This debate so often draws its lines with emotion, by pitting faith against science. In the front-page article of June 3, one word that kept cropping up was "belief."

Belief, or faith, is about what we feel in our hearts to be true. Science is about what we can prove to others through observation and analysis. Neither represents a complete picture, and both deserve our respect and attention.

Sciences classes are for the teaching of ideas that have been submitted to the scientific method. Under this method, a hypothesis is formed, experiments are designed to test the hypothesis, data are collected, the data are analyzed and the results are published for peer review.

I welcome the inclusion of any ideas in science classes that meet these criteria. Further, I recognize that as scientific theories are tested, some may be abandoned as the evidence takes us in a new direction.

At the present time, evolution is a scientific theory that has widespread acceptance in the scientific community in light of the large body of data that has been collected and due to its applicability in biological modeling, such as virus mutation.

Is it "truth"? No. But it is our best scientific theory currently, subject to constant re-evaluation as new discoveries are made. To my knowledge, neither faith-based creation stories, nor intelligent design have been subjected to the rigor of the scientific method. I would welcome such an analysis.

The purpose of the scientific method is not only to prove or disprove ideas, it is to provide a common ground on which competing ideas may be compared and discussed. Until this methodology is applied, it is inappropriate to present any idea as a scientific theory in the context of a science class. To do so would be to dilute in importance for students the stepwise discipline of the scientific method to any research or analytic endeavor.

Utah, especially Salt Lake County, has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the country, including communities from all over the world. We have an opportunity to embrace this diversity and create a model for the rest of the country.

I would suggest as an alternative to Sen. Buttars' proposal - that middle school curricula include a social studies class that would compare and contrast a collection of different ideas about the creation of the Earth and the creation of humans.

The biggest challenge educators would have in designing such a class would be in deciding whose creation stories we would include. Certainly there would be interest in including Genesis from the Judeo-Christian Bible. Then there are the Pacific Islander stories of Lono, the North American tribal legends of Turtle Island and Dog Boy, as well as Hindu, Buddhist, African, Zoroastrian . . . the possibilities are endless.

Whichever stories we include, we would bring dignity to traditions that define us as ethnicities, faiths, tribes and nations.

By remembering the difference between beliefs and scientific theories, and making room for both, we honor and enhance both. Let us avoid the rancor that other communities have experienced and take a more expansive approach.

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Eileen McCabe-Olsen is a software engineer for a Salt Lake company.