Utah has torpedoed a bill sponsored by Republican Chris Buttars requiring schools to tell studens that “evolution is not a fact” and that “the state does not endorse evolution”. THe first part of the bill is yet another misunderstanding of the term evolution (which describes both observed facts and tested explanations of those facts – much like the term gravity). The second part of the bill makes it sound like the state’s official policy is that they reject biology – a rather bizarre solution for a state to take if the state presumably plans to then teach its students biology. Can you imagine being a biology teacher that has to read a statement saying that the state rejects biology, then ask students to open their biology textbooks to study?
I think the best point made in the article linked above was made by Republican representative Scott Wyatt:
“I would leave you with two questions,” Wyatt said. “If we decide to weigh in on this part, are we going to begin weighing in on all the others and are we the correct body to do that?”
It’s refreshing to see a few conservatives describing the antievolution crusade as it is – an assault on all science. That’s why I care about the issue, and it’s why I would continue to care about the issue even if my wife weren’t a biology teacher. Where would it end? There are people out there who, often on religious grounds, deny the findings of almost every modern science. Astronomy, chemistry, physics, geology, biology, psychology, anthropology – none are immune. I found, to my disappointment, that even something so basic to science as atomic theory is declared false on religious grounds by some.
Senator Buttars, though, is undeterred by his defeat.
“I don’t believe that anybody in there really wants their kids to be taught that their great-grandfather was an ape.”
… so it looks like there is still more work to do.