MIAMI, May 5 (UPI) -- Eighty years after the "Monkey Trial" over evolution, the debate over teaching creationism in schools rages on with a hearing in Kansas, criticism of elective classes in Texas and concern just about everywhere.
The Kansas hearing that began in Topeka Thursday is getting all the headlines, but the issue is national and is not expected to go away -- ever.
The Kansas hearing is being held by the state Board of Education and will run through Saturday and then resume next Thursday.
Three members of the board, all of whom have doubts about parts of evolution theory, will hear testimony from witnesses on both sides although some science groups are boycotting the meeting.
The committee will report to the full education board, which is expected to approve new science standards next month.
The American Association of the Advancement of Science has called the hearings an attack on science and an effort to discredit it.
Other states also have disputes over the validity of evolution vs. creationism or "intelligent design."
In Texas, the Legislature is considering a bill that would give the conservative Board of Education more say over the content of textbooks, and the textbook battle is what this is all about.
The acceptance of textbooks will come up in about 20 states over the next three years.
In Pennsylvania, the Dover School Board requires the concept of intelligent design to be taught to ninth-grade biology classes. A lawsuit challenging the course based on separation of church and state is expected to go to trial in September.
The Legislature is also considering a bill allowing schools to teach intelligent design.
A federal judge in Atlanta has declared unconstitutional a sticker containing a disclaimer that evolution is not a fact but only a theory in Cobb County, Ga. The school board intends to appeal.
The Georgia sticker read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
In Arkansas, a similar sticker on high school textbooks is under fire by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is demanding they be removed.
The Ohio Board of Education has approved a curriculum that teaches students that the investigation of the theory of evolution is a continuing enterprise.
There is a case in California federal court in which parents claimed their civil rights were denied when a school district near Sacramento voted against a proposal to require schools to teach the flaws of the theory of evolution.
In Kansas, the Board of Education's 25-member Science Education Standards Committee has provided a recommendation to the full board on how science should be taught.
A minority group of eight members of the committee has issued its own report.
The hearings this week are being held by the conservative members. Their report says evolution teaches "an unpredictable and unguided natural process that has no discernible direction or goal. It also assumes that life arose from an unguided natural process."
The majority report said evolution is a "scientific explanation for the history of the diversification of organisms from common ancestors."
The defenders of the Darwin theory concede that boycotting the hearing will give their opponents free rein, but they hope to keep the publicity level as low as possible. There is, however, expected to be testimony supporting the teaching of evolution.
There are two categories of opponents to Darwinism. One is the religious segment that supports the biblical account that God created the world in six days. The Supreme Court outlawed that approach in a 1987 decision striking down a Louisiana law that evolution could be taught only if creationism was also in the curriculum.
An Arkansas law also was eliminated by that ruling, based on the First Amendment.
In an earlier ruling 40 years ago, the court allowed "study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program or education."
Those favoring the intelligent-design concept say the process of creating life was too complex to be accomplished by chance. Their opponents call the idea Creationism Lite and argue that natural selection is not random but an observable and verifiable process to fine-tune variations in species to fit with their environment.
Under creationism, the Earth by implication is 10,000 years old or younger. More than 95 percent of all scientists believe in evolution, and nearly all of them think the earth may be billions of years old.
A Canadian group, Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, which promotes freedom of religion and separation of church and state, said the battle is being fought in U.S. public schools.
It says protestant religious schools generally teach creation science and Roman Catholic schools teach evolution.
It contends that the concept of separation of church and state forbids schools to teach that one religion is superior to any other religion or that religion is superior to a secular life.
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