Honig Seeks to Bar ‘Creationist’ Master’s of Science Degrees

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig has moved to prohibit the Institute for Creation Research from granting master’s degrees in science, saying the teachings of the school are religious and not scientific.

“Everyone agrees creationism is not science,” Honig said. “The (U.S.) Supreme Court said two years ago it’s not science, so if you want to call it creationism, fine, but you can’t call it a degree in physics or geology. It’s not science, it’s religion.”

Under Honig’s decision, the institute is allowed to grant master’s degrees to current students but cannot enroll new students in science master’s programs.

Honig based his decision on the findings of a five-person committee that reviewed the school several months ago.

School officials contend that the committee initially ruled in their favor, 3 to 2, but that Honig persuaded one of the members to change his vote.

“We consider this to be a serious blow to academic freedom and also to good science,” said Mark Looy, a spokesman for the institute, which was founded in 1972 and opened its graduate school in a 21,000-square-foot building in Santee, a city northeast of San Diego, in 1981. “We do have the right of appeal, and we will exhaust those appeals.”

Called Politically Motivated

Kenneth Cumming, dean of the graduate school, which averages 22 students a year, said Honig’s decision was politically motivated and that the institute will file a lawsuit if its appeals are denied by a Department of Education committee. The superintendent may overrule the appeal committee’s decision.

“We were reviewed by this committee in August,” Cumming said, “and for some unknownreason Honig still hasn’t notified us of his decision, which he was obligated to do within 90 days. We had to hear from a (newspaper) reporter that one person reversed his vote after Honig persuaded him to do so. We don’t feel that that’s very just.”

Honig said he had talked to each committee member, including the person who changed his vote, Dr. Robert Kovach, a geophysicist at Stanford University.

Kovach was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Asked about Kovach’s changing of his vote, Honig said: “I had back-and-forth discussions with several committee members. I called the fellow at Stanford and said, ‘The issue seems to be, is it science or is it not?’ ”

Honig said Kovach agreed that the institute was not teaching science.

The Institute for Creation Research was the brainchild of Henry Morris, a leader in the creationist movement.

Biblical Teachings

The Fundamentalist Christian school offers master’s degrees in biology, geology, astro-geophysics and science education. One of its teachings is the biblical, anti-evolutionary idea that the Earth is 6,000 years old and not 4.5 billion years old, as evolutionists believe.

“Mr. Honig is trying to push through a statement that evolution is fact, and it simply isn’t,” Cumming said.