The Magazine

The Four Rs

Readin', writin', 'rithmetic, and religion?

Oct 24, 2005, Vol. 11, No. 06 • By CHARMAINE YOEST
Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

Does God Belong in Public Schools?

by Kent Greenawalt

Princeton University Press, 296 pp., $29.95

IN 1925, JOHN SCOPES, a 24-year-old science teacher, violated Tennessee law by teaching his students the theory of evolution. The result was State v. John Scopes, the infamous "Monkey Trial" immortalized in the classic play and movie Inherit the Wind.

Nearly a century later, the Scopes trial still is being replayed in schoolrooms and courtrooms across the country. Today, Ground Zero in the evolution-creation conflagration has shifted to Kansas. The Kansas State Board of Education began hearings in May to consider including intelligent design in the state science standards. A nationwide coalition of scientists is boycotting the hearings. Kansas is not alone: Controversy over teaching evolution has erupted in at least 20 states.

In Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, the focus is on attempts to modify textbooks so that arguments for evolution are labeled clearly as "theory." And parents in Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit after a school board decision requiring schools to teach intelligent design. The conflict in the schools, of course, goes beyond questions about evolution. Parents in Maryland are challenging the implementation of a sex education curriculum that labeled as "myth" the belief that "homosexuality is a sin." In an initial ruling on a restraining order, the district court judge concluded that the curriculum promoted "viewpoint discrimination," and threatened the parents' First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber

We're Sorry,

the rest of this article is available only to subscribers.

You have two options:

Subscribing today will provide you with immediate, complete access to the current issue, as well as to all back issues on the site. Each week you will be able to read articles from the newest issue even before print copies are mailed!

Privacy Policy