While candidates for the 4th District Kansas State Board of Education seat shared common ground Thursday, they diverged on at least one issue: the role of “intelligent design” in public education.

Before a crowd of nearly 40 at Lawrence High School, incumbent Bill Wagnon, a Washburn University professor, and challenger Robert Meissner, a Topeka dentist, debated several state education issues, the majority of which they agreed upon.

But Wagnon stated unequivocally that intelligent design — an alternative theory to evolution advocated primarily by Christian groups — did not belong in science curricula, while Meissner said he wanted to keep an open mind about the issue.

Proponents of intelligent design believe that science can provide evidence that Earth’s biological complexity could not have come to exist without the intervention of a higher being. Critics of the theory say that intelligent design is a thinly disguised form of creationism.

“We have to have credible science standards that reflect what is commonly understood by professional scientists in the United States,” Wagnon said. “Intelligent design, I am persuaded, is not science. It is religiously motivated. And in that sense, it does not belong in a science classroom.”

Wagnon contended that the tenants of intelligent design could still be taught in public schools, but only if they were presented in the context of the study of religion, not science.

Meissner said he would not rule out including intelligent design in science classrooms.

“I believe evolution is a scientifically credible theory that needs to be taught in its entirety in our schools,” he said. “But I also believe there has to be the openness, the willingness, to evaluate the inclusion of other scientifically credible theories.”

Meissner said after the debate that he had not decided whether he thought intelligent design was a credible scientific theory.

6News video: 4th District candidates debate evolution in schools

“To be honest, I haven’t studied it that closely,” he said. “I’m open to giving it careful consideration, but I’m totally unbiased at this point.”

Wagnon, who has taught history at Washburn since 1968, has served on the state board for eight years.

Meissner recently completed 12 years on the Shawnee Heights school board, during which time he served on the negotiating committee.