The Question: “Where does life come from?” This is the most important question asked in origins science. There are essentially only two answers:

• Life and its diversity were designed or
• Life and its diversity simply occurs by natural law and chance and not by design.

The Problem: Science standards use a little known “Rule” to censor the evidence of design. The Rule, which is usually unstated,  is often referred to as “methodological naturalism.” It declares design inferences invalid by definition and not by any objective evaluation of the evidence. It assumes the naturalistic hypothesis prior to examination of the facts. Although advocates of the “Rule” claim it is needed to maintain scientific objectivity, its use in origins science does just the opposite. Instead of promoting an objective search for the truth, it abandons an objective approach and censors any evidence that does not support the predetermined conclusion.

This censorship violates the rights of teachers, students and parents to have science education conducted without discrimination against various viewpoints relevant to the subject matter being taught.

The Solution of the Problem

TEACH BIOLOGICAL ORIGINS OBJECTIVELY.
Use the "teach the controversy" approach: present evidence for and against biological evolution (the theory of common descent), and permit (but not require) teachers to discuss alternative theories.

The Mission: To promote objective, evidence-based origins science.

Why the concern now? In the new Ohio Science Standards, most of the material on biological origins is at the 10th grade level. This means the subject will be covered on the new Ohio Graduation Test. That is, students must learn and be tested on the theory of evolution. If they fail this test, they can not graduate from any public or chartered-private high school in the State of Ohio. Fortunately the new Standards substantially incorporate the teach-the-controversy approach, so students will learn to “critically analyze” evolutionary theory. That is, they will learn about evidence that supports, as well as evidence that does not support, biological evolution (the theory of common descent).