report | May 16, 2007

An Evolving Debate about Evolution

by David Masci, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life The evolution controversy, traditionally a state and local issue, has vaulted into the national political arena, making a surprise appearance at the first Republican presidential candidate debate on May 3 and garnering a large amount of press attention in the days following […]

transcript | Mar 29, 2006

Biology Wars

Download the Discussion Read the original Transcript The current legal and political battles surrounding the teaching of evolution in American schools are part of an 80-year-old debate stretching back to the summer of 1925 and the famous Scopes “monkey” trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Now, as then, the fight reflects deep divisions within the country over […]

transcript | Dec 5, 2005

The Biology Wars: The Religion, Science and Education Controversy

Key West, Florida Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Florida, in December 2005 for the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. Conference speaker Edward J. Larson, Talmadge Chair of Law and Russell Professor of American History at the University of Georgia, discussed the history of […]

fact sheet | Sep 22, 2005

From Darwin to Dover: An Overview of Important Cases in the Evolution Debate

Almost 150 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking theory on the origins of life, Americans are still fighting over evolution. If anything, the controversy is growing in both size and intensity. Recent polls indicate that challenges to Darwinian evolution have substantial support among the American people. According to a July 2005 survey sponsored by […]

report | May 5, 2005

A Local Issue with National Participation

The Kansas State Board of Education has begun hearings on whether to change the way that biology is taught in public schools to include the teaching of intelligent design, a contrary theory to that of evolution and natural selection.

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