Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

Utah Senators receive gifts on their desks all the times from lobbyists. Today they discovered gifts of “Evolution Ale”, a locally brewed beer (empty due to state law), on their desks — poking fun at a bill proposed by Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, that would direct school science curricula to “stress that not all scientists agree on which theory is correct” when it comes to the origins of man. Buttars was quoted as saying he thought the gesture was “funny”.

The bill that would require state science classes to teach that there are alternative theories to evolution, which Utah Representative Chris Buttars has introduced to session this year, has been endorsed by the Utah Education Committee.

The bill now is up for vote in the state Senate. The bill would dictate to teachers that they state there is no agreement on the origin of life or how man became as he is today. Buttars refutes the claim that this is a religious based bill/mandate.

But the State School Board disagrees, said Brett Moulding, the Utah State Office of Education’s director of curriculum. Last week, the board voted to oppose Buttars’ bill and drafted a position that “the theory of evolution is a major unifying concept in science.’

Even science professors at Brigham Young University advice against passage of such a bill.