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Letter: Board of Education should change its name to Utah Inquisition

(The Associated Press) In this July 1925 file photo, Clarence Darrow, left, and William Jennings Bryan speak with each other during the monkey trial in Dayton, Tenn. On Friday, July 13, 2017, at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, the public will behold a 10-foot statue of the rumpled skeptic Darrow, who argued for evolution in the 1925 trial. It will stand at a respectful distance on the opposite side of the courthouse from an equally huge statue of Bryan, the eloquent Christian defender of the biblical account of creation, which was installed in 2005.

Reading about the state Board of Education’s review of science curricula (“School standards,” Nov. 3), I suggest the board change its name to the Utah Inquisition. Several board members — Lisa Cummings, Alisa Ellis, Scott Neilson and Michelle Boulter — charge that emphasis on climate change and the theory of evolution are aspects of secular, liberal viewpoints.

Board member Cummings feels national science standards are more politically expedient and contrary to children’s belief systems. She favors teaching intelligent design along with Darwin’s theory of evolution. She claims evolution is taught as a fact rather than a theory. Well, gravity is a theory, too.

Maybe these board members should read the Secondary Core Standards, especially Earth Science Standard 3, Objective 3, which refers to climate change rather than global warming, as Ellis speculates.

The Biology Standard 5 Benchmark states, “Evolution is central to modern science’s understanding of the living world.” No mention of creationism or intelligent design.

This reminds me of how the Vatican reacted when Galileo published what he saw through his telescope. Apparently, these board members have their own agenda to pursue, irrespective of what modern science has to tell us about our planet and universe.

Neil H. Olsen, Millcreek