Did you know that in the United States, the Supreme Court
has ruled the teaching of creationism as science in public schools
unconstitutional? Did you know that although many states allow the teaching of
intelligent design, there are many lower courts that have deemed it unconstitutional? You may ask yourself in the places in which
both have been deemed unconstitutional, what is taught in the schools about how
man came to be? Did we just land here as aliens from another planet? Why is it
seemingly impossible to come to an agreement on how mankind is present on earth
in its current state? These questions represent a only small portion of the controversial debate about the topics of evolution and creationism being taught in public schools.
In 1925, John Scopes was put to trial for daring to teach
evolution in a high school science class. This trial became known as the Scopes
Monkey Trial. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act,
which states that teaching evolution in school is unconstitutional, but the
conviction was overturned on a technicality. At the time of the trial there
were modernists who said religion was consistent with evolution, and there were
fundamentalists who said the word of God was more important than human
knowledge. This was one of the first times that there was a nationwide debate
of evolution versus creationism.
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| Image of the Newspaper Announcing Scopes Conviction |
Since the Scopes Monkey Trial, a lot has changed in the
evolution versus creationism debate and its presence in schools. Evolution is
now taught all over the United States with limited controversy inside the class. Yet the battle
remains outside of the classroom over the legal status of creation and
evolution in the public school classroom. Regardless of the debate, I think it
is important that students are made aware of the evolution, and the evidence
that supports it. They don’t have to necessarily overturn their beliefs based
on something their science teacher told them, but they should know the facts. The facts are there. They should chose whether
they want to believe them or not.
