Dr. Dean H. Kenyon

 

A popular atheist mind, Dr. Dean H. Kenyon received his BSc in physics from the University of Chicago in 1961 and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Stanford University in 1965. In 1965-1966 he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemical Biodynamics at the University of California, Berkeley, a Research Associate at Ames Research Center. In 1966 he became Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University until 1969.

In 1969 as a devout atheist, Kenyon and coauthor Gary Steinman published Biochemical Predestination, a book on the origins of life advocating a theory of natural chemical evolution. Kenyon was promoted to Associate Professor at SFSU from 1969 to 1974. In 1974 he was a Visiting Scholar to Trinity College, Oxford.

Kenyon's views changed around 1976 after exposure to the work of many young-earth creationists. In his own words,

"...in 1976, a student gave me a book by A.E. Wilder-Smith, The Creation of Life: A Cybernetic Approach to Evolution. Many pages of that book deal with arguments against Biochemical Predestination, and I found myself hard-pressed to come up with a counter-rebuttal. Eventually, several other books and articles by neo-creationists came to my attention."

Kenyon became very profound in his understanding of the arguments for and against creationism and began to lecture in the subject amid great resistence. In 1980, the San Francisco State University Department of Biology had a dispute over Kenyon's presentation of creationism, then called "scientific creationism" in Biology module 337 Evolution. At that time, Kenyon challenged anyone on the faculty to a debate on the merits of evolutionary theory versus "scientific creationism." According to SFSU biology professor John Hafernik, "There was much discussion in faculty meetings as well. Eventually the faculty voted (none opposed, seven abstentions) not to alter the description of Biology 337 to include creationism. The precedent set, in the context of the 1980 discussions, was that the Department did not support teaching creationism."

 

Expert witness in Edwards v. Aguillard

Following the McLean ruling, which declared the teaching of "creation science" in public schools to be an unconstitutional establishment of religion, Louisiana's version of the "Equal Time" legislation was put to the test. This time, Wendell Bird was deputized by the state and ran the state's defense of the law. Dean Kenyon was advertised as the creationists' lead expert witness, however the case (which eventually became Edwards v. Aguillard when it reached the Supreme Court) was decided by summary judgment, and so never went to a full trial. Nevertheless, in written briefs and in his oral arguments, Bird relied heavily on an expert witness affidavit written by Kenyon. This affidavit is online at the TalkOrigins website. It was entered into evidence in the Kitzmiller case as evidence that Kenyon was explicitly defending "creation science" -- and advocating that it be given equal time in public schools and textbooks as the "only" alternative to evolution -- while at the same time working on a public school textbook, which eventually became the first "intelligent design" book, Of Pandas and People.

 

 

 

 

Edwards and Pandas

In 1987 in Edwards v. Aguillard the Supreme Court heard a case concerning a Louisiana Law that required "creation science" be taught on an equal basis with evolution in public schools. Anti-creationists argued that this was illegal on the basis that it violated the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. Kenyon issued an affidavit in that case, stating his support for creationism, and defining it thus:

Creation-science means origin through abrupt appearance in complex form, and includes biological creation, biochemical creation (or chemical creation), and cosmic creation. (...) Creation-science does not include as essential parts the concepts of catastrophism, a world-wide flood, a recent inception of the earth or life, from nothingness (ex nihilo), the concept of kinds, or any concepts from Genesis or other religious texts.

The Supreme Court did find that the law violated the establishment clause and the teaching of creationism in America's public schools was henceforth declared illegal. However, it also noted that

Teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction.

Around the same time, Kenyon was co-authoring with Percival Davis a creationist

school textbook entitled Of Pandas and People. After the Edwards decision, all references to "creationism" were replaced with "intelligent design" (and in one case a reference to "creationists" was replaced by "cdesign proponentsists"). This is seen within the history of creationism as the start of the intelligent design creationism movement.

 

Continued controversy

In October 1992, Kenyon was censured by his SFSU departmental colleagues for allegedly teaching religion in his introductory biology course. Kenyon was eventually reinstated, and he claimed his colleagues' objections rest on a naive, positivist view of what constitutes legitimate science.

Kenyon co-authored a paper, "The RNA World: A Critique," which appears in the Winter 1996 issue of Origins and Design, a journal where he is on the Editorial Advisory Board.

Kenyon is listed as an author of the forthcoming textbook The Design of Life, a retitled edition of Of Pandas and People. Kenyon is a Fellow of the Discovery Institute, the driving force behind the intelligent design movement.

 

 

 

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