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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The bill to require teachers tell students that evolution is not the only way to explain the origins of species has advanced to the full house on a 7-6 vote by the House Education Committee.
SB96 was the creation of Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who remains hospitalized for an undisclosed illness and was not present for Wednesday's committee vote.
The measure is being carried by Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, who changed the bill to remove wording that implied more than one scientific theory on the origin of species existed.
He told the committee that evolution is the only scientific explanation, but that scientists have a variety of opinions under the umbrella term "evolution."
He said he has concerns that teachers are offering evolution as a fact, when, he said, it hasn't been "indisputably proven."
Much of the debate over SB96 in the Senate focused on religion, atheism and intelligent design, which is the idea that nature is too complicated to have formed without the help of a supernatural designer.
But Ferrin downplayed religion.
"Religious beliefs are simply not germane to this discussion," he told the committee.
Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley City, who voted against the bill, said that if the intent "was purely based upon a desire for scientific principles, then why did they pick origins of life and origins of species and nothing else in the huge array of science?"
House Majority Whip Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George, also voted against the bill, along with the four Democrats on the committee.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
