updated 9:47 p.m. ET May 5, 2005

TOPEKA, Kan. - Critics of evolutionary theory debated how schools should address questions about life's origins on Thursday, the first day of hearings that some have compared to the famed "Monkey Trial" in 1925.

Mainstream science organizations boycotted the trial-like hearings, conducted by a subcommittee of Kansas' State Board of Education. But a lawyer selected by the state's education department stepped in to represent the mainstream scientific point of view and question witnesses.

Critics of evolutionary theory, as well as advocates of an alternate view called intelligent design, were slated to provide testimony during the four days of subcommittee hearings.

The entire board plans to consider changes in June to standards that determine how Kansas students are tested on science. Last year's elections gave religious conservatives a majority on the 10-member board.

All conservative Republicans
The three board members presiding over the hearings are all conservative Republicans and receptive to criticism of evolution. Two of them, Kathy Martin and Connie Morris, agreed several times with witnesses critical of evolution.

"I was hoping this hearing would give me good, hard evidence that I could repeat," Morris said.

There were no protests, but over the lunch hour, the Kansas Highway Patrol brought in metal detectors for use outside the auditorium where the hearings were held. Lt. John Eichkorn said the patrol wasn't responding to a specific threat. "We're constantly re-evaluating our security needs," he said.

The board has sought to avoid comparisons of its hearings with the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tenn., in which a teacher was convicted of violating a law against teaching evolution. But the hearings resemble a trial, with attorneys managing each side's case.

In 1925, attorney Clarence Darrow, representing teacher John Scopes, attempted to make creationism look foolish. In the Kansas hearings, evolution is under attack.

"This is the Scopes Trial turned on its head," said Bruce Chapman, president of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which has lent support to critics of evolutionary theory.

Even before the hearing began, Pedro Irigonegaray, the Topeka attorney designated to represent the mainstream scientific view, dismissed the event as a "kangaroo court."

Susan Gibbs, a mother of two teenagers who attended the hearings, wasn't sure her thinking about evolution would change because of the testimony. "I believe in God, but I'm not sure he created everything," she said during a break. "I'm right in the middle."

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