The media seems to enjoy nothing more than portraying members of the Utah legislature as moronic and downright idiotic. This session the media has been ridiculing Sen. Chris Buttars, who wants schools to teach "intelligent design" alongside the big bang theory and evolution. Buttars was a pillar of the community before being elected. He served on the West Jordan City Council for 13 years and as president of the South Salt Lake Valley Rotary Club. He has also been awarded the Boy Scouts' highest honor: the Silver Beaver. Insiders will tell you that Buttars is a respected and highly effective lawmaker who is not afraid to tackle the tough issues. Last year, Buttars took on IHC with the "any willing provider" legislation.

Buttars has invoked the media's wrath this year with SB96, which would require the State Board of Education to establish curriculum requirements and policies that stress that not all scientists agree on theories involving the origins of life. Intelligent design suggests that life is too complex to have evolved by coincidence, and instead is the product of an intelligent designer.

Some might argue that this debate should be expected in Utah, the reddest of all red states. After all, our nation is fighting a culture war and public education is at the heart of the battle. The majority of Utahns believe in the concept of intelligent design. Even nationally only one third of Americans consider evolution to be well-supported by scientific evidence, while 51 percent believe "God created human beings in their present form."

Intelligent design is now at the same point where evolution was at in 1925, when the "Scopes monkey trial" captured the nation's attention. Evolution was considered radical then, similar to the way intelligent design is viewed today.

Other states beside Utah are also tackling this issue. In Kansas, the state board of education recently approved science standards challenging evolution after flip-flopping on the same issue six years ago when it removed Darwin from the textbooks. In Pennsylvania, eight school board members who encouraged students to explore intelligent design were booted from office last November. The Dover school board recently lost a federal case concerning the legality of its support of intelligent design.

In Michigan, a bill would require the state's science standards to single out evolution and global warming as subjects in need of critical evaluation. In Indiana, lawmakers are drafting legislation that would require the teaching of both intelligent design and evolution. And in Ala-bama, the school board requires that biology textbooks carry a disclaimer saying "evolution is a controversial theory."

Looking to other states, it is apparent that Utah is not alone in the evolution debate. The Utah media is making the same mistake in portraying Buttars as an oddball that Rocky Anderson made last fall.

After publicly stating that "only in Utah" would a government restrict public funds from being spent on alcohol, Rocky soon learned that Denver, Las Vegas and San Francisco had identical restrictions.