Youth in California School Take Up Evolution vs. Intelligent Design

CALIFORNIA, USA – Winona Hudak, 15, is an evangelical Christian who advocates for changing the curriculum at Huntington Beach High School in California, U.S., to include Intelligent Design in the science courses. Proponents of Intelligent Design claim that the universe was created by the Christian god and not by the processes identified by scientists, such as evolution by natural selection.

“If Christians have to learn atheistic views, then they or other people should learn Christian views,” Hudak said. The pastor of her church, the Forsquare Christian Church, preaches often about Intelligent Design and what Hudak called “evidence that proves evolution’s falsehood.”

Her push to change the curriculum has not taken flight in the school district as of yet, but it has created an uproar in her chemistry class. The teacher, Ken Ostrowski, teaches the scientific-based theory of evolution and repeatedly debates the issue with his resistant pupil. Ostrowski said he believes Hudak and other students cannot mount an effective protest against science because they don't understand the science well enough.

“Why would a science book put information in it that is not true?” he added. "Ignorance is the problem."

The Intelligent Design movement has managed to change some textbooks, or publish its own, to include Intelligent Design as a so-called alternative "theory" to evolution, but scientists have decried its view as pseudoscience -- religion posing as science, without offering any verifiable evidence.

William Harmicar, a history and model United Nations debate teacher at Huntington Beach High School, agreed with Ostrowski, adding that “students do not have the right to protest so long as evolution is taught as a theory.”

In recent years, students at the high school have debated the evolution issue with their teachers, but no faculty member has ever seen the arguments take root, he said. Those debates mainly occur within individual classes and rarely escalate into anything more than a battle of wits. Although Harmicar admitted that he is not an expert on Intelligent Design, he said he knows enough to conclude that “until the scientific community finds evidence to support Intelligent Design, it should not be taught in science class.”

Jennifer Hu, also a born-again Christian and one of Hudak's chemistry classmates, said she believes in Intelligent Design but does not object to learning about evolution. Diplomatically, she said, “If you want to argue about something, you have to know about it first.” And Stephanie Tran, 15, feels that teaching both evolution and Intelligent Design would allow students to choose what they believe

Lindsay Sebastian agreed, saying, “If they continue to teach evolution, I believe they should also teach Intelligent Design.” And Kevin Diau proposed a way to end the argument: “They should add Intelligent Design to the textbooks so that people will stop arguing about it and focus on other issues, like curing diseases,” Diau said.

But a majority of students in that class remain neutral and accept the curriculum as it is. Some of them, such as Tiffany Ngyuen, said they had no interest in the debate: “Learning about evolution or not learning about it does not really matter to me,” she said.

Hudak said she does not plan to take her objections to the school administration but is "content with arguing with Mr. Ostrowski, for the moment."

These teacher-student debates occur in schools across the United States, and in some cases they escalate into lawsuits. Such lawsuits often begin with a complaint by a pro-creationist student or parent that is later taken up by religious-based organizations, most notably the Discovery Institute, the leading proponent of the Intelligent Design movement.

In the Dover school district, in Pennsylvania, 11 parents pushed for a statement to be read in classes that encouraged students to keep an open mind about Intelligent Design, which the statement called "a theory." Three school board members who voted against it resigned in protest and some science teachers in the Dover district refused to read the statement to their students. In 2005, a group of creationism proponents sued the district to force creationism to be taught in the science curriculum. A federal judge later barred the teaching of creationism in the curriculum.

What began as a recurring debate in a California high school chemistry class could end up re-sparking the national debate. Only time will tell.