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President Bush believes teachers should explain "intelligent design" right after discussing evolution, but Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. thinks otherwise.
"It is a science class," he stressed Thursday. "Our schools are largely secular institutions.
"I would expect my kids in science class to be instructed in those things that are somewhat quantifiable and based on thorough and rigorous empirical research," said the father of six.
Huntsman, a Republican, said he would be fine if intelligent design were one of many creation theories discussed in a sociology or psychology class. "But that doesn't happen until college, or the later years of high school," he said.
His views apparently are similar to those of state Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who earlier this summer threatened legislation to force intelligent design into the classroom.
The state school board is creating a position paper on intelligent design. Buttars wants the board to promise to teach evolution "as an unsubstantiated theory."
If the board refuses, Buttars says he would request that intelligent design be taught in some sort of "humanities" class.
Utah's curriculum director, Brett Moulding, says the Board of Education has no plans to change its science requirements, which includes a section on evolution. But it is up to teachers to discuss human evolution.
Intelligent design is an alternative explanation to evolution. It suggests a designer, be that God or some other higher form of intelligence, is responsible for creating such a complex natural world. States throughout the union are debating adding intelligent design into biology classes and recently Bush stated his support for teaching the new concept along with the long controversial, but more scientifically accepted, theory of evolution.
Evolution vs. intelligent design
l Defenders of current evolution-based science curricula say the increasing clout of religious voters is behind a new movement to push creationism or intelligent design into the classroom. Critics of the status quo say current science curricula are biased and they point to a national movement to restore moral values in public institutions.
l Lawmakers in a growing number of states (at least nine at last count) have been looking at legislation related to teaching evolution in public schools.
l A third of Americans believe that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is a well-supported scientific theory. And a third of Americans consider themselves biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word, according to a 2004 Gallup Poll.
- Source: The National Conference of State Legislatures