It was evolution versus Eden last night in a panel at the Graduate School of Education's Askwith Lecture Hall, as proponents of creationism and evolution sparred about modes of teaching science in public schools.

The panel, entitled "Creationism in Schools," was sparked by the recent decision by the Kansas Board of Education to remove the teaching of evolution from that state's mandated curriculum.

On one side of the debate were creationism advocates Ken Ham, the founder and director of Answers in Genesis, a pro-creation organization; and Russ Humphreys, a physicist at Sandia Laboratories and an adjunct professor for the Institute of Creation Research.

Speaking in support of the theory of evolution were Graham Bell, a professor of Genetics at McGill University, and Brian Alters, head of the science education program at McGill University in Montreal.

The controversy over the teaching of evolution regained national prominence in August when the Kansas board eliminated science curriculum standards in cases where biology, geology and astronomy would be in conflict with the Bible.

The Board did not mandate the teaching of creationism, but rather left the decision of what to teach up to local school boards and individual teachers.

Ham said that the book of Genesis should be taken as literal history, not a cultural metaphor.

"The Bible is what it claims to be: the word of God written down for us," Ham said.