Over the next several days, the Journal will endorse candidates for various local and state offices, plus president of the United States.

Endorsements are a longstanding newspaper tradition. We welcome responses, and, of course, urge voters to state their preferences with their ballots.

Kathy Martin will be tough to beat in this election. She has held the 6th District seat on the Kansas State Board of Education since 2004, when she defeated fellow Republican Bruce Wyatt in the primary and went on to an easy victory in the general election.

This year might echo history. She beat a solid challenger in this year's primary race and faces Democrat Christopher Renner in the general election.

Renner, Manhattan, is unknown politically. He has no experience on the state board and none in politics. Nonetheless, he is our preference in this race because of his belief that faith-based theories on evolution do not belong in public school science classrooms.

Martin is a good person. She is sincere in her conservative beliefs, and we respect that. However, she is one of the state school board members who rejected science standards developed by scientists and educators, and replaced them with standards developed by an organization that supports teaching intelligent design, which holds that the natural universe is the product of a supreme being.

Common companions to intelligent design theory are beliefs that the earth is about 15,000 years old, the fossil record is distorted by the mainstream science community, and that teaching evidence-based evolution theory undermines Christian teachings and moral values.

Most mainstream Christian religions hold that science-based theories of evolution are not in conflict with Biblical teachings or the theory of intelligent design. We agree.

Faith-based theories are fine for classes on religions or social studies, and we support those inclusions in school curriculums. But science is science, in the same way math is math. One wouldn't use faith to explain answers to mathematical theories. Similarly, one shouldn't use faith-based theories to explain questions in the natural universe that must be answered with research.

Renner holds this same basic belief in public education, and will work to prevent faith-based theories from becoming part of public school science standards. We encourage his support in this general election.

-- Tom Bell

Editor & Publisher

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