To the Editor

It would be a mistake to believe that atheists are the only opponents to Intelligent Design. Witness the case at Baylor University, whose mission statement reads: "The mission of Baylor University is to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community" (www.baylor.edu/irt).
      Yet, on April 18, 2000, the Faculty Senate of that institution voted, 27-2, to dissolve the Polanyi Center for Complexity, Information, and Design (see report at http://www3.baylor.edu
/Fac_Senate/4_18_2000.htm).
      The Polanyi Center, created in 1999 under the direction of William Dembski, the foremost advocate of intelligent design, was designed to showcase the supposed scientific merits of intelligent design. Many faculty also complained that the center was established without much faculty input by Baylor President Robert Sloan Jr.
      In October 2000, Dembski basically was fired as director of the center. Dembski recently has accepted a position, not in a regular department of science, but at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky. President Sloan resigned in January, though many other issues besides the debacle with intelligent design have been cited as factors.
      In any case, Baylor faculty stood up when they saw that the integrity of the entire institution would be compromised by legitimizing a movement that cannot distinguish between religious and scientific claims. Many people of faith can indeed make that distinction.

Hector Avalos
associate professor of religious studies
Iowa State University
402 Catt Hall,
Ames