Before the year’s end, the Ohio Board of Education will decide whether to force public schools to include intelligent design in their science classes. Some University faculty disagree with this idea.

Michael Bradie, a professor of philosophy, said the concept is missing testability, which is a prerequisite for an idea to be considered scientific.

“What sort of information would lead an advocate of intelligent design to give (a belief) up?” he said. “The answer is nothing. If there is no way to disprove a hypothesis, then it doesn’t give us any insight.”

John Graham, a professor of biology, agrees with Bradie. “I can’t measure God, and in science, you have to be able to measure something.”

Forcing Ohio?s 612 public schools to include the idea in is not only bad for students, Graham said, but it is also a financial mistake. “(Educators) have better things to do with the limited budgets we have,” he said. “Like teaching them to read and write well and think critically.”

Graham emphasizes that, though his class asks students to learn about evolution, it is not anti-religion. “I tell them this: Much of what I teach stems from a belief that all species are subject to the laws of natural selection,” he said. “If you believe the Earth was created in a week, no problem. But, when the test comes, consider evolution’s perspective when answering.”

According to evolutionary theory, humans and other organisms came about through natural processes. Organisms vary genetically. Those with traits suited to survival – broader wings, better eyesight, stronger legs-reproduce, passing on their genes. Over billions of years, the theory says, small organisms grew more and more complex, from single-cell bacteria to humans.

This process, called natural selection, still occurs. For example, antibiotics often become less effective over time because the few resistant bacteria are those that survive and reproduce.

Those who believe in intelligent design, though often religious, do not necessarily believe in the Bible’s story of creation or any other similar account. Intelligent design says that the universe is far too complex to have occurred naturally. Therefore, some higher, intelligent power must have spurred its creation.

Karen Thompson, a professor for the Chapman Learning Community, says high schools should provide a course for freshman teaching creation stories from religions and cultures across the globe.

“I think a good education is one that offers more than one point of view about anything,” Thompson said. “Students should know the way others across history have understood the world.”

Though she is a Lutheran minister, Thompson believes in evolution. She sees creation stories as poetry meant to represent the wonder of life and that nature was created by something greater.

“The Bible’s account of creation speaks to me of a power that brought everything into being with incredible design and purpose,” Thompson said. “So while Earth’s creation is said to have happened in six days, the fact that science says it took 20 billion years doesn?t negate the Bible’s account.”

Faith and evolution are not mutually exclusive, she said. “It’s not an ‘either, or’ – it’s a ‘both, and.'”

John Graham said teaching about intelligent design and creation would be acceptable if it didn’t interfere with science. “If you want to put it into a philosophy course, go for it,” he added. “It could encourage people to think.”

As far as what the public thinks, according to a Gallup poll, 40 percent said evolution should not be taught in public schools, that same number says there is no evidence for the theory, and 48 percent said it should be taught alongside creation.

Michael Bradie, who taught a course on the philosophy of evolution, said a better education on the topic would clear some people’s misunderstandings.

“It’s not the type of subject that gets much attention in high school,” he said.

Some of those numbers probably come from people trying to shelter their children, according to Thompson. “Some religious people just don’t want their children exposed to different ideas because they want them to go to heaven,” she said. “But there are others of us saying that (creation stories) are full of insights and perspective.”