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In this session of the New Mexico Legislature, no fewer than two bills and two resolutions supporting "intelligent design creationism" were proposed.

Rep. W. C. "Dub" Williams, a Glencoe Republican, sponsored two measures in the House, while the corresponding Senate measures were put forward by Sen. Steve Komadina, a Corrales Republican.

The carefully crafted "academic freedom" measures made no specific mention of intelligent design. But it was clearly the driving purpose behind these, which would have permitted and encouraged teachers to present so-called weaknesses of evolution science in biology classes.

The measures would have also have given students the "right and freedom to reach their own conclusions about biological origins."

We don't encourage students to "reach their own conclusions" on how to add fractions. Why should we suddenly do so with the biosciences?

Make no mistake, the only academic freedom involved in these measures is the freedom to teach creationism in science class.

The legislation doesn't look like it's going anywhere. Both House measures had been tabled, and the Senate measures may not even get to committee before adjournment this week.

While supporters insisted that "this is about science, not religion," Williams was much more honest. At a hearing Jan. 29 in the House Judiciary Committee on the memorial, Williams declared: "What we evolved from we will never figure out. There are many people who are absolutely convinced God did all of this, and if you have the faith I have, God did it all."

After hearing from several scientists and teachers opposed to the bill at an Education Committee hearing Feb. 21, Williams graciously tabled his own bill.

These unnecessary measures would have given students the power to decide how they will be tested in the science of biology. Current state standards already recognize the rights of students to have their own religious views.

Just because this legislation may have failed, however, we shouldn't be complacent about intelligent design creationists.

Watch for continued calls for classroom presentation of so-called weaknesses in evolution. In mainstream science, evolution is spectacularly successful, and supported by literally millions of observations. The only weaknesses brought forth are invariably warmed-over creationist pseudoscience - the "Cambrian explosion" can't be explained; complexity can't evolve; study of past events is mere speculation; and on and on.

Look out for complaints that simply teaching the scientific method - testing real-world (natural) explanations - somehow denies even the possibility of a guiding intelligence above it all. Science is not "atheism" just because it cannot invoke supernatural causality.

Intelligent design creationism proponents demonize everyone who doesn't accept their specific sectarian tenet - that God created unique "kinds," and would never use evolution - as "Darwinists" and "atheists."

They have the audacity to think they know the mind of God, and that they should keep the rest of us in line. The president of the New Mexico Intelligent Design Network, Joe Renick, went as far as calling Judge John E. Jones (who ruled that intelligent design is just a form of creationism in the Dover, Penn., ruling of 2005) one of the "federal judges who drink the same Kool-Aid as the Darwinists," invoking images of cult leader Jim Jones leading a mass suicide in Guyana.

In public, they will claim intelligent design is not creationism, but only "science." But on the Jan. 13, 2005, "Family News In Focus," James Dobson's radio news program, Renick revealed his agenda: "If there's no transcendent designer or creator, such as the God of Genesis, well then, that's going to say a whole lot about what this life is about and what it means."

The latest intelligent design creationism effort is underway, and it involves giving science teachers copies of infomercial videos, under the auspices of the New Mexico Science Foundation. But the Public Education Department has repeatedly said intelligent design has no place in New Mexico science classes. These videos are not acceptable for class use. The material cleverly makes no mention of creation, or God, but instead links to the National Science Foundation and quotes Albert Einstein.

Yet, the webmaster for the foundation is Mark Burton, a high-ranking member of the Creation Science Fellowship of New Mexico, a creationist organization committed to biblical inerrancy, Noah's flood and a 6,000-year-old Earth.

Looking at the foundation's material, you realize that it's the same old Cheshire cat - young Earth creationism - but all that can be seen is the grin.

Creationists aren't going away. They're just getting sneakier.