Supporters of ID Make Up Tiny Minority

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

I am writing about the letter entitled "Scientists Support Intelligent Design." This may be true to a lesser extent, but not to the extent suggested by the letter.

Of the eight scientists mentioned by name, four work for the Discovery Institute, a group whose purpose, stated in a once-secret document, is to "replace materialistic explanations with the understanding that nature and human beings are created by God."

Two of the scientists seem rather extreme, and one other takes a moderate position and advocates testing Intelligent Design (ID) before teaching it in schools.

On the subject of peer-reviewed articles, Michael Behe said, during the trial of Kitzmiller vs. Dover, "There are no peer-reviewed articles by anyone advocating for intelligent design supported by pertinent experiments." Behe is one of ID's most important figures.

The letter also mentioned a petition signed by more than 900 scientists. Just for comparison, in 1999 there were about 955,300 biologists in America. Forty percent of the signatories were from foreign scientists and only 25 percent of the scientists listed were biologists. Thus the signatures are of only about 0.01 percent of American biologists.

Two counter-petitions were written. One gained 7,733 signatures in a mere four days. The other, called "Project Steve," gained more than 800 signatures. It was limited only to people with the name Steve or a variation on the name (like Stephen). The fact that a theory is being tested doesn't mean that it is a flawed theory. The problem is if it fails those tests.

It is unscientific to teach so flawed a theory as ID. You should test theories before, and not after, shoving them down the throats of students.

Dylan T. Vrana, Age 12.

Mechanicsville.