CBC Digital Archives

Creationism evolves

The year 1809 was remarkable for producing figures of great historical importance, including Lincoln, Chopin, Poe, Braille, Tennyson and many others. But no other figure produced as dramatic an effect on society as the English naturalist Charles Darwin. His groundbreaking theory of evolution had a major impact on religion, education, history and our conception of humankind. Now, 200 years after his birth and 150 years since the publication of The Origin of Species, the CBC Digital Archives looks at the history of Darwin, his controversial theory and the ways in which his thoughts still affect the world.

When the origins of humankind are taught in North American classrooms, the theories of Charles Darwin are usually standard. In 2005, creationism is gone from most classrooms, but creationists are renewing the fight with a new weapon. A group of Christians in Kansas are fighting to have "intelligent design" - a modern version of creationism - taught in the state's schools. In this report, CBC-TV's Neil Macdonald explains the controversy over intelligent design and the fight to get it into the classroom.
• In September 2005, four months after this broadcast, 38 Nobel Prize-winning scientists sent a joint letter to the Kansas State Board of Education, arguing against the teaching of intelligent design in the classroom. "Intelligent design is fundamentally unscientific," they wrote. "It cannot be tested as a scientific theory because its central conclusion is based on belief in the intervention of a supernatural agent."

• In November 2005, the Kansas board voted 6-4 in favour of teaching intelligent design.

• The U.S. National Science Teachers Association, The American Association for the Advancement of Science and publications from Yale, Harvard and UCLA have all dismissed intelligent design as a pseudoscience.

Medium: Television
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: May 5, 2005
Guest(s): William Harris, Pedro Irigonegaray, Jerry Johnston
Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporter: Neil MacDonald
Duration: 2:29

Last updated: February 8, 2012

Page consulted on April 3, 2013

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