Creationism

Creationism is based on the literalist tenets of fundamentalist Christianity. This views the Protestant Christian rendition of the Bible as the literal word of [Page 231]God. According to fundamentalist belief, each event described in the Bible actually happened or will happen. The Bible is viewed by fundamentalist Christians as the repository for all truth: religious, historical, and scientific. Although there are actually two creation stories in Genesis and they differ, fundamentalists claim that the story of creation found in the book of Genesis is scientifically accurate. Other stories of creation, including those stories rooted in science, are dismissed by adherents as ungodly and un-Christian.

Creationism arose during the early twentieth century in response to evolutionary biology and its place within the science curricula of U.S. public schools. Perhaps the most famous and early legal battle between evolution and creationism occurred in the 1920s, in a Dayton, Tennessee, courthouse. Here, John Scopes, a local high school science teacher, was convicted of violating Tennessee's ban on the teaching of evolution in its public schools. The trial pitted two of the era's most colorful American lawyers against each other. Clarence Darrow, working for the American Civil Liberties Union, represented Scopes. William Jennings Bryan, a former presidential candidate and adherent to the Biblical account of creation, represented the state. Adding to the drama was the presence of numerous reporters and columnists representing national newspapers and radio stations, who mostly lampooned Bryan in their reporting. Bryan did not help matters when he took the stand to testify in defense of the Tennessee statute. Under Darrow's merciless cross-examination, Bryan admitted that the earth was far older than 6,000 years. Between Darrow's pointed questioning and the savage reporting, Bryan won the case, but he lost the cultural battle. In response, Christian fundamentalists retreated from the larger U.S. political culture for the next 50 years.

Bans on evolution, while infrequent, remained constitutional until 1968. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court in Epperson v. Arkansas ruled that the justification of that state's ban on teaching evolution in the Arkansas public schools was rooted in religion. The Court noted that Arkansas had banned evolution because it conflicted with the tenets of one specific religion: fundamentalist Christianity. Since the state was reshaping educational policy to conform to narrow religious doctrine, such a legislative approach violated the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state. From 1968 forward, policies that banned evolution from U.S. public schools could not survive a legal challenge.

During the early 1970s, supporters of a literalist interpretation of the Bible reached out with other like-minded conservatives to form a nascent Christian Right. This alliance helped strengthen their political power, particularly with vulnerable local school boards. Since evolution could not be legally banned outright in public schools, the new strategy was to insist that “creation science” or creationism be given equal time in the science curricula if evolutionary biology was covered. This approach is also known as “balanced treatment.” By the late 1970s, creationism enjoyed its political heyday as a growing Christian Right focused part of its energies in reshaping public school curricula. Instead of trying to get evolution out of public schools, the goal was to include creationism as part of the regular science curriculum into as many public schools as possible.

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