Joseph Kezele believes that the Earth is 6,000 years old, that baby dinosaurs traveled on Noah’s Ark and that all animals that live on land, including humans, were created by God during a single day. (Saturday, in case you’re wondering.)

These are the standard beliefs of young-Earth creationists, and if Kezele wanted to preach about them at his church or teach them at Arizona Christian University, where he is a biology instructor, most people would just shrug.

The problem is, Kezele has been serving on a statewide board that was tasked with reviewing science standards for Arizona’s public schools. Phoenix New Times reported this week that Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas asked Kezele to sit on an eight-member working group that examined the state’s evolution standards.

There Kezele did damage. He pressed for changing language describing evolution as “the explanation” for the diversity of life on our planet to “an explanation.” It may seem like a subtle change, but it’s an important one. Kezele, like other creationists, wants to put doubts in students’ minds that evolution is true (even though the overwhelming majority of scientists say it is) and create the impression that there might be another idea out there worth considering.

That alleged alternative, of course, would be “creation science,” “creationism,” “the theory of abrupt appearance,” “intelligent design” or whatever the anti-evolution fundamentalists are calling it this month.

Kezele insists he doesn’t want creationism in public school classrooms. He told New Times he merely wants students to consider what “actually is consistent with the real scientific evidence that we have. And then the students can do some thinking and see which one holds up. In general, that’s what education should be, not just indoctrination.”

There’s good reason to be skeptical of Kezele’s claim. For starters, creationists have been trying to water down evolution in public schools at least since the Scopes trial. And they only pretend to be champions of critical thinking. Their plan is to offer students a choice between accepted, verifiable science and an explicitly religious account based on a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible that even plenty of Christians reject. Public schools can’t offer a choice like that.

The problems in Arizona apparently spring from Douglas, who has publicly stated that she believes creationism should be taught alongside evolution in Arizona’s public schools. Earlier this year, she advocated for removing references to evolution from the science standards.

Douglas’ position is an elected one, and last month she lost the Republican primary election. Early next year, Arizona will have a new superintendent. Another wild card is the governor’s race. Incumbent Doug Ducey, a Republican who says he supports keeping evolution in the standards, is locked in a tight race with Democrat David Garcia, a former educator.

Once the political dust settles, there will be some new faces in power. No matter who those people are, they should consider hitting the pause button on this process – and this time seek advice from actual scientists.