Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
Many of you probably remember the Scopes trial, which involved intelligent design and evolution. In that trial, despite William Jennings Bryan getting humiliated, Scopes still lost the trial for breaking the law by teaching evolution. However, in the case Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District, intelligent design was found to be a form of creationism and unconstitutional to teach in American public schools.
The school district had made a policy under which “students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design,” and made teachers read a disclaimer in class before teaching evolution. The disclaimer basically stated that the school was mandated to teach evolution, and encouraged them to learn more about intelligent design, an alternative theory to evolution.
Parents and teachers sued the district, arguing that the disclaimer impermissibly promoted religion in violation of the Establishment Clause, while the district contended that intelligent design was a theory independent of creationism that does not specifically promote God as the creator, though it does provide that some unidentified force created humankind.
The court surveyed the history of intelligent design and creationism and found the content of both theories so similar that an objective adult or student would perceive the district’s promotion of intelligent design to be overtly religious. Further, the court found that since intelligent design is basically the theory of creationism under different terms, it was not a science, but a religious belief. The court found their actions therefore to be an endorsement of intelligent design.
Next, the court applied the test developed in Lemon v. Kurtzman, which asks whether the purpose and effect of government action is to advance religion. The court found that the district had specifically chose intelligent design as an alternative to creationism and the superintendent had discussed ways to teach creationism.
This decision was testament to the fact that by then, and even by the Scopes trial, Darwin’s theory of evolution had already become widely accepted. Additionally, forcing religion in school, like in the Engel case, had already been ruled as unconstitutional. The Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District further reinforced these ideas.
Sources:
https://ncse.com/library-resource/kitzmiller-v-dover-intelligent-design-trial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District
https://www.aclu.org/other/trial-kitzmiller-v-dover
I like how this post builds upon the Scopes trial that we learned about in class several months ago. In addition, I think that the progression of American perspective on religion and science parallels the evolution of evangelism as we learned about. The Scopes trial represented a definite humiliation of the evangelist community, as the deep religious conviction of evangelism had been rhetorically defeated by the new scientific, secular ideas. Similarly, evangelism's return to politics was due to the observed increase in secularism. It is worth noting that the case, regarding the role of religion in science, occurred as late as 2005, showing the relevance of God in America even today.
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