Evolution, Intelligent Design, And A School Board In Dover, Pa.
An eyewitness account of the 2005 courtroom drama that put evolution on trial.
This riveting firsthand account details six weeks of the most widely ranging and fascinating biological, philosophical, and theological testimony in U.S. legal history–a battle between hard science and religious conservatives wishing to promote a new version of creationism in schools.
In a trial in Dover, Pennsylvania, members on the school board defended their view that intelligent design (rather than evolution) should be taught as an explanation for the origins and diversity of life on earth. The trial revealed much more than a disagreement about how to approach science education. It showed two essentially different and conflicting views of the world: the fundamentalist-creationist view, which mandates the existence of a creative and engaged personal God, and the secular-evolutionary one, which does not. The ruling by George W. Bush—appointed Judge John Jones III unexpectedly concluded that intelligent design was religion and not science and scolded the school board for wasting precious public time and money.
