Do Judges Understand Evolution?
Do Judges Understand Evolution? Evolution is such a divisive topic that it has become the subject of court cases. In 1987, a 7-2 decision (Edwards v. Aguillard), by the Supreme Court affirmed the holding of a Louisiana District Court that the Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction Act violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Subsequently, in 2005, after an in depth legal analysis, Judge John E. Jones III (Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District) ruled that the school district could not inform students that the theory or hypothesis of Intelligent Design challenged the Modern Synthesis (Darwinian evolution). This is reminiscent of historic challenges concerning the center of the solar system In 1616, the Roman Catholic Church banned Nicholas Copernicus’ book “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” published in 1543. It also directed Galileo not to use his ast...