Remarks to the Kansas State Board of Education, Nov. 14, 2000
14 November 2000
Jody F. Sjogren, M.S., CMI
Good morning. My name is Jody Sjogren. I am a medical/biological llustrator and a managing director of Intelligent Design Network. My comments this morning concern the proposed revisions to the Kansas Science Education Standards.
As you are working with the Writing Committee to revise the 1999 document, you have a second opportunity to formulate Standards that reflect current scientific knowledge about origins. You have heard many voices from all sides of the debate during the past year. Those who support evolution have insisted that science must maintain a methodological naturalism in its approach to the evidence. Darwinists have assured you that science cannot allow design inferences into the explanation for origins because that would introduce the supernatural, which is off limits for science. They have pacified you with assurances that Darwinism and Christianity can comfortably coexist.
These are important philosophical debates, but before you adopt new Science Standards, may I urge you to consider the crucial scientific question: Is Darwinism science, or myth?
This recently-released book will give you an answer to ponder. Having done the illustrations for the book, I can testify to the degree of research that has gone into it. Icons of Evolution, by Jonathan Wells, PhD, is an in-depth examination of the textbook examples that Darwinists have chosen as the pillars of their theory. You all know these icons well: Dr. Wells has written this book to expose the exaggerated claims and deceptions that have been used as evidence for evolution, sometimes (as in the case of Haeckel’s embryos) for over a hundred years, while the science community has known they were false or misleading. This is one of the most important books yet written about the evolution controversy, and I urge you to read it before you elevate evolution to a unifying concept in biology, and before science students in Kansas read it and embarrass their teachers with pointed questions from each chapter.
Icons of Evolution is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Within a month of its publication, this book has already been slated for a second printing. When the evidence against evolution which is contained in this book becomes common knowledge and people realize that they have been deceived, there will be a counter shock, and you will not escape its ripples.
Increasingly you will hear the questions of your educated constituency in Kansas as they read this book. A Topeka businessman recently remarked, after hearing Dr. Wells speak, “If I misrepresented my product in business the way these icons misrepresent the evidence in biology, I’d go to jail.” A Manhattan father who attended Dr. Well’s recent lecture with his school-age son said, “If the icons which are supposed to represent the theory of evolution are so misleading, how can we trust the rest of the theory?”
As the world awakens to these deceptions, there will still be loud voices from the science community crying that the rest of the theory is sound even though its poster children have been taken down. Ask these people to tell you specifically what IS true about evolution, and don’t settle for hand-waiving, generalities, and excuses that the information is too complex for the average person to understand.
This book is getting out to the masses. Students are reading this, Darwinists are trying to dismiss its claims with rhetoric, and the battle is escalating to new levels. While you have the opportunity, I urge you to acknowledge that evolution is a theory – a theory under legitimate scientific challenge. You now have a unique opportunity to rise to the occasion and revise these Standards to reflect the true nature and extent of the controversy. You are on the cutting edge of a revolution in biology that will eventually dismantle the fundamental tenets of Darwinism. It’s a tough situation for you, and it will take courage. Carefully consider the information we are giving you, rather than just blindly following the group that has generated this misinformation. If you craft these Science Standards to allow the evidence to speak for itself, history will look upon you as innovators. You have a historic opportunity here, and now is the time to seize it.
Thank you.
Jody F. Sjogren
Intelligent Design Network