From Deseret News archives:

'Origins of life' bill moves on to the House

Published: Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006 9:38 a.m. MST
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
A bill regulating classroom discussions on the origins of life won final Senate approval Monday after being amended in an effort to make it clear that teachers weren't being ordered to deal with the controversial topic.

SB96 is on its way to the House after passing the Senate 16-12, with its sponsor, Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, absent due to a medical condition that landed him in the hospital over the weekend.

Buttars is home from the hospital now but not expected to be back at the Legislature for several days, Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said. Valentine declined to provide further details other than that Buttars appeared to be sick late last week.

The amendment to his bill was carried Monday by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who discussed the change with Buttars at the hospital. Bramble said the new language "makes it clear this is not a mandate that public education teach the theory of life."

But if schools do, Bramble said, teachers must explain there are opposing viewpoints. The amendment was passed on a voice vote after only a few questions. The bill was then given final approval without further debate.

Valentine said the bill just codifies existing practices. "I don't think it has changed anything," the Senate leader said. The change made Monday, he said, accurately reflected Buttars' original intent.

Story continues below
The amendment comes after concerns were raised by educators and others that the bill would have opened the door to inappropriate discussions in the classroom by introducing the origin of life into the curriculum.

While Darwin's theory of evolution is key to the high school biology core curriculum, how life originated is not a part of it. Evolution is considered by educators as a generally accepted theory, while there is no agreement on how life began.

The bill may have had little discussion Monday, but there was plenty of debate before it was given preliminary approval last Friday including a number of references to religious beliefs and science.

Although Buttars had talked at one time of forcing schools to teach so-called "intelligent design" as an alternative to the theory of evolution, the bill did not mention the idea that life is too complex to be explained by Darwin's theory alone.


E-mail: lisa@desnews.com

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image

Chris Buttars

previousnext

Latest comments

That game was amazing! I think this will really help the sport grow in Utah....

Real Champions

Congrats on a great win. Utah as a whole should be proud not just of a major...

Congrats Real Salt Lake! but, they aren't the first major sports team to...

RSL regroups, dominates 2nd half

I told ALL of you how much i liked NED Pure irony his contributions vs x...

RSL wins MLS Cup on penalty kicks

this is to NevadaUTE @ 10:25!!! I love soccer, I love Real and it brought a...

Real Champions

wow!!! amazing. UTAH JAZZ DO SOMETHING!!!

Glenn Beck to enter politics?

So much fear and anger from Beck lovers. You all lost the last election, we...

RSL wins MLS Cup on penalty kicks

This is the most emotion I have had watching a sporting event since my...

Nicky Rimando is my hero! I love that guy. He has had his detractors, but...

Real Champions

Two stars means nothing! We played as a team and it showed! I'm still in...

Advertisements