Little-known text plays key role in intelligent design trial

PHILADELPHIA -- When her daughter was preparing for a mock courtroom debate on evolution versus creationism for a biology class, Lisa Bonfanti gave her the book ''Of Pandas and People" to read.

''It's a wonderful book," said Bonfanti, who homeschooled her two children. ''It presents a strong argument for our world having been created in an orderly fashion."

Few people outside the homeschool community had heard of the book until September.

That is when the textbook took center stage at a landmark trial in Harrisburg scrutinizing the teaching of intelligent design at public schools in Dover.

The national publicity has boosted sales, which have jumped from an average of 125 a month to more than 300, said Dean Anderson, a spokesman for the Foundation for Thought and Ethics, a publisher of Christian books in Richardson, Texas.

''It definitely shows quite a significant increase around the country," Anderson said.

''Obviously, controversial news gets people's attention, and this is something that really hits home with a lot of people. There's just no neutrality on this issue. It's very pro or very against. That's what makes sales, isn't it?" he said.

The 170-page book offers an alternative, some say religious-based, theory about the origins of life and presents what it says are gaps and problems with Darwin's theory of evolution. Intelligent design, the book says, holds that ''life was formed according to an intelligent plan by an intelligent designer."

Written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, ''Pandas" was published in 1989 and revised in 1993, eliminating any mention of creationism or creation science after the Supreme Court deemed it illegal to teach in government-funded schools.

For a small, arcane work, the book has succeeded in its struggle to survive.

The $24.95 book has sold 25,000 copies and is about to get a sixth printing of 5,000, according to the publisher. Those figures could not be confirmed by an independent publishing source. The book is sold mostly to homeschoolers through Christian book distributors.

The Dover school board decided in November 2004 to require biology teachers to read a statement on intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, and referred students to ''Of Pandas and People" for more information on the topic -- a first for a public school district.

Eleven parents sued, arguing that the policy was a veiled attempt to teach creationism and was unconstitutional.

Bonfanti, who said she believed in creationism, thought the book was a good resource for her daughter. ''It gave a strong, solid presentation" of intelligent design, she said.

The book contains lots of illustrations, including diagrams, tables, and pictures of fossils, and has headings such as ''Problems with Proteinoid Microspheres" and ''The Skeleton: A Hard Case for Recapitulation."

It is billed as a supplemental high school text to be used alongside other biology books. To some, it is a mix of faith and pseudoscience. Believers say it shows how a supernatural force created the earth -- without saying who or what the supernatural force is.

A new edition of the book, called ''The Design of Life," is in the works. It updates the field, with new material accounting for about two-thirds. It is written for a higher-level audience, primarily college and Advanced Placement high school students.

''A lot has happened in the last 15 years," said William A. Dembski, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., who is writing ''The Design of Life."