by Dr. Michael Smith

Created on: February 18, 2009

As the scientific world celebrates the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of Species, a recent Gallup Poll found that in the United States only one in four accepts the Theory of Evolution as the truth (usatoday.com 2007). This is met with some confusion among scientists who admire and teach his work as the basis for evolutionary processes.

The major predictor of these findings is America's strong religious underpinnings. Those who attend church are more likely to say they disbelieve the Theory of Evolution. Americans have not significantly changed their position on this point since it was first asked of poll respondents in 1982 (Brooks 2001).

Historiography of the Creation-Evolution Controversy

So why is it that after more than a 150 years the teaching of evolution is still not accepted? A short historiography may provide a few of the answers. When Darwin's Origin of Species was published in November, 1859 almost everyone believed in the idea of special creation. Man was created by a special act of God as dictated by the ancient accounts found in the book of Genesis. As can be imagined, strong opposition was mounted by churches, seminaries, and clergy against Darwin's theory. Not every clergy was anti-evolution, and by the 1880s a compromise theory, often referred to as theistic evolution, allowed many clergy to accept the principle of Darwin's theory.

Many believed that with the backing of science, and the additional support of liberal clergy, that the idea of evolution would be widely accepted. In 1916 a new survey changed that idea radically. The survey of college students found that many lost their faith while at college, and mainly because of the teaching of evolution. This spread alarm among Bible-believers all over the US and gave rise to Christian Fundamentalism. The term was first applied to the group in 1921 and referred to Christians who adhered to three distinct principles: doctrinal orthodoxy, militancy, and separatism. While other Christian groups held to doctrinal orthodoxy, it was the militancy, or willingness to take these issues into the public arena that soon distinguished them from the Evangelical. Evolution became the first public contest and set the stage for the Scopes Trial of 1925.

The Scopes "Monkey" Trial

John T. Scopes was a first year teacher who answered an ad placed by the ACLU to test a new law in the state of Tennessee which banned the teaching of evolution. Dayton, Tennessee leaders saw the

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