Intelligent Design network, inc. P.O. Box 14702, Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66285-4702 (913) 268-0852; (913)-268-0852 (fax); IDnet@att.net www.IntelligentDesignnetwork.org

Good morning. My name is Jody Sjogren. I have a degree in Zoology and a Master's degree in Medical Illustration, and I have spent the last 20 years creating artwork for science, medicine, and aviation.

I became interested in the question of origins as I studied the complexities of living systems and the machines of men. We know how machines are designed, but how did life originate? Are the Darwinian
mechanisms of chance, genetic mutations, and natural selection sufficient to produce life? Or is a more potent organizational force required to account for the complex, information-intensive processes
found in living systems?

I had hoped to see these questions seriously addressed in the Science Standards (KSES Fifth Working Draft), but the current document allows only materialistic naturalism as a theory of origins. In my experience, the analogies between machines and living systems provide such a
compelling case for intelligent design that we can't ignore the evidence.

For example, my artwork here shows a symbolic relationship between the F-15 fighter jet and a bald eagle. There is no question that the F-15 was designed. To suggest that an infinitely more complex living system like the bald eagle was not designed, but was the product of undirected random processes, is to suggest that those processes had more sophisticated design capabilities than did the engineers at McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft Corporation.

If we theorize that random material processes and natural law alone are responsible for the appearance of life, then we have to demonstrate that chance combined with natural selection is a creative force, not just a force capable of selecting for the fittest members of an existing
population. In addition, we must show that there are reasonable statistical probabilities for complexity-building processes occurring by undirected natural mechanisms. In fact this has not been adequately demonstrated by current theories.

Our challenge is to find a first cause with sufficient power to produce an enormous first effect - the beginning of life. The ultimate answers are still unknown, but I suggest that the Kansas Science Standards will fall short of truth if some consideration is not given to intelligent
design.

Thank you.

Jody F. Sjogren