1. Creeping Creationism Council of State Science Supervisors March 26, 2003, NSTA Eugenie C. Scott, Ph.D. National Center for Science Education, Inc Oakland, CA www.NCSEWeb.org

2. Teaching of evolution under attack in many parts of the country -antievol. Movement takes number of forms, some of them obvious and some more subtle -since January 2003 -- only first quarter of this year -- NCSE has recorded 23 “flareups”: legislation, problems at the SBE, the local district level, or problems of antievolutionism at classroom level

3. TXMI PAWA SCGA NEOH ILWV WIOK MSAL January- March, 2003 Flareups”

4. Some of these states have more than one current issue or incident (ex: Texas has legislation, plus the textbook selection process, plus a problem with a teacher teaching creationism [on a college campus, yet], -Other states have problems with legislation as well -- in fact, we thought 2003 would be a bumper year for legislation, though fortunately things have slowed down a bit

5. OK: HB 1504 MS: HB 1397 KS: SB 168 TX: HB 1172, HB 1447 January- March, 2003 Antievolution legislation

6. So let me give you a little background on where some of this antievolutionism is coming from, and what forms it is taking -obviously this is an abbreviated summary: much more detail in articles available on our web site and in RNCSE

7. http://www.ncseweb.org

10. “Pillars of Creationism” Evolution is a “theory in crisis” It’s only “fair” to teach creationism with evolution (Equity) Evolution and religion are incompatible

11. So how are these three Pillars expressed in the various forms of antievolutionism? -let’s start w. “theory in crisis”, idea that evol is inherently bad science -three main ways: -teach “alternative theories to evolution” -teach evolution as “theory not fact” -teach “evid against evol”

12. Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987 Teaching a variety of scientific theories about humankind to schoolchildren might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction.

13. Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987 “already possess” a “flexibility...to supplant the present science curriculum with the presentation of theories, besides evolution, about the origin of life” (p. 8) Justice Brennan

14. Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987 (teachers are free to teach…) …any and all scientific theories [about the origin of humankind.] Justice Brennan

15. Georgia HB 391, 2001 “to present and critique any and all scientific theories” about “the origins of life and living things, including the origins of humankind.”

16. Kanawha County, WV, 1999 Be it resolved by the Kanawha County Board of Education that all teachers are hereby advised that they may teach any and all subjects and theories in their respective subject areas, including but not limited to, theories for and against the theory of evolution, so long as the following criteria are observed: