Kenneth R. Miller @ KSU

Tomorrow (Thursday)at 7:00 p.m. Dr. Kenneth R. Miller will be giving a lecture at Kansas State University. The lecture, which is sponsored by K-State's Center for Understanding Origins, will focus on evolution and the "Intelligent Design" movement.

For the past 12 years, Dr. Miller has been on the front lines of the conflict between religion and evolution. In his 1999 book Finding Darwin's God, Miller (who is a devout Roman Catholic) made a compelling case for the idea that religious faith and scientific materialism can co-exist. Since then, he has been one of the most public voices speaking out in support of evolution, appearing on numerous programs and in countless places (including an appearance on Comedy Central's popular The Colbert Report). As the Brown Alumni Magazine put it in 2005:

Miller has become one of evolution's most visible defenders. Newsrooms call him up whenever a school board tries to undermine the teaching of evolution. When President Bush remarked in August (2005) that public schools should teach intelligent design along with evolution "so that people can understand what the debate is about," within hours NewsNight with Aaron Brown and The O'Reilly Factor had asked Miller to comment live on the president's statement. Today, as well as shows on ABC and NPR, were next in line. In addition, his best-selling high school biology textbook has been the focus of a federal court case in which a judge ordered the board of education of Georgia's second-largest school district to remove the creationist-inspired stickers they'd inserted in the book. Six months later, after the New York Times published an op-ed by Cardinal Christoph Schšnborn that seemed to challenge previous Vatican statements that evolution is compatible with Catholic doctrine, Miller, a practicing Roman Catholic, joined prominent scientists Lawrence Krauss and Francisco Ayala in publicly asking the Pope to clarify the Church's stance on evolution and to continue Pope John Paul II's legacy of support for science. And this fall (2005) Miller was the first witness in a high-profile Pennsylvania court case filed to prevent the Dover school board from requiring the in-class reading of a statement casting doubt on evolution's validity.

That landmark court case, Kitzmiller v. Dover, not only ruled that it was unconstitutional to require the reading of the Intelligent Design friendly statement, but also opined that Intelligent Design should not qualify as science, and therefor has no business in high school science classrooms.

Last year, Miller publish Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, which specifically attacks the Intelligent Design movement and examines the danger that it poses to both science and society. (Coincidentally, that book begins with Dr. Miller reflecting on a trip several years ago to give a lecture at K-State.)

In February, Dr. Miller was presented with the 2008 Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of "his sustained efforts and excellence in communicating evolutionary science." (NCSE)

Miller, along with Joseph Levine, is the author of one of the most popular high school biology textbooks in the United States. I have mentioned Dr. Miller a couple of times previously (here and here).

Evolution Legislation

As the new legislative year gets underway, most of the discussion is about budgets and how to balance them. Lost in the economic talk, though, are the first two anti-evolution bills of 2009.

Oklahoma Senate Bill 320 would require state and local authorities to:

endeavor to create an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that encourages students to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues.

That doesn't sound too bad, if it was preceded with:

The Legislature further finds that the teaching of some scientific subjects, such as biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy, and that some teachers may be unsure of the expectations concerning how they should present information on such subjects.

As one of my science heroes (you know you're a geek when you have science heroes) likes to point out, encouraging critical thinking and thoughtful questioning is a good thing in science class. In fact, the ability to ask questions and think critical about the natural world are extremely important tools for a scientist. However, when certain theories of science are singled out for special treatment, we start to run into problems. Probably the biggest is that the statement above gives the impression that scientific questions and evidence should only be explored, critical thinking skills should only be used, and differences of opinion should only be respected when discussing evolution, the origins of life, global warming, or human cloning. If you're studying something like, say, gravity, then there's no need to ask questions. If you're discussing the extinction of wildlife due to overhunting or habitat depletion, don't worry about recognizing or respecting that other people might have a different view than you do. And if you're learning about quantum mechanics, don't bother with looking for evidence.

I'll have more on this later. In the meantime, the amazing folks at the National Center for Science Education have an informative post on this piece of legislation.