Read Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion for Free Online

while ID arguments may be true, a proposition on which the Court takes no position, ID is not science.” He gave three reasons. First, unlike science, ID invokes supernatural explanations. Second, it rests on the flawed argument that evidence against the current theory of evolution supports the design alternative. Third, scientists have largely refuted the negative attacks on evolution leveled by ID proponents. Intelligent design, the judge stressed, has not been accepted by the scientific community, has not had papers published in peer-reviewed publications, and has not been subjected to testing and research—all points that Michael Behe conceded under cross examination. Indeed, after offering an alternative definition for science that ID could meet—“a proposed explanation which focuses or points to physical, observable data and logical inferences”—Behe admitted that astrology would also qualify as science. This alone probably sealed the decision, but evidence that school board members acted with a clear religious purpose and then tried to cover up their tracks also turned this judge, a no-nonsense conservative appointed by President George W Bush, against the school policy. “The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial,” Judge Jones concluded. 12
    In Dover, as in Cobb County, the school board’s decision to adopt the antievolution disclaimer polarized the community. It divided families, neighbors, and churches. In an election held before the court ruled, voters replaced eight members of the school board with candidates opposed to the policy, guaranteeing that the board would not appeal the court’s ruling. When Americans on either side of this controversy watch what happened in Cobb County or Dover, they wonder how the controversy might play out in their own hometowns and among their friends. Of course the media took notice—making these cases top stories.
    That, in brief, is where the creation-evolution teaching controversy stands more than eighty years after Dayton gained headlines by prosecuting John Scopes. It resurfaces periodically in countless Daytons throughout the United States over everyday episodes of science teachers either defying or deifying Darwin. Such acts generate lawsuits and legislation precisely because religion continues to matter greatly in America. Public opinion surveys invariably find that more than nine in ten Americans believe in God, just as they have found since pollsters began asking about such matters in the 1950s. Surveys also indicate that more than three-fourths of all Americans believe in miracles and that three out of five say religion is very important in their lives. It troubles many Americans that science does not affirm their faith and outrages some when their children’s biology coursework seems to deny their biblical beliefs.
    As a diverse people, Americans have learned to seek the middle ground whenever possible. As a species, however, human beings instinctively respond to stirring oratory. Darrow and Bryan had mastered that craft and used it in Dayton to enlist their legions. They tapped into a cultural divide that deeply troubles American society. And as people learn either from Proverbs in the Bible or a Broadway classic, “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” That wind has sporadically touched off maelstroms over the past eighty years—storms that sorely test America’s national tradition of tolerance. If history offers a barometer for future events, it forecasts more heavy weather ahead.

NOTES
     
    Throughout the notes, page numbers of newspaper articles refer to the first page of the article, and the following sources are identified in short form:
     
    ACLU Archives: American Civil Liberties Union Archives, Princeton University Libraries, Princeton, N.J.
     
    Bryan Papers: William Jennings Bryan Papers, Library of