"Alternatives to evolution" language dropped


According to the Associated Press [Link broken], a South Carolina education subcommittee removed the provision from S 114 that would have established a South Carolina Science Standards Committee to "study standards regarding the teaching of the origin of species; determine whether there is a consensus on the definition of science; [and] determine whether alternatives to evolution as the origin of species should be offered in schools." (For the history and purpose of the provision, see NCSE's previous story on S 114.) Robert Dillon, who teaches biology at the College of Charleston, told the subcommittee, "There is no alternative to evolution that is science." Now shorn of its antievolution language, S 114 is bound for the full Education Committee.