The Creation Controversy The Science Classroom

In the debate over creationism, you need ammunition that will let you respond to the opposition in a forceful but reasoned manner. This is it. Organized into three practical parts, The Creation Controversy arms you with insights into modern science and the Book of Genesis, effective strategies for teaching evolution and other controversial topics, and the NSTA Position Statement on Evolution. Nelson uses an outstanding metaphor to illustrate the underlying processes of reasoning and comparison, a burger with three bun layers and two meat layers. The bun layers are areas where there are currently no solid scientific answers only speculation. These are the origin of consciousness, the origin of a genetic system, and the origin of the universe. The meat layers are the age and physical development of the universe and the diversification of life. In these two areas sicence has provided relatively solid answers.

A novel handbook that explains why so many secondary and college students reject evolution and are antagonistic toward its teaching.

In 1999, by the board of education in Kansas voted to delete all mention of evolution from the state’s recommended science curriculum and also from its educational assessment tests. This decision, and similar decisions in other states, suggest the persistence of creationists and their ability to capture sufficient support to influence educational policies. Although evolutionary ideas have become increasing important to many scientific fields, the creationists still have significant influence on science curriculum. How have religious fundamentalists and right wing conservatives managed to have such influence? In this science-dominated age, why is their such opposition to the teaching of evolution? This book places the Kansas decision in the broader context of the controversy between creationists and evolutionists, as a group of religious fundamentalists who defined themselves as scientists have challenged the most basic assumptions of contemporary biology. Though motivated by religious beliefs, they have tried to bypass the Constitutional requirement for the separation of church and state as they seek to influence legislature and school boards. Looking at the people involved in this social movement and tracing changes in their arguments and strategies, this book links the creation-evolution controversy to broader questions about the meaning of religion in a secular science, public trust in science, and persistent concerns about its social and moral implications.

Charles Darwin has been at the center of white-hot public debate for more than a century. In Living With Darwin, Philip Kitcher stokes the flames swirling around Darwin's theory, sifting through the scientific evidence for evolution, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design, and revealing why evolution has been the object of such vehement attack. Kitcher first provides valuable perspective on the present controversy, describing the many puzzles that blocked evolution's acceptance in the early years, and explaining how scientific research eventually found the answers to these conundrums. Interestingly, Kitcher shows that many of these early questions have been resurrected in recent years by proponents of Intelligent Design. In fact, Darwin himself considered the issue of intelligent design, and amassed a mountain of evidence that effectively refuted the idea. Kitcher argues that the problem with Intelligent Design isn't that it's "not science," as many critics say, but that it's "dead science," raising questions long resolved by scientists. But Kitcher points out that it is also important to recognize the cost of Darwin's success--the price of "life with Darwin." Darwinism has a profound effect on our understanding of our place in the universe, on our religious beliefs and aspirations. It is in truth the focal point of a larger clash between religious faith and modern science. Unless we can resolve this larger issue, the war over evolution will go on.

Who should decide what children are taught in school? This question lies at the heart of the evolution-creation wars that have become a regular feature of the US political landscape. Ever since the 1925 Scopes 'monkey trial' many have argued that the people should decide by majority rule and through political institutions; others variously point to the federal courts, educational experts, or scientists as the ideal arbiter. Berkman and Plutzer illuminate who really controls the nation's classrooms. Based on their innovative survey of 926 high school biology teachers they show that the real power lies with individual educators who make critical decisions in their own classrooms. Broad teacher discretion sometimes leads to excellent instruction in evolution. But the authors also find evidence of strong creationist tendencies in America's public high schools. More generally, they find evidence of a systematic undermining of science and the scientific method in many classrooms.

Who has not wondered about the origin of the universe and life? And, for certain, this is a question that should be taken with the utmost seriousness and sense of duty. After all, how can we know why we are here or what we should be doing if we do not know where we came from?Although religions have their belief (creation), and materialists have their belief(evolution), beliefs are not what truth is about. This is a book of daring adventure between these two emotionally charged belief systems. Rather than advocate, Dr. Wysong pits one belief against the other using the only weapons that should be used if truth is the objective: reason and evidence.Dr. Wysong's rational, philosophic, and scientific probings make this book a reservoir of thoughtful and factual information that will not draw dust on your bookshelf.Now in its thirteenth printing, this seminal 1975 book has been read worldwide, is widely cited on the web, and continues to be used in schools. It has helped lay the groundwork for a rational dialogue between religion and science and remains current to this day because of its even handed treatment of the subject and because reason should never fall out of fashion.

In this comprehensive treatment of the ongoing conflict between creationists and evolutionary scientists, well-known geomorphologist Arthur Strahler carefully examines creationists' claims of scientific evidence for the six-day divine creation of the universe, followed by the catastrophic flood of Noah, as claimed in Genesis. The creationists' arguments are examined and evaluated against the findings of mainstream science in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, geophysics, geology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology. Updated with a new preface and responses to recent attacks on evolutionary theory, Science and Earth History can serve as both a popular overview of earth history and as a scholarly anecdote to the fictions of creationism once again finding their way into classrooms and universities. Strahler illuminates the controversy by reviewing the philosophy, methodology, and sociology of empirical science, as contrasted with the belief systems of religion and pseudoscience. The author also includes lucid criteria for distinguishing science from pseudoscience, and reviews the great discoveries and developments in science that point to the evolution of life over the earth's three-billion-year history.

Charles Robert Darwin’s 1859 landmark book, "On the Origin of Species," introduced the theory of biological evolution to the masses and kicked off a controversy of ideas that persists to this day. Darwin knew he would face religious opposition to a theory of creation that differed from the story in Genesis, but he probably didn’t imagine how long that opposition would last. More than 150 years after "Origin," the fight over teaching evolution rages on. Creationists, or those who hold the belief that the universe and all life was made by divine creator, have tried to use a myriad of tactics either to ban the teaching of evolution entirely or to have creationism and/or intelligent design taught alongside it in public schools. In this eBook, "Evolution vs. Creationism: Inside the Controversy," we take a close look at the rise of Darwinism, the arguments and opposition by the creationist movement, whether faith and science can coexist and what could happen if the U.S. continues on an anti-science trajectory. In “The Origin of Darwinism,” author C.D. Darlington provides historical context by looking at how the work of other scientific pioneers laid the foundation for "Origin" and how Darwin’s own ideas “evolved” over time. “A Witness at the Scopes Trial” is a fascinating first-hand account of the 1925 court case where Tennessee biology teacher John Thomas Scopes was tried for teaching evolution. John Rennie’s “15 Answers to Creationists Nonsense” is a thoughtful, concise refutation of the main arguments against evolution, such as “Evolution is just a theory.” On the flip side, in “Should Science Speak to Faith?” scientists Laurence M. Krauss and Richard Dawkins discuss whether science and faith can coexist. With this eBook, we went from deep in our archives to current events to examine the revolutionary impact of Darwin’s theory and the controversy that continues today.

The University of Minnesota organized a conference ("Evolution and Public Education," December 5, 1981) to help clarify issues in the creation/evolution controversy and to examine arguments of the proponents of scientific creationism. This six-part book, a revised version of a resource manual compiled for the conference: (1) discusses the theory of evolution and its place in science education; (2) examines the creationist movement; (3) states the position of scientific creationists; (4) responds to creationists' arguments against evolution; (5) explores legal issues in the controversy; and (6) provides some perspectives on attempts to treat the Genesis creation account as science. The fifth section, on legal issues, includes Judge Overton's decision striking down the Arkansas Creationism Act, as well as pieces of legislation which reveal the changing tactics of creationists, who first sought to ban the teaching of evolution in the 1920s, then sought equal time for biblical creationism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and now seek a two-model approach to earth science/biology teaching (evolution as one model, scientific creationism as the other). A comprehensive bibliography lists most of the important works that directly address the controversy, as well as many publications on the philosophy of science and faith issues. (JN)

No fight over what gets taught in American classrooms is more heated than the battle over humanity’s origins. For more than a century we have argued about evolutionary theory and creationism (and its successor theory, intelligent design), yet we seem no closer to a resolution than we were in Darwin’s day. In this thoughtful examination of how we teach origins, historian Adam Laats and philosopher Harvey Siegel offer crucial new ways to think not just about the evolution debate but how science and religion can make peace in the classroom. Laats and Siegel agree with most scientists: creationism is flawed, as science. But, they argue, students who believe it nevertheless need to be accommodated in public school science classes. Scientific or not, creationism maintains an important role in American history and culture as a point of religious dissent, a sustained form of protest that has weathered a century of broad—and often dramatic—social changes. At the same time, evolutionary theory has become a critical building block of modern knowledge. The key to accommodating both viewpoints, they show, is to disentangle belief from knowledge. A student does not need to believe in evolution in order to understand its tenets and evidence, and in this way can be fully literate in modern scientific thought and still maintain contrary religious or cultural views. Altogether, Laats and Siegel offer the kind of level-headed analysis that is crucial to finding a way out of our culture-war deadlock.