Opinion: Evolution is still under attack on Darwin’s 202nd Birthday

Written by Daniel Sprockett Monday, 07 February 2011 21:31

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Feb. 12 marks Charles Darwin’s 202nd birthday. Although Darwin is published widely on a variety of topics related to natural history, he is best known for his discovery of biological evolution as put forth in “On the Origin of Species.”

Scientists following Darwin have extensively expanded and validated his theories about the origins of biological diversity. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Darwinian understanding of evolution was integrated with genetics to form what is now known as the modern synthesis of evolution. Although some of Darwin’s scientific contemporaries raised questions about the validity of his theory, evolution is now recognized as the single unifying principle of biology, and is essential to understanding the way life works.

However, religious conservatives have opposed evolution ever since it was proposed in 1859. In 1925, Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was found guilty of violating the Butler Act, a state law that prohibited the teaching of “any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.” The now infamous Scopes “Monkey Trial” was the first in a long line of high-profile court cases concerning the teaching of evolution in American schools and represents the last time the anti-evolution movement won a case.

The 1968 Supreme Court case Epperson v. Arkansas ruled that state laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The 1987 Edwards v. Aguillard Supreme Court case ruled that a Louisiana state law requiring public schools to give equal treatment to evolution and its religious alternative, creationism, was also unconstitutional. Most recently, the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case ruled that the pseudo-scientific concept of intelligent design is inherently religious in nature and is, in essence, a mere re-labeling of creationism, so it therefore also violates Constitutionally-mandated church/state separation.

However, as the National Center for Science Education reports, intelligent design creationists have remained persistent. Anti-evolution legislation has already been introduced in New Mexico, Missouri , Kentucky and Oklahoma this year.

Although the specific language of each bill varies by state, they share a few common themes. They are sponsored almost exclusively by republican legislators, and they commonly cloak their blatantly religious intentions as promoting academic freedoms. Many bills provide protection for teachers who examine the “strengths and weaknesses” of controversial theories in biology and list examples of such controversial topics as evolution, the origin of life, human cloning and global climate change.

Their intentions could hardly be more transparent. For example, Josh Brecheen, a Republican state senator in Oklahoma, recently wrote of the bill he is sponsoring, “I have introduced legislation requiring every publically funded Oklahoma school to teach the debate of creation vs. evolution using the known science, even that which conflicts with Darwin's religion.”

This bill and bills like it are clearly unconstitutional and will do nothing but promote falsehoods while attracting lengthy and expensive litigation for school districts. Presenting evolution as a controversial theory is, at best, ignorant of the huge compendium of knowledge on the topic, and is intentionally dishonest at worst. Scientists are as sure of evolution as we are that germs cause disease or that sex leads to reproduction. Evolution happens, and no amount of legislation will change this fact of life.