Bill > SB1025

This bill proposes to modify Arizona state education law by requiring that if public schools teach evolution by natural selection, they must simultaneously provide instruction in intelligent design. Intelligent design is a controversial alternative explanation for the diversity of life that argues that certain biological systems are too complex to have developed through natural processes and must therefore have been designed by an intelligent agent (often interpreted as a reference to a divine creator). The proposed legislation would mandate that schools present both evolution and intelligent design as potentially valid scientific explanations, despite the fact that the scientific community overwhelmingly accepts evolution as a well-established scientific theory supported by extensive empirical evidence, while considering intelligent design a religious concept that does not meet scientific standards of testability and falsifiability. By requiring concurrent instruction, the bill appears aimed at introducing what proponents might characterize as academic balance, but which critics would likely view as an attempt to undermine scientific education by giving credence to a non-scientific explanation alongside a scientifically validated theory.

Education

https://apps.azleg.gov/BillStatus/BillOverview/83612