{"id":1114,"date":"2013-10-28T17:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T17:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/10\/redefining-religion.html"},"modified":"2013-10-28T17:05:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T17:05:00","slug":"redefining-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/10\/redefining-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Redefining Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
It took the jury fewer than fifteen minutes to convict substitute teacher John Scopes of the crime of teaching evolution to Tennessee public school students in 1925.\u00a0 It was the last victory of Christian fundamentalists in their war against the disciples of Darwin, and a hollow one at that. \u00a0Although the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law, it reversed the verdict because the trial judge had imposed a $100.00 fine on Mr. Scopes, contrary to\u00a0a provision in the Tennessee constitution\u00a0requiring a jury to assess fines exceeding $50.00.\u00a0 In sending the case back, however, the court made the unusual suggestion that further prosecution not be pursued.\u00a0\u00a0Scopes v.\u00a0State,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>154 Tenn. 105, 289 SW 363 (1927).\u00a0 It was not.<\/span><\/div>\n
Fundamentalists were emboldened by the Scopes verdict.\u00a0 In 1928 Mississippi and Arkansas adopted similar laws and\u00a0in the ensuing years, the subject of evolution was effectively dropped as a topic in many high school science courses, a trend that was not reversed until the Sputnik scare in 1958 led to a revamping of science curricula.\u00a0 It was not until 1968 that the Supreme Court decreed that laws forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools violated the Establishment Clause.\u00a0\u00a0Epperson v. Arkansas,<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>397 U.S. 97 (1968).<\/span><\/div>\n
With direct bans no longer available, fundamentalists pursued a new strategy, the adoption of\u00a0\u201dbalanced treatment\u201d legislation requiring that teachers provide\u00a0time for the exploration of the Genesis story of creation as an alternative explanation of biological origins.\u00a0 In 1983 a federal district judge threw out Arkansas\u2019 balanced treatment statute, concluding that creationism is \u201cnot science because it depends upon a supernatural intervention which is not guided by natural law.\u00a0 It is not explanatory by reference to natural law, is not testable and is not falsifiable.\u201d\u00a0McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>529 F. Supp. 1255, 1267\u00a0(E.D. Ark. 1982).\u00a0 Several years later, Louisiana\u2019s balanced treatment statute was also found to violate the Establishment Clause under the\u00a0Lemon<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>test.\u00a0\u00a0Edwards v. Aguillard,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>482 U.S. 578 (1987).<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took the jury fewer than fifteen minutes to convict substitute teacher John Scopes of the crime of teaching evolution to Tennessee public school students in 1925.\u00a0 It was the last victory of Christian fundamentalists in their war against the disciples of Darwin, and a hollow one at that. \u00a0Although the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRedefining Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It took the jury fewer than fifteen minutes to convict substitute teacher John Scopes of the crime of teaching evolution to Tennessee public school\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/10\/redefining-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Redefining Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It took the jury fewer than fifteen minutes to convict substitute teacher John Scopes of the crime of teaching evolution to Tennessee public school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/10\/redefining-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T17:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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