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An accessible, multifaceted critique
of the latest incarnation of creationism—“intelligent
design”—from a team of legal, education, religion,
and science experts
“The future of our species probably
depends on science education and our understanding of the
natural world. If you’re concerned about science literacy,
read this book.”
—Bill Nye the Science Guy®
“The book . . . is an excellent resource
to deal with the attack on evolution, which is a surrogate,
and indeed a wedge, for a wide-ranging crusade against the
scientific integrity of the public education system in America.”
—Rev. Barry W. Lynn from the Afterword
More than eighty years after the Scopes
trial, creationism is alive and well. Through local school
boards, sympathetic politicians, and well-funded organizations,
a strong movement has developed to encourage the teaching
of the latest incarnation of creationism—intelligent
design—as a scientifically credible theory alongside
evolution in science classes. Although intelligent design
suffered a serious defeat in the recent Kitzmiller v. Dover
trial, its proponents are bound to continue their assault
on evolution education. Now, in Not in Our Classrooms,
parents and teachers, as well as other concerned citizens,
have a much-needed tool to use in the argument against teaching
intelligent design as science.
Where did the concept of intelligent design
originate? How does it connect with, and conflict with, various
religious beliefs? Should we teach the controversy itself
in our science classrooms? In clear and lively essays, a team
of experts answers these questions and many more, describing
the history of the intelligent design movement and the lack
of scientific support for its claims. Most importantly, the
contributors—authorities on the scientific, legal, educational,
and theological problems of intelligent design—speak
specifically to teachers and parents about the need to defend
the integrity of science education by keeping intelligent
design out of science curriculums. A concluding chapter offers
concrete advice for those seeking to defend the teaching of
evolution in their own communities.
Not in Our Classrooms is essential
reading for anyone concerned about defending the teaching
of evolution, uncompromised by religiously motivated pseudoscience,
in the classrooms of our public schools.
Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch
are the executive director and the deputy director of the
National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit organization
in Oakland, California, that defends the teaching of evolution
in the public schools. Scott’s Evolution vs. Creationism:
An Introduction was named an Outstanding Academic Title
of 2005 by Choice.
Since 1992 the Reverend Barry W. Lynn,
a minister in the United Church of Christ, has served as executive
director of Americans United for Separation of Church and
State.
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