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Science and Religion: A Historical Perspective on the Conflict over Teaching Evolution in the Schools Summary

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Science and Religion: A Historical Perspective on the Conflict over Teaching Evolution in the Schools Summary
Science and Religion: A Historical Perspective on the Conflict over Teaching Evolution in the Schools Summary

This article traces the history of political and legal challenges to teaching evolution

in U.S. public schools. In 2005, there were two court cases one was in Kansas and the

other one in Pennsylvania. In Kansas, the Kansas State Board of Education revised its

science standards for the second time in six years because there were some people who

were for the teaching of evolution in state’s public school and those who were against it. A

conservative-led board had to alter the definition of science to please people. In Dover,

Pennsylvania, eight families sued their school board over its decision in October 2004 to

require the school teachers to read the following statement before ninth-grade biology

classes: “ Because Darwin’s theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is

discovered. The theory is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no

evidence.”

This article then talks about the level of tension between science and Christianity and

how new scientific theories have challenged established religious beliefs concerning humans’

special place in the universe. He then goes on to tell us that Copernicus and Darwin as well as

the Vatican and Darwin, have provided the building blocks for the widely held view of several

centuries of warfare between science and Christianity. The problem is that recent scholarship

suggests it is an exaggeration and that it no longer serves to explain the actual historical

relationship between science and Christianity. Later, this article goes into Darwin and his theory

and some people were divided in their response to Darwin. The ministers and theologians attacked

Darwinian evolution. Some scientist believed that Darwin’s theory was correct and even

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