Evolution Versus Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Evolution Versus Religion - Essay Example The most famous case that dealt with this issue set the scene for the debate that would follow. The Scopes Trial held in Tennessee in 1925 challenged the Butler Act which made it illegal "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." A schoolteacher was charged and put on trial for the crime of teaching Darwin. Although the teacher, Scopes, was eventually found guilty—and made to pay a fine—the Supreme Court of the United States eventually overturned the ban on teaching evolution in 1968, saying that such a ban would violate the constitution since it would be to the benefit of religion. Nevertheless, this trial turned into a circus and was a huge spectacle as it pitted passionate believers of religion and evolution against one another. Amazingly, the debate continues to this day, most recently in the last ten years with the rise of what is called Intelligent Design.The debate between evolution and creationism came back into the public sphere with a vengeance following a big fight on a school board in rural Pennsylvania. Here a number of advocacy groups had gone out of their way to repackage creationism which was seen to be explicitly religious in a format which they claimed was more secular: Intelligent Design, a theory which held that the world is simply too complicated to have occurred randomly without a directing hand. Often proponents of ID would quote scientists to this effect. They were in a manner trying to use science to prove the existence of God. On various school boards across the United States proponents of ID would not ask to ban teaching evolution; instead, they would argue that there was more than one viewpoint on the matter and that schools should also teach ID or â€Å"teach the controversy.†