Mark Hartwig

Fellow, Center for Science and Culture

Mark Hartwig has a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in statistics and research design. He was an early organizer of the intelligent design movement and for 10 years was managing editor of the journal Origins Research, now published as Origins and Design.

His articles on science and science education have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, The Houston Chronicle, and many other periodicals. He is the former author of The Wedge Update column, and author of The Intelligent Design FAQ. He also co-authored Invitation to Conflict: A Retrospective Look at the California Science Framework, which argued that the California Science Framework, far from being objective science education guidelines, was a polemical document aimed at silencing dissent in the science classroom�and was riddled with errors astonishing for a state with California's intellectual resources.

Mark Hartwig home page

Intelligent Design FAQ

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Evolution: Call A Theory A Theory

Original Article It’s hard to imagine a more innocuous statement than the one the Cobb County, Ga., school board recently ordered pasted into their biology textbooks: “Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.” Yet this disclaimer is the subject of a nationally publicized lawsuit, in which the plaintiff alleges that the wording violates the separation of church and state. So what’s the problem? After all, evolution is indeed a theory. And it seems ironic at best that calling for open-minded, critical thinking would somehow be construed as religious advocacy. Nonetheless, there are many–folks who insist that evolution is a fact,

Was Darwin Right After All?

The headline on the MSNBC Web site proclaimed, “Darwin Vindicated!” In the article that followed, Arthur Caplan, a nationally noted professor of bioethics and molecular and cellular engineering, proclaimed what he thought was the most important finding to emerge from human genome research: “The genome reveals, indisputably and beyond any serious doubt, that Darwin was right — mankind evolved over a long period of time from primitive animal ancestors. … The response to all those who thump their Bible and say there is no proof, no test and no evidence in support of evolution is, ‘The proof is right here, in our genes.’” Of course, Caplan’s was only the latest of several such pronouncements. Last summer, when the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics jointly announced