Legislation to appease anti-evolutionists.

• Position: Religion

"Anti-evolution" education legislation continues to be introduced because lawmakers want to appease religious constituents, not because they expect the bills to be made into laws, theorize researchers at Rice University, Houston, Texas. A key goal of their study is to understand how creationist and science interest groups, public opinion about evolution, and political climate influence the political-reform process related to how evolution is taught in schools.

Lead author David Johnson, a postdoctoral research associate with the Religion and Public Life Program, and coauthors Elaine Scheitle (assistant professor of sociology at West Virginia University, Morgantown) and Elaine Ecklund (Rice's chair in Social Sciences, director of the Religion and Public Life Program, and a scholar at the Institute for Public Policy) conducted a national analysis and found that, in the last 10 years, anti-evolution bills were introduced 110 times in 26 states. However, only 25% of this legislation made it through the respective state education committees for a vote by a state legislative chamber, and the only states where bills were enacted into law were Louisiana and Tennessee.

"The top three states where antievolution legislation was introduced were Oklahoma with 13 bills, Mississippi with 11 bills, and Alabama with 10 bills," says Johnson. 'These three states also have the highest numbers of conservative Protestants --denominations diversely associated with fundamentalist, Pentecostal, charismatic, and evangelical...