Evolution vs Intelligent Design

3300 Words7 Pages

The suggested separation between church and state in contemporary America is not what the framers of our constitution and our country had in mind as they wrote the words “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” After deconstructing the words, the most insignificant adjective “an,” tells us that the framers wanted to restrain Congress from installing any one religion as the official religion of the state. Those immortal words say nothing about religion informing congress or society on policy, education, or progress. I maintain that the first amendment’s establishment clause regarding religion was to protect citizens’ free exercise of religion from state interests and not to protect state interests from religion. So while the idea of separation between church and state is aged, it is also radically inaccurate and a misinterpretation of the first amendment. In fact the assumed existence and enactment of such a radical ideal has caused a violation of the ninth amendment as well which states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” I ascertain that restriction in education against material because of its source, intelligent design’s (ID) link to creationism in this case, is a violation of the first amendment’s free speech clause and further misinterpretation of the first amendment to exclude material because of its arguably religious source is a violation of the ninth amendment. For these reasons in this document I am going to assess popular evolutionary theory versus the ID argument to expose both as religious worldviews that should be taught not in science class but...

... middle of paper ...

...es. Reprint of sixth edition PF Collier, New York, 1900

Appleman, Philip. Darwin. Norton & Company, New York, 2001

Segers, Mary and Ted Jelen. A Wall of Separation? Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland, 1998

Miller, Kenneth. Findings Darwin’s God. Cliff Street Books, New York, 1999

ACLU Website. American Civil Liberties Union. Web 25 Apr. 2015.

http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLibertyMain.cfm

http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=18587&c=38

Unofficial Arizona State University Website. Arizona State University Student Affairs. Web 25 Apr. 2015.

http://www.sundevilweb.com/poll.aspx?poll=2

Wikipedia Website. Wikipedia On-line Encyclopedia. Web 25 Apr. 2015.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy

Talk Origins Website. Talk Origins Archive. Web 25 Apr. 2015.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolphil.html

More about Evolution vs Intelligent Design

Open Document