Source+One

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/evolution.htm

1.**Conflict between science and religion began well before Charles Darwin published //Origin of the Species//. **

2.**The most famous early controversy was the trial of Galileo in 1633 for publishing //Dialogue//, a book that supported the Copernican theory that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than--as the Bible suggests-- the other way around. **

3.**The so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925, concerning enforcement of a Tennessee statute that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution in public school classrooms, was a fascinating courtroom drama featuring Clarence Darrow dueling with three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. **

4.**However entertaining the trial in Dayton, Tennessee was, it did not resolve the question of whether the First Amendment permitted states to ban teaching of a theory that contradicted religious beliefs. **  5.**Not until 1968 did the Supreme Court rule in //Epperson vs. Arkansas// that such bans contravene the Establishment Clause because their primary purpose is religious. **

6. **The Court used the same rationale in 1987 in Edwards vs Aguillard to strike down a Louisiana law that required biology teachers who taught the theory of evolution to also discuss evidence supporting the theory called "creation science." **

7 **The controversy continues in new forms today. **  8** In 1999, for example, the Kansas Board of Education voted to remove evolution from the list of subjects tested on state standardized tests, in effect encouraging local school boards to consider dropping or de-emphasizing evolution. **

9.** In 2000, Kansas voters responded to the proposed change by throwing out enough anti-evolution Board members to restore the old science standards, but by 2004 a new conservative school board majority was proposing that intelligent design be discussed in science classes. **

10.** In 2006, the Kansas tug-of-war continued, with pro-evolution moderates again retaking control of the Board **

11**. In 2005, attention shifted to Dover, Pennsylvania, where the local school board voted to require teachers to read a statement about intelligent design prior to discussions of evolution in high school biology classes. **

12**. Eleven parents of Dover students challenged the school board decision, arguing that it violated the Establishment Clause. **

13.** After a six-week trial, U. S. District Judge John E. Jones issued a 139-page findings of fact and decision in which he ruled that the Dover mandate was unconstitutional. **

14.**Conflicts between science and religion will not end any time soon. In the future, legal conflicts between science and religion can be expected over theories such as "The Big Bang," which also undermines Fundamentalist beliefs about creation. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;"> **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">15. The Theory of Evolution undermines the view that we as a species have a special place in the universe. It suggests that the universe is chance-filled. Those are hard ideas for us to accept. Genesis is much more comforting. Believing as many people do, that every word (or nearly every word) f the Bible is the literal word of God gives those believers a great deal of personal peace and joy.