Creationism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design, Teaching of

Opposing Sides

Darwin's theory of evolution, published in his seminal work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), is the foundation of the first movement, the theory of evolution. Even so, prior to Darwin's theory of evolution, there were escalated controversies between scientists and religious fundamentalists. In fact, two centuries before Darwin's theory of evolution, the religious and scientific communities struggled with their respective explanations of life. 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, not the other way, as the Bible suggests.

The second movement involving the teaching of creationism sought to forbid the teaching of evolution and mandate the teaching of creationism. The theory of evolution, which was being taught in public school classrooms, came under challenge and became visible in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” (Scopes v. State, 1927). According to a state law from Tennessee, the teaching of evolution in public schools was a criminal offense. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) assisted in the defense of John Scopes, a public schoolteacher charged under the statute. Mr. Scopes was prohibited from teaching evolution and convicted of the criminal offense. Decades after this trial, the Tennessee state legislature continues to attempt to challenge the teaching of evolution as battles are waged in school board rooms throughout the state.

Court Intervention

This challenge remained unresolved until, in 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court entered the fray in Epperson v. State of Arkansas, which declared an Arkansas law that prohibited the teaching of evolution unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First [Page 209]Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, because its purpose was the advancement of a religious belief in creationism. The Court found implicit state support of the Christian doctrine of creationism.

Epperson emphasized that the Establishment Clause protects against advocacy by government for religion. To this end, the Court ruled that the government must remain neutral in the area of religion. The Court suggested that teaching religion in public schools as part of history was acceptable, but teaching it for the purposes of furthering a religious doctrine was constitutionally forbidden.

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