In October 2004, the school board in the small town of Dover, Pennsylvania, ordered its high school biology teachers to preface classes on evolution with the statement: “Darwin’s Theory is a theory not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence.” As an alternative to evolution, the school board suggested “intelligent design,” a theory holding that life on earth could not have developed at random. Are there gaps in the theory of evolution that undermine its credibility? What should we make of “intelligent design”? And just what should we be teaching our children about the development of life on earth? Peter Robinson speaks with Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Wells.

Guests:

• Massimo Pigliucci Professor of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook

• Jonathan Wells Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture, Discovery Institute

Streaming video:

• RealPlayer 56K–300K
• Windows Media Player 56K–300K
• Use Flashget to download the video file from here: mms://vodwins.stanford.edu/hoover/900/24.wmv

Audio:

• mp3

Full transcript is here: http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2933961.html

Other links:

http://theblackkettle.blogspot.com/2005/04/pbs-debate-between-pigliucci-and-wells.html

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=3&search=wells+debate

http://www.idthefuture.com/