JourneyOnline
Jossey-Bass 2007
RRP $33.95
The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything reports a watershed legal trial in America in which the School Board at Dover, Pennsylvania, defended its actions in introducing Intelligent Design to the school curriculum and in requiring that students be read a statement criticising evolution. These actions may constitute teaching religion in public schools and that is forbidden by the American constitution.
The school board was dominated by Christians with a fundamentalist outlook. The trial was billed as a battle between science and religion and in both the strict legal terms, and in the public perception, science won. Intelligent design may not be taught in public schools in America. The fundamentalists were embittered, atheists elated and Christians from the mainline churches saddened.
The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything would be a valuable resource for those seeking an understanding of the fundamentalist / progressive divide in interpreting the origin of life. It does not discuss the meaning of everything or the creation of the cosmos.
It is possibly the best of the currently available accounts of the legal issues involved in the conduct of this important trial. Gordy Slack, an atheist, weaves into the book reference to his own interaction with his born-again fundamentalist father, as he attempts to portray the deep divisions in religion and politics in American society.
Sadly, evidence was presented that some dedicated Christians had lied in legal depositions to the trial, and that, despite denial, the intelligent design textbook was rebadged creation science. Opponents of the fundamentalists were abused in public.
The trial provides a salutary reminder of the need for everyone, and especially Christians, to speak and act with honesty, integrity and respect for those who may disagree with us.
Reviewed by Merv Bengston
