Kansas Trial to Show Evolution is 'Monkey Business'

The trial of the century began in Topeka, KS, this week as jurors weighed the fate of a Topeka High School teacher accused of violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in Kansas schools. In February, Kansas passed a law making it a crime to deny the Biblical story of divine creation, or to teach that man was descended from a lower order of animals.

Most Americans find Darwin's theory 'unconvincing,' 'implausible'

By Cole Walters

TOPEKA, KS—The trial of the century began in this capital city this week, proceedings that will determine once and for all what students here should be taught about the origins of life on earth. The trial will settle the fate of 24-year-old Jess N. Choop, a substitute science teacher and part-time football coach at Topeka High School. Mr. Choop stands accused of violating a state law that bans the teaching of the controversial theory of evolution.

In February, Kansas enacted a law that makes it illegal to "teach any theory that denies the story of divine creation as taught by the Bible and to teach instead that man was descended from a lower order of animals." (Click left to enlarge image.)

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Origins of a controversy
The dispute began this spring when Mr. Choop was asked to fill in for the high school's regular biology teacher, who was out with an undisclosed illness. While teaching the class, Mr. Choop assigned students readings on evolution from a state-approved textbook. Asked why he would force students to read materials that are counter to state law, the science teacher reportedly told coworkers that it is impossible to teach biology without teaching evolution.

But while Mr. Choop's future as a teacher may be on trial in Topeka, legal observers say that the evolution hearings are about something much bigger: a contest between good and evil. "Choop isn't on trial, civilization is on trial," said a legal strategist for the defense. The prosecution isn't holding back either: "If evolution wins, Christianity goes," said one member of the prosecution team.

An evolving story
The prosecution opened its case by asking the court to take judicial notice of the Book of Genesis, the true story of how God created the earth and the heavens in just six days. Seven Topeka High School students, including freshman Howard Morgan, are also expected to testify that Mr. Choop told them that man and all other mammals evolved from single-cell organisms.

Attorney John Calvert is heading up the charge against Choop and his controversial theory. Mr. Calvert is the managing director of the Intelligent Design Network and has lined up 23 witnesses to testify against basic precepts of evolution. Mr. Calvert has criticized evolutionists for positing that man descended "not even from American monkeys, but Old World monkeys."

On the sixth day
On Friday, the defense called its first witness in support of the controversial theory of evolution, Dr. Maynard Metcalf, a zoologist from Johns Hopkins University. The defense has also indicated that it may seek to turn the tables on the prosecution by putting the Bible itself on trial. A source close to the defense team says that lawyers are considering calling Mr. Calvert to the stand as an expert on the Bible, and may interrogate him as to whether everything in that book should be taken literally.

The theory of evolution burst onto the scene in 1859 when naturalist Charles Darwin published his blockbuster, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection." But in recent years his work has fallen out of favor with many Americans, who find its account of humans, animals and organisms evolving over long periods of time hard to follow, implausible and unconvincing.

According to an ABC News poll taken last year, 61 percent of Americans believe the account of creation in the Bible's book of Genesis is "literally true" rather than a story meant as a "lesson."

What do you think the punishment should be for teaching the theory of evolution in high school science classes? Talk back to [email protected]

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Comments

[thomasP]

In the battle of Science vs. Religion - I'm betting on science (heathens don't pray, we gamble).

Less Evolved

[Bob Rosenberg]

"I'm not your monkey."
-- John Stewart, a Jewish person who clearly has doubts

[CryptoCat]

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest mind"
--Jebediah Springfield

[HB]

I'm praying for a Christian Mobilization in Topeka to eliminate, once and for all, EVILution from the schools of Christ's Land of the Free. Just who does Mr. Choop think he is?

I recall the memorable words of Dr. Humphrey C. Cornholt, Principal, C. Estes Kefauver Memorial High School in Dacron, Ohio, where I, as a student, attended high school: "Let me," he said, "sound just a few notes about the kind of world you and your fellow students are entering as you come out at the end of your journey through our educaional system. Let me extend a few pieces of solid advice to aid you in finishing those things which we must all, by nature, finish and to assist you in eliminating, in as smooth and easy a manner as possible, those things in life which must be eliminated." ("Kaleidoscope, Vol I., No.6, page 2, Harvard Lampoon, Inc., 1974.)

What Dr. Cornholt was telling us had to be eliminated is EVILution. I didn't realize it until this Trial of Christianity came to the fore in Topeka, Kansas. I have only one thing left to say before I retire to meditation and prayer: "The Bible said it, I believe it, and that ends it!! No more story!!!"

Thank you for your support!!!!