Controversy expected at intelligent design debate
By: Eddith Sevilla / Contributing Writer
Issue date: 12/8/05 Section: News
Article Tools: Page 1 of 1http://www.beaconnewspaper.com/ID_controversy
The floor may get heated when an evangelical Christian and an Orthodox Jew debate intelligent design at the Sixth Miami International Conference on Torah and Science, to be held at the Kovens Conference Center at the Biscayne Bay Campus beginning Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. and continuing through Dec. 15.
William A. Dembski, a professor of science and theology at Southern Theological Seminary and considered the most eloquent advocate of intelligent design, along with Orthodox Jewish thinkers including Rabbi Moshe D. Tendler, a noted ethicist and biology professor at Yeshiva University in New York, Herman Branover of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar of The Shul in Surfside and Eduardo Zeigler, professor of biology at UCLA will discuss, “How Should We Teach the Origin and Diversity of Species?”
“This is an important and interesting topic for our culture because it brings theology, science and education together when usually they are not,” said Nathan Katz, professor of religious studies at FIU and one of the event organizers.
“Intelligent design holds that by carefully observing natural phenomena, one can infer an intelligent underlying nature. Intelligent design has been proposed as a way of reconciling the evolution vs. creationism controversy,” Katz said.
However, some of the Orthodox Jewish scientists who will be presenting evidence opposing the evolutionary theory, disagree in terms of including the intelligent design in science courses at Jewish high schools.
Professor Eduardo Zeiger believes that Jews do not need intelligent design and that the public debate on intelligent design needs to be refined.
The idea of having speakers on both sides of the issue may be the perfect ingredient for a heated debate, according to Katz.
“I’m expecting some airing of a controversial topic. The key note speaker is a devoted evangelical Christian and this is the first time, to my knowledge, that this topic is discussed between an evangelical Christian and Orthodox Jews,” Katz said.
Some students, like Frank Gomez, said that intelligent design and religions are two separate spheres.
“Intelligent design, in my opinion, is inclusive of pretty much all religions, meaning that it does not promote the establishment of a religion, which is what the Constitution defines as separation of the church and state,” said Gomez, who is majoring in broadcast journalism. “There are no constitutional or scientific grounds to keep intelligent design out of schools.”
However, the conference is not limited to the debate.
Lectures will be included with topics such as: the way in which Judaic Law would have ruled on the Terry Schiavo case; Kabbalistic writings on the historic progression of the feminine movement from diminishment to full stature; and how evolution should be taught in schools.