The following package of nine stories chronicles-from a variety of angles and viewpoints-the growing clash between evolution and an alternative theory, intelligent design. While the debate is about science, it’s fueled by religious beliefs and strongly held values. All of these stories moved on Nov. 23, along with a number of photos. Download the evolution stories from our online archives here and photos here. Just type evolution into the search engine.
Town Still Ridiculed 80 Years After Scopes Trial
DAYTON, Tenn.-Eighty years ago, media coverage of the “Scopes Monkey Trial” branded this town a backwater haven of the Bible Belt, a place where ignorant Christians gave blind faith precedence over scientific discovery. It’s still ridiculed for its biblical beliefs, recently by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” but its residents make no apologies. Nestled on the Tennessee River, Dayton offers gospel music at McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants. Last year, county commissioners voted to ban homosexuals, only to reverse themselves after a national outcry. Dayton is a place where residents rallied to raise money to keep Bible stories in their public schools after a lawsuit was filed. It’s a Southern town where the first question after an introduction is not, “What do you do?” but, “What church do you go to?” In short, Dayton remains the faith-based city that hosted what was called the trial of the century in 1925, a trial that many cite as a turning point nationally for evangelical Christians and their beliefs. By Amy Green. With photos. 1,150 words with optional trim to 1,000.
School Board Chairman Defends Faith, Blasts Evolution
ARKANSAS CITY, Kan.-At the Sirloin Stockade, the state school board chairman leading an assault on “neo-Darwinian biological evolution” bowed his head and prayed aloud before eating his buffet lunch. A veterinarian and farmer, Steve Abrams makes no secret of his Christian faith or his belief that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days less than 10,000 years ago. “I don’t believe Genesis is observable, measurable, testable, repeatable and falsifiable,” he added. “You take it on faith.” But Abrams, 56, insisted he’s not trying to impose his religious views on the state’s 460,000 public school students. His critics see it differently. Led by Abrams, the board’s conservative majority voted 6-4 on Nov. 8 to adopt new science standards critical of the theory of evolution first advanced by Charles Darwin. By Bobby Ross Jr. With photo. 1,000 words with optional trim to 900.
Vatican Gives Mixed Messages on Intelligent Design
VATICAN CITY-Ever since the Roman inquisition condemned Galileo, prompting over three centuries of damage control to the church’s credibility, the Vatican has been careful not to overstep the limits of faith. That is why Pope Benedict XVI caught many by surprise when recently he described the universe as an “intelligent project that is the cosmos.” Echoing the language of the intelligent design movement, Benedict waded into a debate that has blurred the lines between religion and science in the United States and beyond. Advisers appear divided, however, over whether the pope supports intelligent design’s challenge to evolution. Benedict “doesn’t have the slightest idea of what intelligent design means in the U.S.,” said the Rev. George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory and an outspoken critic of intelligent design. “Intelligent design in America is not science. It’s a religious movement,” he said in an interview. By Stacy Meichtry. 1,000 words with optional trim to 725.
Vatican Astronomer Says Science Can’t Prove God
SYRACUSE, N.Y.-From Brother Guy J. Consolmagno’s perspective, the latest chapter in the evolution vs. creationism debate focuses on the wrong question. “People who want to use science to prove God did something are making a fundamental mistake,” Consolmagno, a Vatican astronomer, said between lecturing at biology and Latin classes. “It makes science more important than God,” he said. “People are trying to impose what they think their religion is on science. I also see people imposing what they think they know about science on religion.” Consolmagno recently discussed the connections between science and religion at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. By Rene Gadoua. With photos. 550 words.
`Evolutionary Evangelist’ Takes Show on the Road
(UNDATED) For three years, Michael Dowd has traveled the country with his wife, science writer Connie Barlow, sleeping in their van or at friends’ homes and preaching a 14 billion-year-old gospel. “The Great Story,” as Dowd calls it, presents the epic of evolution as sacred and meaningful, rather than as a mechanized process of random improvements. It combines the discoveries of science with a reverence for God and a reinterpretation of Christianity. Dowd was originally ordained a United Church of Christ minister but is no longer connected with a specific denomination. A Q&A with a self-described “evolutionary evangelist.” By Jill Smith. With photo. 800 words.
How a Bible-Carrying Anglican Theorized Evolution
(UNDATED) More than a century before today’s proponents of intelligent design theory began arguing that life is too complex to arise through the natural process of evolution-an argument that has produced the latest clash in America’s culture wars-Charles Darwin, evolution’s main man, was causing trouble. He didn’t set out to upset people. He was, after all, a strict Creationist on his way toward becoming an Anglican clergyman when he embarked at age 22 on the odyssey of naturalistic observations that would provide the grist for his revelation. His inscribed Bible-which can be seen in a new exhibit about Darwin at the American Museum of Natural History in New York-was among the handful of belongings he brought along for his seminal journey aboard the H.M.S. Beagle. Darwin had been sitting on the controversial notion of evolution and natural selection for 21 years. By Kitta MacPherson. With illustration. 1,400 words with optional trim to 1,100.
Intelligent Design Puts Big Spotlight on Small Town
DOVER, Pa.-Todd Gentzler was sitting on the small wooden porch of the venerable brick house he bought a few months ago on Main Street, cleaning heating baseboards he had removed from inside, when he was greeted by a reporter. Media from across the country had converged on the town since the local school board introduced intelligent design in its ninth-grade biology classes in January, rekindling a national debate over evolution and creationism and pitching Dover into a landmark court battle over the constitutional separation of church and state. The New York Times had come. So had Newsweek, People and Rolling Stone. But as they wait for a judge’s verdict, residents have grown weary of the attention their small town of about 1,900 has gained since the school board required biology teachers to read a statement on intelligent design. By Jim Lewis. With photos. 900 words with optional trim to 550.
Judge Will `Rule as I See Fit’ on Intelligent Design
HARRISBURG, Pa.-Both sides of a federal trial on intelligent design expect that Judge John E. Jones III will rule on whether the school board in Dover, Pa., violated the First Amendment when it adopted a policy on intelligent design. But beyond that, all bets are off. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based proponent of intelligent design, wants the judge to limit his ruling to the school board’s actions. Opponents of the policy want a broad ruling, one that addresses not only the board’s decision but the issue of whether intelligent design is science or a new term for creationism. Jones, who plans to issue a ruling by early January, would not disclose whether he intends to issue a narrow or broad decision, but said he was aware of the potentially historic significance of his verdict. “I’ll rule as I see fit,” he said Thursday (Nov. 10) in his chambers at the U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg, Pa. By Bill Sulon. 1,200 words with optional trim to 575.
Discovery Institute Seeks Acceptance in Science
(UNDATED) According to a six-year-old “wedge document,” The Discovery Institute, a leading proponent of intelligent design, “seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies.” The document described a five-year goal of making intelligent design “an accepted alternative in the sciences” and a 20-year objective of making “intelligent design theory … the dominant perspective in science.” Leaked to the Internet in 1999, the Discovery Institute’s Center for Renewal of Science and Culture calls it “an early fundraising proposal” that has become “a giant urban legend.” The document became an issue in a trial, awaiting a verdict, on about the teaching of intelligent design in a Pennsylvania public school district. By Bill Sulon. 1,000 words.
