nature that includes poll results dealing with the origin of human life.
  • Read a December 2007 analysis by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life of American attitudes on evolution and biblical creation. As the authors write, “public opinion polling over the last few decades has shown that between 40 percent and 50 percent of Americans consistently reject the very idea of natural evolution, largely on the grounds that it conflicts with biblical accounts of creation.”

ARTICLES

OTHER RESOURCES

Educational and advocacy groups

For a more comprehensive list, see ReligionLink’s “Evolution vs. intelligent design: The battle continues” (Oct. 8, 2007).

Anti-Darwinists

  • The Access Research Network is a Colorado-based nonprofit organization interested in issues that touch science, technology and society. It promotes discussion of intelligent design. Dennis Wagner is co-founder and chairman of the board. Contact 719-633-1772, dwagner@arn.org.
  • A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism is a website where scientists can sign a document stating that they question the claims of Darwinism and call for further inquiry into it and other theories. The list includes scientists from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; the Russian, Hungarian and Czech national academies; and universities such as Yale, Princeton, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. Logan Gage manages the site, which is a project of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. Contact lgage@discovery.org.
  • The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., is a 70,000-square-foot exhibition that promotes a literal view of the Bible and the creation story through lifelike displays that include depictions of human beings living alongside dinosaurs. The museum’s developers announced plans in December 2010 to build the Ark Encounter, a $150 million biblical theme park re-creating the story of Noah’s Ark as reconstructed from a literal reading of the book of Genesis. Ken Ham is president of the museum and the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis. Contact Melany Ethridge of A. Larry Ross Communications at 972-267-1111 or 214-912-8934, melany@alarryross.com.
  • The Creation Research Society is an organization of scientists and laypeople committed to what it calls “scientific special creation.” Board members are listed on the website. Contact contact@creationresearch.org.
  • CreationWiki is an online community-written encyclopedia about creation research.
  • The Discovery Institute is a Seattle-based organization that, in its own words, “discovers and promotes ideas in the common sense tradition of representative government, the free market and individual liberty.” It has been a major proponent of intelligent design through its Center for Science & Culture. See a list of DI fellows. Bruce Chapman is the institute’s president. Contact 206-292-0401 ext.101.
  • The Institute for Creation Research is in Dallas. It maintains a museum in Santee, Calif., and a graduate school in El Cajon, Calif., that does most of its teaching online. Contact 800-337-0375 ext. 8330, press@icr.org.
  • Reasons to Believe describes itself as an “interdenominational and international science-faith think tank” that promotes an “Old Earth” creation view. The institute has a number of affiliated scholars and authors. Contact Patti Townley-Covert, 626-335-1480 ext. 104, ptcovert@reasons.org.

Pro-Darwinists

  • The American Humanist Association sponsors the International Darwin Day Foundation. See a list of Darwin Day events planned for 2012 across the United States and the world. David Niose is national president of the association, and Roy Speckhardt is executive director. Contact Niose at 978-343-0800, dniose@comcast.net. Contact Speckhardt at 1-800-837-3792 (toll-free) or 202-238-9088 ext. 109, rspeckhardt@americanhumanist.org.
  • Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania were litigants in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, in which a federal judge ruled that teaching creationism or ID was a form of religious indoctrination. Read a November 2010 update posted by Americans United on the controversy five years after the December 2005 decision. The Rev. Barry Lynn, a United Church of Christ minister, is Americans United’s executive director. Contact communications@au.org.
  • The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is an online community of pro-evolutionists who scorn the intelligent design camp’s idea of a designer by ascribing the designer the personality of a giant ball of pasta. Adherents are known as “Pastafarians.” Bobby Henderson runs the site. Contact via Paula Balzer, fsmpress@pbliterary.com.
  • The Darwin Correspondence Project, which focuses on the naturalist’s personal letters, has a section on Darwin and religion based on what his correspondence reveals about his personal religious beliefs. Contact +44 (0)1223 333008/339770 or email through the website.
  • The Evolution Education Research Center strives to advance the teaching and learning of biological evolution through research. It has branches at Harvard University in Massachusetts; Chapman University in Orange, Calif.; and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The center’s researchers have studied the intersection of science education and religion in both Christian and Muslim societies. Science education professor Brian Alters is founder and director of the Chapman branch. Philip Sadler, director of the science education department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is Harvard’s representative. Contact Alters at alters@chapman.edu. Contact Sadler at 617-496-4709, psadler@cfa.harvard.edu.
  • The Society for the Study of Evolution promotes the study of organic evolution. Jerry Coyne is president. Contact 773-702-1105, j-coyne@uchicago.edu.
  • TalkOrigins is a group dedicated to the creation-evolution controversy. Contact through the site.

Educational resources

  • The American Museum of Natural History maintains a Darwin section on its website based on a popular exhibit that appeared at the New York City museum from 2005 to 2006. The exhibition has traveled to Boston, Toronto and Chicago before going to the Natural History Museum in London for the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.
  • The Public Broadcasting System maintains a website for its series Evolution that includes a section on religion.

National and international sources

Regional sources
Northwest Northeast Northwest West Southwest Midwest South Southeast East

For more sources, see ReligionLink’s “Evolution vs. intelligent design: The battle continues” (Oct. 8, 2007).

Darwinists

  • Francisco J. Ayala presented a lecture titled “Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion” at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in 2009. Ayala is an evolutionary biologist and philosopher at the University of California, Irvine. He took part in an online panel about the conflict between religion and evolution for the PBS series Evolution. Contact 949-824-8293, fjayala@uci.edu.
  • The Rev. Michael Dowd is a minister in the evangelical/Pentecostal tradition who calls himself an “evolutionary creationist” who preaches a “gospel of evolution.” Dowd argues that evolution can be reconciled with orthodox Christianity. Dowd is an author and lecturer, and his 2009 book, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World, addresses the “Evolutionary Theology” movement. Contact through Paul West at 541-359-1886, media@thankgodforevolution.com.
  • Niles Eldredge is a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and was curator of its popular Darwin exhibit. He has blogged as if he were channeling Charles Darwin. Contact via Mick Wycoff, 201-788-6904, mick@nileseldridge.com.
  • Barbara Forrest is a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and the author of “Understanding the Intelligent Design Creationist Movement: Its True Nature and Goals,” a position paper published by the Center for Inquiry. She says that since their defeat in Dover, intelligent design proponents are reframing their attack on evolution by refraining from insisting that intelligent design be taught and instead asking that the strengths and flaws of evolution be taught. She cites the title of the recent Discovery Institute science textbook, Explore Evolution, as an example of this new strategy. Contact 985-549-5097, bforrest@selu.edu.
  • Karl Giberson is a former professor of physics at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass. He is the author of Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution and is director of the Forum on Faith and Science at Gordon College and co-director of the Venice Summer School on Science & Religion. Contact gibersok@gmail.com.
  • Eugenie Scott is director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif., and co-editor of Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools. She can comment on the current state of science education standards in American public schools. Contact 510-601-7203.
  • Dennis Venema is an associate professor of biology at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, and an “evolutionary creationist.” He is also a senior fellow at the BioLogos Foundation, which aims to foster dialogue about the interface of science and faith. Contact dennis.venema@twu.ca.
  • Matt Young is a senior lecturer in physics at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. He is co-author of the 2009 book Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails). He can discuss the relationship between intelligent design and creationism. Contact 303-273-3862, mmyoung@mines.edu.
  • Michael Zimmerman is a biology professor at Butler University in Indianapolis. He founded the Clergy Letter Project, which sent thousands of letters by different clergy to local school boards outlining why they think it is important to teach evolution. More than 12,000 letters have been sent to date. The project’s website also includes a state-by-state database of scientists who have agreed to serve as technical consultants to the clergy on the subject of evolution. Contact 317-940-9224 ext. 6644, mzimmerm@butler.edu.

Anti-Darwinists

  • John Bloom is a physics professor at Biola University, a Christian school in La Mirada, Calif. He founded the school’s master’s degree program in science and religion, and he teaches a course in intelligent design that asks the question, “Why isn’t the evidence clearer?” Contact via Biola’s media relations department, 562-777-4061, media.relations@biola.edu.
  • Steve Fuller is a sociology professor at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, and the author of Science v. Religion?: Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution. He has written about preparing for the Darwin bicentennial on the pro-intelligent-design blog Uncommon Descent. He calls on the ID community to further develop ideas about the nature of the designer, in part to counter the Pastafarian parody of the Flying Spaghetti Monster “theory” of the designer. They should not be afraid to discuss God as the designer, he says. Contact +44 (0)2476-523940, s.w.fuller@warwick.ac.edu.
  • Wayne Grudem is research professor  of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Ariz. In the 2011 book Should Christians Embrace Evolution?: Biblical and Scientific Responses, for which he wrote the foreword, he asserts that the answer is no. “I am now more firmly convinced than ever that it is impossible to believe consistently in both the truthfulness of the Bible and Darwinian evolution,” he wrote. Contact 888-443-1020.
  • Dennis Wagner is chairman of the board of the Access Research Network, a nonprofit that supports the discussion and teaching of intelligent design. Contact 719-633-1772, dwagner@arn.org.
  • Jonathan Wells is the author of Icons of Evolution and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that promotes intelligent design. He is the author of “Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution.” Contact via Robert L. Crowther at 206-292-0401 ext. 107.
  • Jonathan Witt is the author of Traipsing Into Evolution: Intelligent Design and the Kitzmiller v. Dover Decision and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle. He maintains multiple blogs, including one on the future of intelligent design. Contact via Robert L. Crowther at 206-292-0401 ext. 107.

In the middle

  • Denis Alexander is director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. He is the author of Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?, a discussion of Christianity and evolution. Contact dra24@hermes.cam.ac.uk or via Kate Turnbull, external communications director, 01223 740929.
  • The Rev. George Coyne is a Jesuit priest and director emeritus of the Vatican Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., which he led for more than 25 years. He presented a lecture titled “The Dance of the Fertile Universe: Evolution or Intelligent Design?” at the Houston Museum of Science in 2009. He is an expert on the religious implications of evolution. Contact 520-795-1918, gcoyne@as.arizona.edu.
  • Thomas Nagel is a professor of law and philosophy at New York University who has written a paper describing the constitutionality of “mentioning” intelligent design in science classes. He has described himself as an atheist. Contact 212-998-6225, thomas.nagel@nyu.edu.
  • Mark Noll is Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind. He was part of an online panel that discussed the conflict between religion and evolution for the PBS television series Evolution. Contact 574-631-7574, Mark.Noll.8@nd.edu.
  • Robert Pollack is a professor of biological sciences at Columbia University in New York City. He is the author of The Faith of Biology & the Biology of Faith and was part of an online panel that discussed the conflict between religion and evolution for the PBS series Evolution. Contact 212-854-2409, Pollack@columbia.edu.
  • Jeffrey P. Schloss is a professor and chair of biology and director of the Center for Faith, Ethics and the Life Sciences at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif. (Schloss is on sabbatical for the 2011-12 academic year.) He is an expert on the theological implications of evolution. Contact 805-565-6118, schloss@westmont.edu.
  • Keith Ward is an ordained Anglican priest and a senior fellow at the Metanexus Institute in Bryn Mawr, Pa., where he gives frequent public lectures on the subject of science and religion. Some recent topics include “Has Science Made Belief in God Obsolete?” and “Can the Cruelty and Waste of Evolution Be Reconciled With Creation by a Good God?” Contact 484-592-0304.
  • Jay Wexler is a law professor at Boston University, a Catholic school. He specializes in religion and the law and has written extensively on the evolution-intelligent design conflict in the public schools. In 2007, he correctly predicted that the next legislative battleground would not be about teaching intelligent design but about states and localities trying to get schools to teach “arguments against evolution.” Contact 617-353-2789, jaywex@bu.edu.

Regional sources

IN THE NORTHEAST

  • Dartmouth University in Hanover, N.H., and Americans United for Separation of Church and State hosted “UnIntelligent Design” in 2009. The event featured a presentation by Abby Hafer, a professor of anatomy and physiology at Curry College in Milton, Mass., who said the design of the human body does not support the notion of an intelligent creator. Contact organizer Sharon Racusin, 802-649-1496. Contact Hafer at Abby.Hafer@gmail.com.
  • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology held a Darwin Bicentennial Symposium in 2009. The event included  discussion of current controversies over the teaching of evolution in American public schools. The site maintains video of the symposium and Darwin resources here.
  • Laurie Godfrey is an anthropology professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She and Andrew Petto are co-editors of Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism. Contact lgodfrey@anthro.umass.edu.
  • Kenneth R. Miller is a professor of biology at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and author of Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution and Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul. Miller took part in a Jan. 21, 2009, symposium, “Evolution and God: 150 years after The Origin of Species.” Contact 401-863-3410, Kenneth_Miller@brown.edu.

IN THE EAST

IN THE SOUTHEAST

  • Eugene Chaffin teaches physics at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C. He is on the board of the Creation Research Society and is listed as a speaker for the society on the subject of nuclei decay occurring within a biblical framework. Contact echaffin@bju.edu.
  • Patricia H. Kelley is a geology professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is an expert on invertebrate paleontology, the debate between creation and evolution, and the compatibility of religion and science. Contact 910-962-7406, kelleyp@uncw.edu.
  • Donald Musser is a professor of religious studies and chairman of the Stetson Center for Science, Nature and the Sacred at Stetson University in Deland, Fla. One of his specialties is religion and culture. Contact 386-822-8934, dmusser@stetson.edu.
  • Kelly C. Smith is an associate professor of philosophy and a Lemon Fellow of the Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. He can discuss the philosophy of science and the role of faith and reason in science. Contact kcs@clemson.edu.

IN THE SOUTH

  • John W. Oller Jr. is a professor of communicative disorders at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is on the technical advisory board of the Institute for Creation Research, which lists him as a “creation scientist.” Contact via Carolyn Bruder in the office of academic planning and faculty development, 337-482-6914, cbruder@louisiana.edu.
  • J. Michael Plavcan is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He contributed a chapter titled “The Invisible Bible: The Logic of Creation Science” to Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism. Contact mplavcan@uark.edu.
  • Todd C. Wood is an associate professor of natural sciences in the Center for Origins Research at Bryan College, Tenn. He is listed by the Institute of Creation Research as a “creation scientist.” Contact 423-775-7277.

IN THE MIDWEST

  • Don DeYoung is chairman of the department of physical science at Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind. He speaks on the subject of creation for the Institute of Creation Research. He is also listed as a “creationist physicist” by Answers in Genesis. Contact 574–372–5100 ext. 6441, dbdeyoung@grace.edu.
  • Daniel Harlow is a religion professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., whose research interests include evolutionary science and Christian theology. When Harlow wrote an article questioning the historical Adam, he faced a college investigation. Contact 616-526-6538, dharlow@calvin.edu.
  • Christopher Hays is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Washington County in West Bend. He is an expert on the relationship between science and religion. Contact christopher.hays@uwc.edu.
  • Stephen Main is a professor emeritus of biology at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Among his areas of expertise is the evolution-creation controversy. Contact stephen.main@wartburg.edu.
  • George L. Murphy is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and has a doctorate in physics. He can discuss theology and science. He lives in Tallmadge, Ohio. Contact gmurphy10@neo.rr.com.
  • Andrew Petto is a senior lecturer in the biology department at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He and Laurie Godfrey are co-editors of Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism. Contact 414-229-6784, ajpetto@uwm.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST

  • Byron Adams is an associate professor in the department of microbiology and molecular biology at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He can discuss evolution and its relationship to Mormonism. Contact 801-422-3132, byron_adams@byu.edu.
  • Daniel I. Bolnick is an associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin. He can discuss natural selection and the creationism-evolution conflict. Contact 512-471-2824, danbolnick@mail.utexas.edu.
  • Daniel K. Brannan is a professor of biology at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. He is an expert on evolutionary biology-Christian theology interfaces. He wrote an article for the Metanexus Institute’s online journal titled “Confessions of an Evolutionary Biologist,” in which he explored his belief in evolution and God. Contact brannan@biology.acu.edu.
  • Dan Hicks operates Jesus Created Ministries, a creationist ministry in Tulsa, Okla. Contact 918-720-6763.
  • Victor H. Hutchison is a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He is an expert on evolution and the creationism-evolution debate. Contact 405-325-6721, vhutchison@ou.edu.
  • Jonathon C. Marshall is an assistant professor of herpetology and evolutionary genetics at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He can discuss evolutionary biology and Mormonism and science. Contact 801-626-6587, jonmarshall@weber.edu or jonathon_c_marshall@hotmail.com.
  • Catherine Russell is the author behind the Epic of Evolution website, which is designed to assist educators in teaching evolution. She is based in Boulder, Colo. She can discuss evolution education and celebrating grace through evolution. Contact cathus@epicofevolution.com.
  • The Texas Freedom Network is a pro-evolution citizens watchdog group that monitors science education standards in the state. Its Texas Faith Network is a group of clergy and laypeople who would like to keep religious teaching about the origins of the world and of life out of the public school classroom. Contact communications director Dan Quinn, 512-322-0545, dan@tfn.org.
  • Christopher Thrutchley is a lawyer in Tulsa, Okla., who has written a paper titled “Eroding Biblical Foundation, Exploding Judicial Activism,” about what he sees as the erosion that teaching evolution has had on the nation’s laws. Contact 918-587-0101, cthrutchley@newtonoconnor.com.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST

  • Darrel Falk is a biology professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and the author of Coming to Peace With Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology. Contact  619-849-2272, dfalk@pointloma.edu.
  • David Leaf is a biology professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham. He is an expert in molecular and cell biology and evolutionary developmental biology and has taught a course for high school and middle school teachers on the controversy involving evolution-creationism-intelligent design. Contact 360-650-3632, leaf@biol.wwu.edu.
  • Michael Oard is a meteorologist who has written widely in support of creationism. He is listed as a speaker with both the Creation Research Society and Answers in Genesis. He lives in Montana. Contact via CRS at 928-636-1153.
  • John G. West is associate director of the Center for Science & Culture at Discovery Institute in Seattle and author of Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science. He contributed an opinion piece about the Louisiana Science Education Act to the National Review. Contact 206-292-0401 ext. 110.

Updated from a Jan. 13, 2009, edition

 

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