Senate Bill 235, sponsored by State Sen. Daniel Emrich (R-Great Falls), would establish requirements for science instruction in public schools.

The bill would prohibit teaching anything not considered scientific fact. SB 235 defines “scientific fact” as an “indisputable and repeatable observation of a natural phenomenon.”

The bill’s sponsor argued this doesn’t block teaching scientific theories, but an amendment may be needed to allow certain courses, including some Advanced Placement classes, to be taught.

“That could be a potential conflict with this bill,” said Emrich at the Senate Education and Cultural Resources hearing. “It may need to be tailored down to actually address that fact for limiting it so it doesn’t go into the high schools and affect them as more of a transition to the college environment.”

There was one proponent to the bill at the hearing, who likened the teaching of established scientific theories such as evolution to children as fraud that goes against the bible.

“There’s not one person in the room that I’m looking at right now, and there’s not one person I’ve ever seen or known of that was there when any of these events supposedly occurred,” said Patrick Gould, a law professor currently working in South Korea. “No one was there with Big Bang, no one was there with creation. No one was there when the first bird flew. No one was there with any of these events.”

Dozens of opponents pushed back saying the bill would effectively ban much of the current curriculum.