March 21, 2002

Sen. Kennedy Says Intelligent Design Not Science

In response to Senator Rick Santorum's March 14 op-ed piece in the Washington Times, which implied that Senator Edward Kennedy approved of teaching "intelligent design" in public school science classes, Kennedy explained in a March 21, 2002, letter to the Times that he does not; "intelligent design," he said, "is not a genuine scientific theory." The complete text of his letter:

The March 14 Commentary piece, "Illiberal education in Ohio schools," written by my colleague Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, erroneously suggested that I support the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to biological evolution. That simply is not true. Rather, I believe that public school science classes should focus on teaching students how to understand and critically analyze genuine scientific theories. Unlike biological evolution, "intelligent design" is not a genuine scientific theory and, therefore, has no place in the curriculum of our nation's public school science classes.