Senate gives initial OK to 'origins' bill

After a debate laced with references to faith, the Senate on Friday gave its initial blessing to a bill regulating classroom discussions on the origins of life.

The Senate provisionally passed SB96, sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, 17-12. The bill must be heard one more time, but votes are not expected to change, said Senate Majority Leader Peter C. Knudson, R-Brigham City.

Buttars slightly amended the bill on the Senate floor, injecting the word "scientific" into two sentences of the bill. So now, students are to critically analyze theories regarding the origins of life or current state of the human race, and consider opposing "scientific" viewpoints, and learn that not all scientists agree on which "scientific" theory is correct.

The State Board of Education is directed to establish curriculum requirements consistent with that language.

The changes, Buttars said, should satisfy the Utah Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and other opponents that his motives are not religious in nature.

"My bill from the get-go never included anything about intelligent design, creationism or any faith-based philosophy. When the bill came out, everybody ignored that," he said.

"All it's asking is when you get done teaching your evolution, is (say) there is no consensus, and there are other theories. . . . We're trying to protect our kids," Buttars said. "That professor they brought in from the BYU talking about (how) we evolved from chimpanzees, he don't know that."

But the ACLU isn't satisfied the bill would pass constitutional muster.

In a letter sent earlier this week, the ACLU noted the bill's language is similar to disclaimer stickers in Cobb County (Ga.) School District textbooks, which a court ruled "contains an implicit religious message . . . which is discernible after one considers the historical context of the statement that evolution is a theory but not a fact," states the letter signed by legal director Margaret Plane.

"I still think anyone could look at it and raise question about its constitutionality," Plane said after the debate. "It comes back to the question, what does this bill do?"

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, believes the bill codifies current practice in public schools.

The origin of life is not addressed in the state's core curriculum.

But Darwin's theory of evolution is central to the high school biology core curriculum. Buttars has taken issue with that, saying the idea humans evolved from a lower species is not a proven fact. Friday, he noted a woman told him when her children were told "we evolved from a lower kind in school . . . it totally blew up their faith."