Editor:

In “Public universities should not indoctrinate students” (Feb. 23), Chris Taylor incorrectly implies that it would be overly time-consuming to present the evidence in favor of intelligent design, or I.D., theory in a college-level biology class.

Investigating the question “where we came from” brings us to core scientific, philosophical and religious questions facing humankind. If we claim that a fair presentation of the scientific evidence surrounding “where we came from” would take more time than is possible in a biology class, then education truly is devoted more to indoctrination than to teaching students to be responsible citizens, critical thinkers and good skeptically-minded scientists. This is why, in 2002, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly adopted (91-8) the Santorum Amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act, which stated that “good science education should … help students understand why [biological evolution] generates” controversy.

Much time could be spent learning the budding science of I.D. But an introductory biology course could fairly cover the topic in a single lecture.

Taylor is correct about one thing: I.D. theory is typically given “little to no time in science courses.” For students who want to know what they are missing, I invite them to check out the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (I.D.E.A.) Club here at UCSD. Please see http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/~idea/ for more details on when we meet.

— Casey Luskin

Founder of the I.D.E.A. Club