Intelligent design bill fails to materialize

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Intelligent design bill fails to materialize

Revised proposal mandates 'accuracy in textbooks'

By Robert King, The Indianapolis Star, January 11, 2006

Last fall, state Rep. Bruce A. Borders, R-Jasonville, said he would introduce a bill this year seeking to make intelligent design a required subject in Indiana's public schools if no other lawmaker did.

On Tuesday, Borders, who considers much of the theory of evolution to be built on false claims, tried to keep his promise but submitted a bill that didn't go nearly as far as he had hoped.

Instead, he offered House Bill 1388, which mandates "accuracy in textbooks" but makes no mention of intelligent design.

His about-face, he said, was the result of a Dec. 20 ruling by a federal judge in Pennsylvania that denounced intelligent design as "relabeled creationism" and a violation of the separation of church and state.

As a result, Borders' bill, offered just before Tuesday's deadline for proposals in this year's General Assembly, may be as close as the legislature will come to approaching intelligent design in this session.

A few months ago, intelligent design seemed destined for a lively debate. Legislators who in the fall talked up intelligent design -- which maintains that an intelligent designer is the best explanation for certain features of the universe and living things -- were instead talking Tuesday more about the need for the "gaps" in evolution to be explored in public schools.

"In the future, I think that is increasingly going to dominate the creationism-evolution landscape," said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, which has been one of the most ardent defenders of evolution.

Branch said legislators in several states have filed bills since the Pennsylvania ruling that put evolution under greater scrutiny in the name of objectivity and balance. He said the same thing happened after the 1987 Supreme Court ruling that deemed the teaching of creationism in public schools to be unconstitutional.

Borders, who calls himself an "unashamed creationist," said both evolution and creation are religious beliefs because they each have unknowns and each require faith. But he said evolution has been "given a free pass" when it comes to scrutiny.

Borders also acknowledged the Pennsylvania ruling forced him to alter his strategy. "I'm pragmatic about it," he said. "You deal with the hand you are given. So this is what I'm doing."

Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, said he is sure the state Board of Education already values accuracy in its textbooks.

"If this is an effort to run evolution out of the science curriculum, it fails to account for the fact that the scientific theory of evolution has been corroborated by hundreds of thousands of independent observations," he said. "No persuasive evidence has been put forth in 150 years to contradict the theory of evolution."

House Speaker Brian C. Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Tuesday that news media reports have exaggerated legislators' interest in intelligent design, which he said was "certainly not on the list of the top 50 things that need to be improved in the state." That lack of support was what kept Rep. Jerry Denbo, D-French Lick, away from the intelligent design issue. Denbo had a bill drafted that would have let intelligent design be taught in schools. But moments before the filing deadline, he decided to keep the draft in his pocket. It simply was an idea with no chance, he said.

"There's no hope."

Bill 1388 Text

"In adopting textbooks for each subject . . . the state board shall not adopt a textbook if the state board knows the textbook contains information, descriptions, conclusions, or pictures that are false."

What Rep. Bruce Borders said about his bill:

"Many of the things that have been used to support macroevolution have been proven to be lies. . . . It will take those out."

What Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, said in response:

"I can't imagine that the state board (of education) needs to be told by the General Assembly not to give false information to our schoolchildren. But if this is an effort to run evolution out of the science curriculum, it fails to take account . . . that the scientific theory of evolution has been corroborated by hundreds of thousands of observations. No persuasive evidence has been put forth . . . to contradict the theory of evolution."

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