Author denies bill lets creationism slip into schools

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 1, 2008 - Page: 4A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The chairman of the Senate education committee is sponsoring a bill to revamp the way science is taught in public schools, including views that challenge biological evolution.

Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa and sponsor of the bill, said Monday that it would be unfair to label his bill as one that would pave the way for the teaching of creationism — the view that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.

“I believe that students should be exposed to both sides of scientific data and allow them to make their own decisions,” Nevers said Monday.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, disagreed.

“This is all about God in biology class,” Lynn said in a telephone interview from his office in Washington, D.C.

Nevers’ bill is called the “Louisiana Academic Freedom Act.”

It says that:

• Educational authorities in Louisiana should “assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies.”
• Biological evolution, global warming and other topics “can cause controversy” in public school classrooms and may confuse teachers on how they should be taught.
• Teachers and others should encourage students to tackle different views on such topics, including scientific strengths and weaknesses of each theory.

Professors of anthropology and others have told state officials in the past that biological evolution is widely accepted and that any attempt to downplay it would make the state look silly.

Critics have argued that high school biology textbooks are riddled with errors, tell a one-sided story of creation and that students should be exposed to what they call holes in the theory of evolution.

Nevers said his bill should not be considered a creationism measure because it would pave the way for theories that also challenge opinions on global warming, human cloning and other topics.

“I think the bill perfectly explains that it deals with any scientific subject matter which is taught in our public school system,” he said. The bill says it should not be construed to promote any religious doctrine.

Nevers said he was asked to sponsor the bill by the Louisiana Family Forum, which describes itself as a group that promotes traditional family values.

Gene Mills, executive director of the group, said a bill is needed that makes it easier for teachers to delve into criticism of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Darwin wrote that life forms have changed over time by mutations, with the pressure of natural selection determining which changes succeed and which species survive or die out. Scientists accept evolution as the basis of modern biology but have modified Darwin’s original ideas as new information about genes and other factors that affect evolution has been discovered.