h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A famous American example of the clash between Church and State in education is the famous 'Scopes Monkey Trial' of 1925.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

The issue is still a hot one, with some jurisdictions trying to remove Evolution from school curricula, and others demanding equal time for Creationism.

JTG

I remember watching a documentary about this on television quite recently here in the U.K. and found the whole thing quite frustrating to say the least.

We've also had coverage of one of your states removing evolution from their education curriculum. Amazing! They'll be burning witches next!

Yes, alas, its true...As of this past August, the State Board of Education of Kansas voted 6-4, I do believe, to remove 'all mention of the theory of evolution' from their approved science curriculum. As I understand it (I am from the State of Kentucky, so it doesn't concern me very much other than academically), the teaching of evolution is not banned per se. It is simply no longer required to be taught by the state standards and will no longer appear on state aptitude tests and other state standard tests for public school. Of course, since it is no longer required, it is natural to assume that it will be then phased-out on a distric-by-district level. The head of the state board, who himself is part of the reactionary right-wing, even wanted the inclusion of the following sentence in place of evolution--"The design and complexity of the design of the universe requires an intelligent designer." Atrocious grammar. The whole State of Kansas is going to be--if not already--a laughing stock both here in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. It's really quite a travesty...

I don't believe we should allow redundantly redundant morons to decde what our kids learn.

Hey! Monsieur Gargle Blaster... I was wondering how long it's be before you turned up! Greetings an' all that. It is the morons with their fingers on nuclear buttons and in positions of power that do everything for their particular God who are really worrying!

Hiya Gwennie...fancy seeing you in a god-bashing forum like this!

The Christianity-Science debate has largely been fuelled by ignorance on both sides of the debate, mainly of a philosophical nature. Christians tend to overlook prinicples of biblical hermeneutics (interpretation of scripture in its context) regarding Genesis 1-12 and some poor arguements can seem persuasive if an individual has a limited scientific understanding. Scientists tend to have a wrong understanding of the scope of science theory which can lead to it being adopted as a kind of dogma which may lead to derision of Christians, often targeting the creationists view (not necessarily representational of all Christian belief) or a wrong understanding of the tenets of Christianity. Philosophically there is actually common ground between the two, the two are not mutually exclusive.

There is a very accessible book called 'Unnatural Enemies' by Kirsten Birkett which makes this point, admittedly from a Christian perspective, but would also provide an useful insight into the mind-set of the 'other' camp for scientists. I've no stake in the sales of this book, but have found it a helpful read when there is so much dross and mud-slinging available on the subject from both sides.

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