[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ark 16:15 “and He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” This is one of many bible verses telling christians to go out and spread god’s word, But where do we draw the line? Who gets to decide especially when the Supreme Court has ruled that Creationism has no place in a public schools science classroom. Religion has it’s place and it’s not in our school. Faith’s differ all around the world but scientific law is true everywhere.

Judge John Jones portrait taken by the US Federal Government

Judge Jones a conservative Republican, a constant churchgoer, and endorsed by George W. Bush ruled against teaching Intelligent Design in a science classroom. Even Jerry Coyne writes in his book Why Evolution is True  “Jones was not exactly pro-Darwinian credentials.”

Schools are pushing to teach Intelligent Design  in the classroom as a “scientific theory”.

Scientific Theory

Photo from Pixabay

In many debates, many people confuse the term theory and scientific theory. According to Dictionary.com a scientific theory is, “A coherent group of propositions formulated to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world and repeatedly confirmed through experiments or observations”. For example, we have the theory of Heliocentrism, General relativity, Plate tectonics, and Gravity. Given that there is no evidence that is repeatedly confirmed in any experiment or observation, Intelligent Design can’t be defined as a scientific theory. On the other hand evolution has been considered a scientific theory because it’s been observed by studying human fossils and genealogical data which is evidence that can be repeatedly produced. Francis Collins the author of The Language of God states, “Intelligent Design fails in a fundamental way to qualify as a scientific theory.”

Intelligent Design and Creationism in School

Ohio 2016

Youngstown Ohio’s school districts lesson plan clearly endorses intelligent design (ID) in 10th grade biology. They want the students to be taught the scientific controversy between ID and evolution. A video that the school shows to their students is made by an Islamic cult leader that tries to undermine evolution. An article written by John Timmer points out that towards the end of the video it states “each species was created by God.” This proves that school’s don’t want to “teach the controversy” they instead have religious intentions that have no right to be in a science classroom.

Pennsylvania 2004

In an attempt to find a loophole, schools have given up on teaching Creationism and instead they try teaching a new “scientific theory” known as Intelligent design. On October 2004, With a vote of 6-3 Dover Area School board passed to insert Intelligent Design into their science curriculum. As a result they required their biology teacher to read a statement to their students. The statement said Darwin’s theory is “not a fact” and has unexplainable “gaps”. They were recommended to read the book Of Pandas and People. Which summarized says that evolution and natural selection is too complex and is mathematically impossible and it must have been guided by an “intelligent designer”.

In 2005, The parents in the Dover Area school district sued the school board for for their new policies stating “intelligent design was just recycled creationism”.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”Judge Jones was a George W.
Bush appointee, a devoted churchgoer, and a conservative Republican
not exactly pro-Darwinian credentials”                     – Jerry Coyne[/perfectpullquote]

In December 2005, Judge John Jones concluded the policy “singles out the theory of evolution.” He ruled that teaching Intelligent Design in biology violates the Establishment Clause. Jones finished by concluding, “that intelligent design was not science.” and if you claim it to be a science you “change the very definition of science to include supernatural explanations.” This causes the students to doubt evolution without any scientific evidence. By treating creationist text as a scientific resource in a public school.

William Buckingham a member of the Dover Area School Board thinks that he did the right thing. He states in an interview, “I’m still waiting for a judge or anyone to show me anywhere in the Constitution where there’s a separation of church and state,” he said. “We didn’t lose; we were robbed.”

Eugenie Scott, executive director, National Center for Science Education said in an interview, “I predict that another school board down the line will try to bring intelligent design into the curriculum like the Dover group did, and they’ll be a lot smarter about concealing their religious intent.” However as we saw in the case in Ohio they failed at hiding their religious intent.

Tennessee 1925

Photo of John Scopes during the trial. By Smithsonian Institution

This is not an issue that has just recently sprung up. Even in the 1900’s schools were more focused on teaching creationism than scientific fact. In March 1925, the Tennessee legislature passed the Butler Act a 71 to 5 vote with even talk about adding an amendment to also “prohibit the teaching that the earth is round.” The Butler Act outlawed the teaching of evolution, or any theory that challenged the Bible’s account of creation, in any public school receiving state funds. John Scopes was a new teacher and football coach from Illinois. He recommended the students to read The descent of man a part in their text book about evolution.  

John was arrested in May and fined $100 for referencing a source that challenges the bible’s account of creation. The court case attracted many News reporters from around the country and ended up being the first court case to be broadcasted over the radio widely known as the Monkey trial. Due to inflation the amount of money he was fined would be equivalent to $1,395.56 . Just for reading a part of their textbook. 

 Separation of Church and State in The First Amendment

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“I’m still waiting for a judge or anyone to show me anywhere in the Constitution where there’s a separation of church and state,” he said. “We didn’t lose; we were robbed.”-William Buckingham[/perfectpullquote] “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot require public schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching creationism.

An article by ACLU “Joint Statement of Current Law on Religion in the Public Schools” talks about the laws on teaching religion in school, “In science class, however, they may present only genuinely scientific critiques of, or evidence for, any explanation of life on earth, but not religious critiques. Schools may not refuse to teach evolutionary theory in order to avoid giving offense to religion nor may they circumvent these rules by labeling as science an article of religious faith.”

As the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly said, “[i]t might well be said that one’s education is not complete without a study of comparative religion, or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization.” It would be impossible to teach literature, art, music, or social studies without taking into account religious influences. But this doesn’t include a scientific classroom. When it’s taught as a fact in a science classroom then there are problems. The Bible is a wonderful book for teaching life lessons but when it’s taken as a fact in a science classroom there are issues. Religion is about believing without question but science is all about question. As more facts are produced the theory can change but trying to teach something unprovable goes against the principles of science. Another problem is electing officials that clearly put their religious beliefs over facts causing cases like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Religion is a wonderful thing that helps people everywhere just keep it in church and out of a science classroom.

featured image by Flicker