Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center
Encyclopedia
The Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center is a Christian
nonprofit organization formed originally as a student club promoting intelligent design
at the University of California, San Diego
(UCSD). There are about 25 active chapters of this organization in the United States, Kenya, Canada, Ukraine, and The Philippines. There have been a total of 35 active chapters formed and several others are currently pending. Six out of the listed 32 chapters in the USA are located at high schools In December 2008, biologist Allen MacNeill stated, on the basis of analysis of the webpages of the national organization and local chapters, that it appeared that the organization is moribund.
Phillip E. Johnson
lectured at UCSD. It described its goal as:
It describes its goal as:
The IDEA Center is run by a board of directors and an advisory board. The advisory board consists of the leaders of the intelligent design movement
, William A. Dembski
, Michael Behe
, Phillip E. Johnson
, Jay Richards
and Mark Hartwig, and provides guidance and support to the board of directors. The IDEA Center board of directors has an unusual concentration of members from the same families serving; of the three founders, two have family members serving as directors, Eddie Colanter and Brit Colanter, and Steve Renner and Lynette Renner. In addition, Ryan Huxley and Stephen Huxley are board members as well. The majority of the advisory board are Fellows of the Discovery Institute
, the driving force behind the intelligent design movement, or affiliated with the institute in some way. The Institute has been the primary source of support to the IDEA Center for its entire history. IDEA Center co-founder Casey Luskin after graduating from law school went on to a staff position at the Discovery Institute contributing to its blog, EvolutionNews.org.
in Selman v. Cobb County School District
, the IDEA Center published a "Darwinist Disclaimer" on its website in several file formats suitable for printing.
The center through most of its existence maintained a requirement that those founding new IDEA Clubs or running existing clubs, so-called "club leaders", be Christian
. The reasoning was given as "the IDEA Center Leadership believes, for religious reasons unrelated to intelligent design theory, that the identity of the designer is the God of the Bible." By January 2006 the requirement had been dropped and replaced by a requirement that club leaders accept the IDEA Center's mission statement which stated "we consider it reasonable to conclude that the designer may be identified as the God of the Bible." As of June 2007 that mission statement had been removed, replaced by a message stating "The IDEA Center Mission Statement is Currently Under Construction pending Board Approval after some recent changes to IDEA Center policies. The mission statement will be re-posted when finalized." As of March 2008, the statement includes both the statements "we consider it reasonable to conclude that the designer may be identified as the God of the Bible" and "IDEA Center Leadership believes that the identity of the designer is the God of the Bible"
As of May 2008, the press/media contact lists a San Diego State University email address as its sole contact. The email address denotes assignation to an employee of SDSU, a publicly funded university, which does not have a chapter at its school.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
nonprofit organization formed originally as a student club promoting intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
at the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
(UCSD). There are about 25 active chapters of this organization in the United States, Kenya, Canada, Ukraine, and The Philippines. There have been a total of 35 active chapters formed and several others are currently pending. Six out of the listed 32 chapters in the USA are located at high schools In December 2008, biologist Allen MacNeill stated, on the basis of analysis of the webpages of the national organization and local chapters, that it appeared that the organization is moribund.
History
IDEA was first formed in May 1999 by Steve Renner, Eddie Colanter, and Casey Luskin after the "father" of the intelligent design movementIntelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...
lectured at UCSD. It described its goal as:
IDEA Center
The IDEA Center was an outgrowth of the UCSD IDEA club formed by UCSD IDEA Club members and co-founders Steve Renner, Eddie Colanter, and Casey Luskin in the summer of 2001, as part of an effort to start IDEA Clubs on other campuses, including high schools.It describes its goal as:
The IDEA Center is run by a board of directors and an advisory board. The advisory board consists of the leaders of the intelligent design movement
Intelligent design movement
The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the idea of "intelligent design," which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are...
, William A. Dembski
William A. Dembski
William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...
, Michael Behe
Michael Behe
Michael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
, Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson
Phillip E. Johnson is a retired UC Berkeley law professor and author. He became a born-again Christian while a tenured professor and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement...
, Jay Richards
Jay Richards
Jay Wesley Richards is an American analytic philosopher and advocate of Intelligent Design. He is the Director of Acton Media and a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute, and Program Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture , which has as its primary role the advocacy...
and Mark Hartwig, and provides guidance and support to the board of directors. The IDEA Center board of directors has an unusual concentration of members from the same families serving; of the three founders, two have family members serving as directors, Eddie Colanter and Brit Colanter, and Steve Renner and Lynette Renner. In addition, Ryan Huxley and Stephen Huxley are board members as well. The majority of the advisory board are Fellows of the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
, the driving force behind the intelligent design movement, or affiliated with the institute in some way. The Institute has been the primary source of support to the IDEA Center for its entire history. IDEA Center co-founder Casey Luskin after graduating from law school went on to a staff position at the Discovery Institute contributing to its blog, EvolutionNews.org.
Activities
In 2004, in response to the rejections of the scientific community and educators to the inclusion of disclaimers discounting evolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
in Selman v. Cobb County School District
Selman v. Cobb County School District
Selman v. Cobb County School District, 449 F.3d 1320 , was a 2006 American court case in Cobb County, Georgia involving a sticker placed in biology textbooks...
, the IDEA Center published a "Darwinist Disclaimer" on its website in several file formats suitable for printing.
The center through most of its existence maintained a requirement that those founding new IDEA Clubs or running existing clubs, so-called "club leaders", be Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
. The reasoning was given as "the IDEA Center Leadership believes, for religious reasons unrelated to intelligent design theory, that the identity of the designer is the God of the Bible." By January 2006 the requirement had been dropped and replaced by a requirement that club leaders accept the IDEA Center's mission statement which stated "we consider it reasonable to conclude that the designer may be identified as the God of the Bible." As of June 2007 that mission statement had been removed, replaced by a message stating "The IDEA Center Mission Statement is Currently Under Construction pending Board Approval after some recent changes to IDEA Center policies. The mission statement will be re-posted when finalized." As of March 2008, the statement includes both the statements "we consider it reasonable to conclude that the designer may be identified as the God of the Bible" and "IDEA Center Leadership believes that the identity of the designer is the God of the Bible"
As of May 2008, the press/media contact lists a San Diego State University email address as its sole contact. The email address denotes assignation to an employee of SDSU, a publicly funded university, which does not have a chapter at its school.