Of course, it would only be a moment's peace, followed by a lifetime of regret and recrimination.

Thus must members of the Utah State Board of Education have been tempted - just tempted - to allow state Sen. Chris Buttars and other proponents of the false science called intelligent design to squeeze into the state's approved curriculum some verbiage challenging the primacy of evolutionary theory in modern science.

Of course, there is nothing challenging the primacy of evolutionary theory in modern science. But that doesn't mean some people can't, and won't, keep begging.

The board wisely resisted any temptation to yield to an influential senator who clearly speaks for a vocal portion of the state's population. If Buttars follows through on his threat to take the matter before the Legislature, it will be up to lawmakers to show the same amount of self-control.

The board was not only correct, but also refreshingly quick and unanimous, in approving last Friday a new position statement affirming that evolution is, indeed, "a unifying concept in science" and "a necessary part of science classroom instruction."

The board understands, as do all scientists worthy of the name, that to fill in the many real scientific, emotional or moral gaps in the observable universe with hypotheses about unseen hands that have molded the world is, by definition, not science.

It is philosophy, religion or myth, all of which are just about as necessary to human survival as is science. But it is not science.

It is possible that, just as Einstein's physics replaced Newton's, and Copernicus' astronomy replaced Ptolemy's, that someone's biology will replace Darwin's. But it will not be Buttarsism that achieves that feat.

That will not happen because, while Einstein fully grasped Newton and Copernicus clearly knew his Ptolemy, Buttars doesn't get Darwin at all.

Buttars insists on deploring a belief that man evolved from apes, when Darwinism posits no such thing. He dismisses evolutionary theory as "a theory, not a fact," when scientifically literate people know that theories are models for describing facts, not mere shots in the dark.

Shots in the dark such as intelligent design.