Eagle is forum for Buttars

TAYLORSVILLE — Sen. Chris Buttars has an idea what an "outraged" scientific community will say about his "Origins of Life" bill after the start of the 2006 Legislature on Monday.

"How dare you dumb people challenge us scientists," Buttars said at an annual Eagle Forum convention Saturday at Salt Lake Community College.

He also appealed to the approximately 150 people at the convention to support an upcoming bill to ban gay-straight clubs in public schools, listing among his enemies: atheists, evolutionists and gays.

If they are a measure of how well he is doing as a senator, Buttars added, "I'm doing pretty good."

On Friday, the Utah Senate received his "Origins of Life" bill, which stresses that not all scientists agree on only one theory about the origins of life or the origins of the present state of the human race.

Teaching evolution while leaving out creationism "hurts young people," Buttars said.

In an attempt to rally support for SB96 from the Eagle Forum, Buttars shared an anecdote about a mother who said her two daughters were told by a teacher that they evolved from animals.

"It totally destroyed their faith," Buttars said.

He accused scientists of overstepping the truth by putting forward evolution as the only explanation for how humans came to exist as they do today.

The current wording of SB96 makes no mention of the word evolution — it requires that no origin of life discussions in the classroom endorse a particular theory and that talks consider opposing viewpoints.

State education officials have said Buttars' legislation will open the door to the teaching of intelligent design, which a federal judge has already ruled unconstitutional. State curriculum director Brett Moulding recently noted that students are already allowed time out of class to seek religious instruction.

Buttars, who spent three days this past week in the hospital for a blood infection, was not ready to reveal the language in his bill aimed at banning gay clubs in public schools. But he said afterward that two constitutional lawyers say it will pass muster in the courts.

Buttars was open about why he wants to run the bill, which he said he'll introduce after his "Origins of Life" bill has had a chance to gain momentum in the 2006 Legislature.

"This gay issue is everywhere — they're getting into everything," he said.

Buttars accused gays of changing the landscape of morality in America.