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Livvy Martus

Finney
Science Communications
9 March 2018
Evolution vs Creationism in Schools

Pintrest.com

Since the very beginning, science class has become a topic for many students. The topic that
still do this day stirs up much controversy is the idea of Evolution vs Creationism.

The topic has always relied on religious texts to provide support on the theory of Creationism
and lack thereof for Evolution.

The debate started very early on in 1925, with what as known as the Monkey Trial.
According to Abby Norman of Futurism, “A high school science teacher named John Scopes
was arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime of teaching evolution to his class in a public
school in the state of Tennessee.”

“Under a law known as The Butler Act, Tennessee had put an outright ban on the teaching of
evolution in public schools. The Scopes Trial, as it became known, lasted just eight days, at the
end of which the jury reached their verdict in less than ten minutes and that case forever
changed the way science is taught in public schools.”

Is this idea strictly supported in schools with heavy religious backgrounds? The facts may not be
as clear as that.

Elizabeth Martus was a teacher at Central Public School in Rockbridge County, Virginia from
the years of 1991-95.
She describes the small town as very much built around the church community and every social
gathering centered around the friends you had in church.

Despite the heavy church community, Martus did not see much of a stir of teachers wanting to
change the curriculum.

“I saw the complete opposite, because the community was so religious and loyal to the church,
they did not want to tamper that by not teaching evolution even if it did not go along with their
beliefs.”

The number of people that choose to believe in creationism has changed over the years.

According to Frank Newport of Gallup, “the number is 4 out of 10 people still believing
creationism to be true.”

In addition, “the percentage of Americans who believe Evolution to be the only answer has
doubled since 1999.”

“Fewer Americans claim familiarity with "creationism" than did so seven years ago. In 2007,
86% were familiar, including 50% who were very familiar. Now, 76% are familiar, with just 38%
very familiar.”

He says that despite that number, “about 40-47% of Americans have said the creationist
explanation for the origin of human life best fits their personal views and this has to do with their
religious upbringing.”

Martus is still hopeful for a future when this topic will not be as big a deal to teach in schools.

“Things as far as teaching evolution in the classroom has gotten better, and there will always be
people that disagree, but people now are less likely to actively protest and that is how you know
things are getting better.”

“I cannot speak for private schools, but issues with evolution being taught in the public school
setting is going to become a thing of the past as few as two years from now.”

Whether or not the debate will ever be solved is still unanswered.

Reflection: This unit as a whole was hard for me because I was only familiar with evolution as
the topic I learned about in every biology class in high school. I was not so familiar with the
anthropology side of this unit and so I decided to write about something that I had some history
with and that I was not completely lost on. The topic of evolution in the school setting has
always been one of those topics that I never understood would be that big of a deal and yet I
see news reports all the time on different schools teaching the alternate to evolution still in 2018.
I wanted to take this topic and ask a relative who lived in an area where the topic could have
been protested and yet I was still surprised when the opposite reaction was given. This debate
may never get solved fully, but it is still an interesting one to talk about nonetheless.

Works Cited

Martus, Elizabeth. “Evolution the public school setting.” 6 March. 2018.

Newport, Frank. “In U.S., 42% Believe Creationist View of Human Origins.” Gallup, 7 Mar. 2018.

“The Battle to Teach Evolution in Public Schools Is Far From Over.” Futurism, 21 May 2017.

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