Creation and Evolution Essay

Louisiana legislators established the Louisiana Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction Act. The Act forbids the teaching of the theory of evolution and the theory of “creation science” in public elementary and secondary schools unless accompanied by the instruction of the theory other. The Act defines the theories as the scientific evidence for creation or evolution and inferences from those scientific evidence. The lower courts established that the Act violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because it lacked a clear secular purpose.

The Scopes trial, writes Edward Larson, to most Americans embodies “the timeless debate over science and religion.” (265) Written by historians, judges, and playwrights, the history of the Scopes trial has caused Americans to perceive “the relationship between science and religion in . . . simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from allover to witness

In the late nineteen-eighties, Edwards v. Aguillard argued that a Louisiana law was against the First Amendment of the Constitution. This law prohibited public schools from teaching about evolution and the evolutionary processes unless the topic was taught alongside religious based creation theories. More specifically, this law imposed on public schools was argued to have broken the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This clause simply says that absolutely no law can establish or support a religion (“Establishment Clause”, 2011). Many people challenged the state’s law including local parents and teachers as well as men and women with religious affiliations. Ultimately, the Supreme Court found that the state’s act was unlawful according to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment due to the fact that there was no non-religious basis to the act. The creation theories are entirely based around the idea that an all-powerful god created the human race. Therefore the state is promoting this religious teaching. Although it was argued that the act was to give students more opportunities to learn, the point was made that the teachers lost the power to make decisions in his or her own classroom. Furthermore, the law inhibits the learning of children by banning the teaching of evolution unless creation is also taught in the classroom. The law

The feud between creationist and scientist about the origins of the universe dates back to the 20’s during the Scopes trial. Scientist are against creationism because there is no evidence to support the theory. Scientist support Charles Darwin’s theory Darwinism, the theory that organisms evolve from simple to complex through minor adaptations over time, because it has held up for more than a century. Rowe’s article expresses how he believes that creationist created intelligent design to take the place of creationism in public schools after the Supreme Court ruled that

In 1925, the Butler Act was passed, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. The teaching of evolution was seen as a destructive force that would destroy civilization, and a threat to the word of God (Document 3a). An American teacher, John Scopes, was sent to trial for teaching evolution in his biology class. During the trial, Dudley Field Malone, an attorney at the time, argued that the courts were not debating whether Scopes taught a couple of pages of evolution to his class. Rather, they were debating whether or not society should be based on religion or science (Document 4). This produced a shift from ancient beliefs to modern ideas because the popular trial was able to finally bring science to life in

On January 20, 1925, a Tennessee state senator named John A. Shelton proposed a bill to make the teaching of evolution in the state’s public schools a felony, or a criminal act. Fundamentalists had been supporting and pushing the passage of laws such as this for years, because the teaching of evolution and Darwinism contradicts the religious beliefs of creation in Christianity. Popular evangelist, Billy Sunday, undertook an eighteen-day crusade in Memphis in support of the prospective bill. Night after night, Sunday’s audiences grew until more than two-hundred thousand people heard him preach against the evils of evolution. The bill, known as the Butler Act, was officially passed on March 21, 1925, just 3 months after its proposal. Just as state legislators suspected, the ink had hardly dried on the Butler Act before its first challenger emerged.

Facts: The parties in this case are the appellant, Susan Epperson an Arkansas public high school teacher, and the State of Arkansas. Ms. Epperson brought legal action against the State of Arkansas in order to challenge the Constitutional legitimacy of the State’s “Anti-evolution” law. The “Anti-evolution” law made it illegal for any teacher in a state supported school to teach evolution or to use a book, which included the theory. Ms. Epperson believed the State’s prohibition of teaching evolution violated her Constitutional rights and thus initiated legal action in the courts.

The Scopes Trial Project... Evolution vs. Creationism John Scopes: He was a teacher in Tennessee who went on trial for teaching evolution in his classroom. This is a big deal because at this time the were many religious people. He saw this case as a chance to stand up for academic freedom. After days on the trial, the jury only took a few minutes to decide that Scopes was guilty. Later on, he conviction was overturned.

In the wake of the Scopes trial in Tennessee, the State of Arkansas passed an “anti-evolution” statute in 1928, that made it illegal "to teach the theory or doctrine that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animals," or "to adopt or use in any such institution a textbook that teaches the doctrine or theory that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animal.” Forty years later, the case of Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) was argued before the Supreme Court. The case originated in 1965, when Susan Epperson was hired to teach 10th grade biology at Little Rock Central High School. The local school board had recently adopted, as a part of an approved curriculum, a new biology textbook that included a section on evolution. Immediately, Epperson recognised her dilemma; that to teach the required curriculum would put her at risk for dismissal under the “anti-evolution” statute. A suit was filed to challenge the constitutionality of the statute, and the State Chancery Court of Pulaski County ruled that the statute was unconstitutional. This ruling was overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1967. Upon appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court held that:

Starting with the Scopes Trial, many more cases have occurred concerning the teaching of evolution. “By 1928 every southern state except Virginia had debated or was considering legislation banning the teaching of evolution in the

On April 24, 1925, John Thomas Scopes was charged with the teaching of evolution, which went against the Butler Act. The Butler Act made it illegal to teach any theory denying the divine creation of man in all of Tennessee’s public schools. Up until then, it was widely accepted that the origin of man hadn’t derived from wild animals.

In Tennessee, the teaching of evolution was banned because Darwin’s theory of evolution goes against the theory of creation in the Bible. Tennessee’s citizens believed in the Bible blindly. Cates, a high school teacher, was arrested for illegally teaching evolution. This

In 1859, Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking Origin of Species, which would introduce the seminal theory of evolution to the scientific community. Over 150 years later, the majority of scientists have come to a consensus in agreement with this theory, citing evidence in newer scientific research. In an average high school biology classroom, one may imagine an instructor that has devoted much of his life to science and a predominantly Christian class of about twenty-five students. On the topic of evolution, one of the students might ask, “Why would God have taken the long route by creating us through billion years of evolution?” while another student may claim “The Book of Genesis clearly says that the earth along with all living

The First Amendment states, in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" (U.S. Constitution amend. I) In 1968, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down several "anti-monkey laws" that were passed in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas in previous years, "because they established a religious doctrine violating both the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution", setting precedent for the rejection of creationist thought in place of science (Epperson v. Arkansas, 1968, Edwards v. Aguillard, 1987). Due to governmental funding, public schools teaching creationism would be viewed as advancing one religion over another and violate the separation of church and state. The filing of several amicus briefs by 17 state academies of science and 72 Noble Prize-winning scientists purporting that creationism is comprised of religious tenets in the case of Edwards v. Aguillard only added to the sentiment that intelligent design is for the home, not the school (Edwards,

Adults are sending their children to school, trusting in the system to teach them what is accurate and true, hoping that their child is getting a solid education. We need to confirm their thoughts and let them know that their children are getting taught accurate information. This is why evolution and creation should be taught in public schools as a theory, not a fact. Although we do not know the exact time evolution began being taught in public school, the idea gained much popularity after the scope’s trial in 1925. Two teachers had been charged with teaching the theory of evolution in their classrooms.