Dr. Robert Lattimer

Hudson chemist Robert Lattimer, a member of the team that is writing Ohio's science standards, attended the conference last summer before he began his crusade to include alternatives to evolution in the curriculum.

Hudson chemist Robert Lattimer, a member of the team that is writing Ohio's science standards, attended the conference last summer before he began his crusade to include alternatives to evolution in the curriculum.Several Ohio Board of Education members have said they favor allowing teachers to teach intelligent design.The board will vote on the standards by December.

Dr. Robert Lattimer, a senior research chemist for the Cleveland firm Noveon, Inc., was on the Ohio Board of Education's writing committee that drafted the new wording for state science curriculum.

He said he was the only one of eight members on the high school subcommittee that wanted to include teaching the controversy over biological origins and to include the concept of intelligent design.

"That's me.I was the one," Dr. Lattimer said."It was a very cordial group but it was very frustrating at times."

The issue, he said, is a matter of science and not religion.The distinction is critical because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that creationism is a biblically based belief and cannot be taught in public schools.

Creationism teaches that life on Earth was created by God as described in the biblical book of Genesis.

Intelligent design, on the other hand, asserts that living cells and life systems are too complex to have developed randomly and that an unspecified designer must have been responsible.The ID theory, Dr. Lattimer said, does not seek to identify the designer - which could be God, space aliens, an inherent feature of nature, or some other entity.

"Intelligent design looks for intelligent cause in natural phenomena," he said, adding that the principle of design detection is used in many branches of science.
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Dr. Lattimer acknowledged that "there is only a small number of scientists who oppose evolution, but that's because many have not studied it.
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Dr. Lattimer said neither evolution nor intelligent design can be proved."They are both theories about what happened in the distant past and cannot be verified by scientific methods.They are both theories," he said.

The textbook, recommended for advanced placement history courses, came under attack by Robert Lattimer, director of the Hudson chapter of Citizens for Excellence in Education, a conservative religious group, for "focussing too much on how various minorities have been victimized."Lattimer claimed that "many caucasians were treated poorly in their history, but you don't read much of that in the book."

Robert Lattimer, a member of the team chosen to write Ohio's science standards and an ardent supporter of intelligent design, agreed that the evolution-only forces appear intent on stifling all debate on the issue.

"If the evidence is so strong for evolution, then why are they afraid if students debate it?"Lattimer said.
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I am very familiar with intelligent design and it just is not in there," said Robert Lattimer, an intelligent design proponent and a scientist who was on the standards writing team from two years ago.
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"I wish intelligent design were in the lesson -- then there would be something to complain about," said Robert Lattimer, a Hudson chemist and outspoken intelligent design supporter.
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"The best way to handle disagreements in the classroom is to teach both sides of the issue," said Robert Lattimer, a chemist at Noveon Inc. who helped write the 2002 science standards.
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"The best way to handle disagreements in the classroom is to teach both sides of the issue," said Robert Lattimer, a chemist at Noveon Inc. who helped write the 2002 science standards.
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"This memo business is much ado about nothing," said Bob Lattimer, a chemist and prominent Ohio intelligent design proponent.
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Robert Lattimer, Hudson, Ohio

"I wish intelligent design were in the lesson - then there would be something to complain about," said Robert Lattimer, a Hudson chemist and outspoken intelligent design supporter.

"The best way to handle disagreements in the classroom is to teach both sides of the issue," said Robert Lattimer, a chemist at Noveon Inc. who helped write the 2002 science standards.