To the editor,

A reader recently suggested (Public Forum, Dec. 10) that the Kansas Board of Education has “raised the standards of scientific teaching to a wonderfully acceptable level” by changing the definition of science. In the old definition science seeks “natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us.” The new definition says we use observation, experimentation, etc. to develop “more adequate explanations of natural phenomena.”

Why is this new definition a step backward? In the old definition, science seeks natural explanations. In the new definition, “adequate” explanations, including supernatural forces, are acceptable. This does not work. Science cannot study supernatural mechanisms. Science has no method to tell us anything about the supernatural, because it is literally “beyond nature.”

When I teach scientific research methodology, we start the semester with “ways of knowing.” Science is one and faith is another. The former tells us about the physical world we can observe, test and measure, and the latter informs us about what we cannot. We should leave to science what belongs to science, and leave to faith everything else.

Paul Atchley,

Lawrence