Statement on Intelligent Design Endorsed
by 3,739 Brights
The Brights are individuals
who are part of an international Internet constituency of individuals with a naturalistic worldview (free of supernatural
beliefs). Brights stand on the side of the fruits of reason and science as first presented to the world during the Enlightenment.
The Brights' Net was formed on the Internet a little over
two years ago and quickly gained international participation. It is a nonprofit educational organization working to develop
a society that offers a level playing field for acceptance and civic participation by individuals of all worldviews.
The courtroom controversy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania concerning
"Intelligent Design" and evolution spurred 3,739 individuals from across the globe to craft a collective position
statement.
The following statement is
against any further weakening of science education by treating Intelligent Design as if it were some scientific alternative
to evolution.
(October 28,
2005) Sacramento, CA.: Various school boards and communities in the United States are trying to introduce Intelligent Design
(ID) into public school science classes. ID advocates may, by and large, believe ID to be scientifically credible. Then again,
perhaps some of the proponents are trying by essentially surreptious means to introduce religious beliefs into science programs.
Whatever the impetus, the ID endeavor disregards the definition of science and must be rejected. Intelligent Design has no
valid place in a science curriculum. It is not science.
Science deals empirically with reality. In fact, central to scientific method is that its ideas about the
natural world can be tested, replicated, and verified. Unlike science's account of the evolution of life on earth, the ID
explanation postulates ideas that can not be observed or confirmed. By looking upon a designer as necessary to account for
the origin and development of life, ID breaches science as a discipline.
The scientific process, with its rigorous methods of confirmation, is the best means to understanding
our world, and no nation can expect to fare well if its citizens are confused about or misinformed in science. The Intelligent
Design movement presents an impediment to educating students for our scientifically-oriented world. It is a grievous threat
to the academic integrity of education.
