1 00:00:03,570 --> 00:00:08,575 NARRATOR: The majesty of our earth, the beauty of life, 2 00:00:08,575 --> 00:00:12,579 are they the result of a natural process called "evolution" 3 00:00:12,579 --> 00:00:15,582 or the work of a divine creator? 4 00:00:17,584 --> 00:00:20,587 This question is at the heart of a struggle 5 00:00:20,587 --> 00:00:24,090 that has threatened to tear our nation apart. 6 00:00:24,090 --> 00:00:26,593 That's an outdated religious book. 7 00:00:26,593 --> 00:00:29,095 NARRATOR: For fundamentalist Christians like Ken Ham 8 00:00:29,095 --> 00:00:31,598 evolution is an evil that must be fought. 9 00:00:31,598 --> 00:00:33,099 You can't hold up your moral here. 10 00:00:33,099 --> 00:00:34,601 Well, I think it's a war. 11 00:00:35,101 --> 00:00:37,103 It's a real battle between world views. 12 00:00:37,103 --> 00:00:40,607 NARRATOR: For embattled teachers in Lafayette, Indiana, 13 00:00:40,607 --> 00:00:44,110 evolution is a truth that must be defended. 14 00:00:44,110 --> 00:00:46,613 I think they think someone will come out a victor 15 00:00:46,613 --> 00:00:50,116 and I don't believe that that's going to be the case. 16 00:00:50,116 --> 00:00:53,119 NARRATOR: For Christian students at Wheaton College 17 00:00:53,119 --> 00:00:57,123 evolution is an idea that is hard to accept. 18 00:00:57,123 --> 00:00:58,625 Where is God's place 19 00:00:58,625 --> 00:01:01,628 if everything does have a natural cause? 20 00:01:02,128 --> 00:01:06,132 NARRATOR: For all of us, the future of religion, science 21 00:01:06,132 --> 00:01:08,635 and science education are at stake 22 00:01:08,635 --> 00:01:11,137 in the creation-evolution debate. 23 00:01:11,137 --> 00:01:14,641 Today, even as science continues to provide evidence 24 00:01:14,641 --> 00:01:16,643 supporting the theory of evolution 25 00:01:16,643 --> 00:01:22,649 for millions of Americans, the most important question remains: 26 00:01:22,649 --> 00:01:25,652 "What about God?" 27 00:02:03,690 --> 00:02:04,691 (applause) 28 00:02:05,191 --> 00:02:06,693 MAN: Well, good evening, everyone. 29 00:02:06,693 --> 00:02:08,194 Welcome to High Mill. 30 00:02:08,194 --> 00:02:11,698 Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this ministry 31 00:02:11,698 --> 00:02:13,700 for Ken Ham and for the truth that he brings 32 00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:15,702 to Canton, Ohio, here tonight. 33 00:02:15,702 --> 00:02:18,204 In Jesus's name, amen. 34 00:02:18,204 --> 00:02:21,207 (guitar playing lively tune) 35 00:02:21,207 --> 00:02:22,709 WOMAN: Thank you. 36 00:02:22,709 --> 00:02:25,211 MAN: Oh, that sounds real good. 37 00:02:25,211 --> 00:02:26,212 Everybody, here we go. 38 00:02:26,212 --> 00:02:28,214 (people clapping to music) 39 00:02:28,214 --> 00:02:32,719 MAN: "I don't believe in evolution, I know creation's true" 40 00:02:32,719 --> 00:02:37,724 "I believe that God above created me and you" 41 00:02:37,724 --> 00:02:40,226 "So praise his name for what he made" 42 00:02:40,226 --> 00:02:42,729 "Give credit where it's due" 43 00:02:42,729 --> 00:02:48,234 "I don't believe in evolution, I know creation's true." 44 00:02:48,234 --> 00:02:52,739 NARRATOR: Over 140 years after Charles Darwin first seemed to challenge 45 00:02:52,739 --> 00:02:54,741 the creation accounts in Genesis 46 00:02:54,741 --> 00:02:58,745 many conservative Christians are more committed than ever 47 00:02:58,745 --> 00:03:01,247 to fighting the war against evolution. 48 00:03:01,247 --> 00:03:02,749 Today, they have come here 49 00:03:02,749 --> 00:03:05,251 to the High Mill Church of the Resurrection 50 00:03:05,251 --> 00:03:06,753 for some basic training. 51 00:03:06,753 --> 00:03:12,759 "I didn't crawl out of a pond or swing down from a tree" 52 00:03:12,759 --> 00:03:17,764 "Adam is my ancestor and not a chimpanzee" 53 00:03:17,764 --> 00:03:22,268 "God created everything, in six days he was through" 54 00:03:22,268 --> 00:03:24,771 "So the Big Bang theory's just a dud" 55 00:03:24,771 --> 00:03:26,272 "And the million years are, too." 56 00:03:26,773 --> 00:03:27,774 (song ends) 57 00:03:27,774 --> 00:03:29,275 (cheering and applause) 58 00:03:29,275 --> 00:03:32,278 HAM: If you look at what the Bible says 59 00:03:32,278 --> 00:03:33,780 if we start with the revealed word of God 60 00:03:33,780 --> 00:03:35,782 and we build our thinking on the Bible 61 00:03:35,782 --> 00:03:37,784 it tells us about the history of the universe 62 00:03:37,784 --> 00:03:38,785 from beginning to end. 63 00:03:38,785 --> 00:03:40,787 It says that God made everything... 64 00:03:40,787 --> 00:03:43,790 NARRATOR: Today, Biblical literalism has no more forceful an advocate 65 00:03:44,290 --> 00:03:45,291 than Ken Ham. 66 00:03:45,291 --> 00:03:48,795 5,000 to 10,000 people visit his Web site every day. 67 00:03:48,795 --> 00:03:52,799 And his 250 lectures each year reach over a million people 68 00:03:53,299 --> 00:03:54,300 eager to hear his message 69 00:03:54,300 --> 00:03:57,303 that we need to look no further than the Bible 70 00:03:57,303 --> 00:03:59,305 to find the truth about who we are. 71 00:03:59,305 --> 00:04:01,808 HAM: I think it means Adam took fruit from the tree, you know? 72 00:04:02,308 --> 00:04:03,309 You see, people say 73 00:04:03,309 --> 00:04:05,812 "You have a particular interpretation of Genesis." 74 00:04:05,812 --> 00:04:06,813 I don't think so. 75 00:04:06,813 --> 00:04:08,314 I think I just read it. 76 00:04:08,314 --> 00:04:09,816 And what it says is what it means. 77 00:04:09,816 --> 00:04:12,318 Other people interpret it and they get into trouble. 78 00:04:12,318 --> 00:04:13,319 That's the problem, I think. 79 00:04:13,319 --> 00:04:15,822 Now, I believe God created in six literal days 80 00:04:15,822 --> 00:04:17,323 and I believe it's important. 81 00:04:17,323 --> 00:04:19,826 I believe it relates to the authority of scripture 82 00:04:19,826 --> 00:04:21,828 and the Gospel. 83 00:04:21,828 --> 00:04:23,830 Now, people say to me, "Well, look, the point is 84 00:04:23,830 --> 00:04:25,832 "the word 'day' can mean something other 85 00:04:25,832 --> 00:04:26,833 than an ordinary day." 86 00:04:26,833 --> 00:04:27,834 That's true. 87 00:04:27,834 --> 00:04:28,835 I had a pastor once who said 88 00:04:28,835 --> 00:04:30,837 "But the word 'day' can mean something other 89 00:04:30,837 --> 00:04:32,338 than an ordinary day." 90 00:04:32,338 --> 00:04:34,340 And I said, "But it can also mean an ordinary day." 91 00:04:34,841 --> 00:04:37,343 He said, "But it can also mean something other 92 00:04:37,343 --> 00:04:38,845 than an ordinary day." 93 00:04:38,845 --> 00:04:40,847 I said, "But it can also mean an ordinary day. 94 00:04:40,847 --> 00:04:41,848 "Does the word 'day' ever mean day? 95 00:04:41,848 --> 00:04:43,850 "Can day mean day or doesn't day mean day? 96 00:04:43,850 --> 00:04:44,851 "And when does day mean day? 97 00:04:45,351 --> 00:04:47,353 Can you give me an example when day means day?" 98 00:04:47,353 --> 00:04:48,855 (laughter) 99 00:04:48,855 --> 00:04:51,357 The Bible says God created the earth covered with water 100 00:04:51,357 --> 00:04:52,859 the sun, moon and stars on day four. 101 00:04:52,859 --> 00:04:54,861 Well, that's very different to the Big Bang. 102 00:04:54,861 --> 00:04:56,362 If the Big Bang is true 103 00:04:56,362 --> 00:04:57,864 well, the Bible got it wrong in astronomy. 104 00:04:57,864 --> 00:04:59,866 The Bible says there was a global flood. 105 00:04:59,866 --> 00:05:01,367 But today we have a lot of people saying 106 00:05:01,367 --> 00:05:02,869 "No, there wasn't." 107 00:05:02,869 --> 00:05:04,370 But if the Bible gets it wrong in geology 108 00:05:04,370 --> 00:05:06,873 and the Bible says God made distinct kinds of animals 109 00:05:06,873 --> 00:05:08,875 and plants to reproduce after their own kind 110 00:05:08,875 --> 00:05:10,376 well, today evolutionists would say 111 00:05:10,376 --> 00:05:11,878 "No, one kind of animal changed into another 112 00:05:11,878 --> 00:05:13,379 over millions of years." 113 00:05:13,379 --> 00:05:14,881 So the Bible gets it wrong in biology 114 00:05:14,881 --> 00:05:16,382 then why should I trust the Bible 115 00:05:16,883 --> 00:05:18,885 when it talks about morality and salvation? 116 00:05:18,885 --> 00:05:21,387 On this foundation here of creation, God's word is truth. 117 00:05:21,888 --> 00:05:22,889 "You sinner, repent of your sin." 118 00:05:22,889 --> 00:05:23,890 People understand. 119 00:05:23,890 --> 00:05:24,891 "Abortion is wrong." 120 00:05:24,891 --> 00:05:25,892 People understand. 121 00:05:25,892 --> 00:05:27,393 "Homosexual behavior is wrong." 122 00:05:27,393 --> 00:05:28,394 People understand. 123 00:05:28,394 --> 00:05:30,396 But on this foundation, "You, sinner..." 124 00:05:30,396 --> 00:05:31,397 "What are you talking about?" 125 00:05:31,397 --> 00:05:33,900 On this foundation of evolution, man determines truth. 126 00:05:33,900 --> 00:05:34,901 "Homosexual behavior is wrong." 127 00:05:35,401 --> 00:05:35,902 "No, it's not." 128 00:05:36,402 --> 00:05:36,903 "Abortion is wrong." 129 00:05:37,403 --> 00:05:37,904 "No, it's not." 130 00:05:38,404 --> 00:05:39,405 You see, what has happened 131 00:05:39,405 --> 00:05:41,407 is that this nation has changed foundation. 132 00:05:41,407 --> 00:05:43,409 And so have other nations around the world. 133 00:05:43,910 --> 00:05:46,913 NARRATOR: Ken Ham is not the first defender of the faith 134 00:05:46,913 --> 00:05:49,916 who is challenging accepted views of science 135 00:05:49,916 --> 00:05:52,418 to justify a literal reading of Genesis. 136 00:05:52,919 --> 00:05:56,923 Back in 1925, William Jennings Bryan capped his long career 137 00:05:56,923 --> 00:05:59,425 as a crusader for Christian values 138 00:05:59,425 --> 00:06:01,928 by upholding the state of Tennessee's law 139 00:06:01,928 --> 00:06:04,430 banning the teaching of evolution 140 00:06:04,430 --> 00:06:06,432 at the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. 141 00:06:06,432 --> 00:06:09,936 Despite a scathing attack on his creationist views 142 00:06:09,936 --> 00:06:11,437 Bryan prevailed. 143 00:06:11,938 --> 00:06:14,440 Scopes was fined $100. 144 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:15,441 Within four years 145 00:06:15,942 --> 00:06:20,947 37 anti-evolution bills had been introduced in 20 states. 146 00:06:20,947 --> 00:06:23,950 It had a chilling effect on the teaching of evolution 147 00:06:23,950 --> 00:06:26,452 and the publishers of science textbooks. 148 00:06:28,454 --> 00:06:29,956 For decades 149 00:06:29,956 --> 00:06:33,459 Darwin seemed to be locked out of America's public schools. 150 00:06:35,461 --> 00:06:38,464 But then, evolution received an unexpected boost 151 00:06:38,464 --> 00:06:40,466 from a very unlikely source: 152 00:06:40,466 --> 00:06:43,970 the Soviet Union. 153 00:06:46,973 --> 00:06:50,476 In 1957, Americans were horrified to learn 154 00:06:50,476 --> 00:06:53,980 that their Cold War communist rivals had beaten the U.S. 155 00:06:53,980 --> 00:06:57,984 into outer space with the launch of the satellite called Sputnik. 156 00:06:57,984 --> 00:07:00,987 The Space Race was on. 157 00:07:00,987 --> 00:07:04,490 Scientific education became a national priority. 158 00:07:04,490 --> 00:07:07,994 And as long-neglected science programs were revived 159 00:07:07,994 --> 00:07:10,997 in America's classrooms, evolution was, too. 160 00:07:10,997 --> 00:07:14,000 Biblical literalists have been doing their best 161 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,502 to discredit Darwin's theory ever since. 162 00:07:16,502 --> 00:07:19,005 HAM: I want to teach you something very special this morning. 163 00:07:19,005 --> 00:07:21,507 The next time somebody says "millions of years ago" 164 00:07:22,008 --> 00:07:24,010 I want you to put your hand up and say 165 00:07:24,010 --> 00:07:26,512 "Excuse me," in a nice way, you say, "Were you there?" 166 00:07:26,512 --> 00:07:28,514 Can you remember that? 167 00:07:28,514 --> 00:07:30,516 Next time somebody says "millions of years ago" 168 00:07:30,516 --> 00:07:31,517 what do you say? 169 00:07:31,517 --> 00:07:32,518 CONGREGATION: Were you there? 170 00:07:32,518 --> 00:07:34,020 HAM: Boy, I couldn't hear that. 171 00:07:34,020 --> 00:07:36,522 Next time somebody says "millions of years ago" 172 00:07:36,522 --> 00:07:37,523 what do you say? 173 00:07:37,523 --> 00:07:39,525 CONGREGATION (shouting): Were you there?! 174 00:07:39,525 --> 00:07:41,027 HAM: And you know what, moms and dads? 175 00:07:41,027 --> 00:07:42,528 The world scoffs at those of us 176 00:07:42,528 --> 00:07:45,031 who believe in Noah's flood and Noah's ark. 177 00:07:45,031 --> 00:07:47,533 Why let the world scoff by putting Noah's ark... 178 00:07:47,533 --> 00:07:49,535 making it look like a fairy tale? 179 00:07:49,535 --> 00:07:52,038 It wasn't a fairy tale; it was a real boat, wasn't it? 180 00:07:52,038 --> 00:07:53,539 What happened? 181 00:07:53,539 --> 00:07:56,042 Fountains of the deep broke open all over the earth 182 00:07:56,042 --> 00:07:57,543 volcanoes, tidal waves. 183 00:07:57,543 --> 00:08:00,546 But of course, all the animals, including dinosaurs, on the ark 184 00:08:00,546 --> 00:08:02,048 were safe, weren't they? 185 00:08:02,048 --> 00:08:04,050 What happened to those that didn't go on the ark? 186 00:08:04,050 --> 00:08:05,051 They drowned. 187 00:08:05,051 --> 00:08:06,052 Then what happened? 188 00:08:06,052 --> 00:08:07,053 They were covered in mud. 189 00:08:07,053 --> 00:08:09,055 What would you expect to find? 190 00:08:09,055 --> 00:08:10,056 Fossils. 191 00:08:10,556 --> 00:08:11,557 In fact, as Buddy sang 192 00:08:11,557 --> 00:08:13,559 you'd expect to find billions of dead things 193 00:08:13,559 --> 00:08:16,062 buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. 194 00:08:16,062 --> 00:08:18,064 And boys and girls, do you know what you find? 195 00:08:18,064 --> 00:08:20,566 You find billions of dead things buried in rock layers 196 00:08:20,566 --> 00:08:22,568 laid down by water all over the earth. 197 00:08:22,568 --> 00:08:25,571 BUDDY: "Well, there really was a worldwide flood," 198 00:08:25,571 --> 00:08:27,573 "just look at the stony curse" 199 00:08:28,074 --> 00:08:31,077 "With billions of dead things, buried in rock layers," 200 00:08:31,077 --> 00:08:33,579 "laid down by water all over the Earth." 201 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,083 Real good singing for the morning. 202 00:08:37,083 --> 00:08:40,086 Let's see if we can make the whole town hear us. 203 00:08:44,590 --> 00:08:47,093 NARRATOR: If you've been told all your life 204 00:08:47,093 --> 00:08:50,596 that the billions of dead things buried in the earth 205 00:08:50,596 --> 00:08:52,598 got there because of a worldwide flood 206 00:08:52,598 --> 00:08:56,102 the evidence for an ancient earth comes as a shock. 207 00:08:56,102 --> 00:08:59,605 MAN: So we do see evidence of change, but how that change has occurred 208 00:08:59,605 --> 00:09:02,108 whether it has occurred through some sort of a... 209 00:09:02,108 --> 00:09:05,611 as Darwin would have said, some sort of a natural selection 210 00:09:06,112 --> 00:09:08,114 or if it's taken place through some sort of a design 211 00:09:08,114 --> 00:09:10,616 if God has been directly involved 212 00:09:10,616 --> 00:09:13,619 in what we see as evolution, that's a bigger question. 213 00:09:13,619 --> 00:09:15,621 I think it's a more troubling question 214 00:09:15,621 --> 00:09:17,623 for an awful lot of Christians as well. 215 00:09:21,127 --> 00:09:23,629 WOMAN: We actually have a watering hole 216 00:09:23,629 --> 00:09:27,133 that existed here about 33 million years ago. 217 00:09:27,133 --> 00:09:30,136 And many of the animals would die in this area 218 00:09:30,136 --> 00:09:32,138 leaving their carcasses behind. 219 00:09:32,138 --> 00:09:35,141 And that's where we see a lot of the skeletons. 220 00:09:35,141 --> 00:09:37,143 NARRATOR: At the Wheaton College Science Station 221 00:09:37,143 --> 00:09:39,145 in the Black Hills of South Dakota 222 00:09:39,145 --> 00:09:43,149 the shock of the new has started more than one student 223 00:09:43,149 --> 00:09:44,150 on his or her way 224 00:09:44,150 --> 00:09:47,153 to an understanding of evolutionary history. 225 00:09:47,153 --> 00:09:50,156 YOUNG MAN 1: You said the age of the site was around 30 million years old? 226 00:09:50,156 --> 00:09:52,158 How did you come to that age? 227 00:09:52,158 --> 00:09:55,661 Like, through what processes did you decide on that age 228 00:09:55,661 --> 00:09:57,163 and come to that conclusion? 229 00:09:57,163 --> 00:09:59,165 MAN: When we have independent ages 230 00:09:59,165 --> 00:10:02,168 of, say, about 30 million years for the ashes 231 00:10:02,168 --> 00:10:05,171 and then we find fossils that represent 232 00:10:05,171 --> 00:10:09,175 that type of development evolution-wise across the world 233 00:10:09,175 --> 00:10:12,178 that makes sense. 234 00:10:12,178 --> 00:10:14,680 YOUNG MAN 2: What do you do when the evidence is before you? 235 00:10:14,680 --> 00:10:17,183 You're a scientist, the evidence is before you 236 00:10:17,183 --> 00:10:18,684 and you want to say 237 00:10:18,684 --> 00:10:21,187 "Well, then this completely goes against my whole upbringing. 238 00:10:21,187 --> 00:10:23,189 "This completely goes against everything 239 00:10:23,189 --> 00:10:25,191 "I have known to be true thus far. 240 00:10:25,191 --> 00:10:26,692 Can I toss it out the window?" 241 00:10:26,692 --> 00:10:29,195 That's a struggle I've gone through this year. 242 00:10:29,195 --> 00:10:30,196 Where is God? 243 00:10:31,697 --> 00:10:33,699 BAIRD: Here, you look at it and tell me. 244 00:10:36,202 --> 00:10:38,204 NARRATOR: Nathan Baird is a geology major 245 00:10:38,204 --> 00:10:40,706 in his final year at Wheaton College in Illinois. 246 00:10:40,706 --> 00:10:42,208 BAIRD: I believe we're good to go. 247 00:10:42,208 --> 00:10:46,212 NARRATOR: This quiet campus is at the eye of a storm 248 00:10:46,212 --> 00:10:49,715 raging over opposing views about how life developed. 249 00:10:49,715 --> 00:10:53,219 Wheaton, one of the top 50 schools in America, is committed 250 00:10:53,219 --> 00:10:57,223 to exposing its students to the discoveries of science. 251 00:10:57,223 --> 00:10:59,725 But as a Christian college, it is also committed 252 00:10:59,725 --> 00:11:02,728 to preserving their faith in the God of the Bible. 253 00:11:02,728 --> 00:11:04,230 Students here are part 254 00:11:04,230 --> 00:11:06,732 of the largest religious group in America, 255 00:11:06,732 --> 00:11:08,734 conservative Christians. 256 00:11:08,734 --> 00:11:12,238 For them, conflicts between adherence to the Christian faith 257 00:11:12,238 --> 00:11:15,241 and the assertions of evolutionary theory 258 00:11:15,241 --> 00:11:17,243 are not just political or academic 259 00:11:17,243 --> 00:11:19,245 they are personal. 260 00:11:19,245 --> 00:11:22,248 MAN: The emotions are very real 261 00:11:22,248 --> 00:11:24,750 and they do play into the whole picture, I think 262 00:11:24,750 --> 00:11:26,752 and it's because it's about something 263 00:11:26,752 --> 00:11:28,254 that's to do with human beings. 264 00:11:28,254 --> 00:11:31,257 It's to do with our very, very souls, our very existence 265 00:11:31,757 --> 00:11:34,260 and that's what makes it so important, I think. 266 00:11:35,761 --> 00:11:39,765 NARRATOR: Wheaton calls itself a marketplace of ideas. 267 00:11:39,765 --> 00:11:42,768 But some students inevitably feel threatened 268 00:11:42,768 --> 00:11:45,271 as they confront ways of thinking 269 00:11:45,271 --> 00:11:49,275 without precedent in the world from which they came. 270 00:11:49,275 --> 00:11:52,778 BAIRD: I was definitely, definitely indoctrinated in... 271 00:11:52,778 --> 00:11:54,280 along those lines of 272 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:58,284 "This is how Genesis 1 and 2 entails the story of creation. 273 00:11:58,284 --> 00:12:00,286 And this is how it's got to be." 274 00:12:00,286 --> 00:12:04,290 And yes, evolution was portrayed as an evil, you know; 275 00:12:04,290 --> 00:12:08,794 it was Satan's doing, and it's something that, you know 276 00:12:08,794 --> 00:12:12,798 is the demise of the Church if we even listen to it. 277 00:12:12,798 --> 00:12:14,800 As a kid, I had the questions of... 278 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,803 "Well, how did God create the earth?" 279 00:12:17,803 --> 00:12:21,307 and, you know, "Well, let's go back to Genesis 1," you know 280 00:12:21,307 --> 00:12:23,309 "and let's read the account." 281 00:12:23,309 --> 00:12:27,313 And it's: God formed it, he separated the expanses 282 00:12:27,313 --> 00:12:29,315 he created day and night. 283 00:12:29,315 --> 00:12:31,317 But my mind wants to know the details; 284 00:12:31,317 --> 00:12:32,818 it wants to know what happened. 285 00:12:32,818 --> 00:12:34,320 He has asked difficult questions. 286 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:37,323 Nathan has asked difficult questions. 287 00:12:37,323 --> 00:12:40,326 But I think that that's the kind of person he is. 288 00:12:40,326 --> 00:12:44,330 He is not willing just to take just what everybody else says 289 00:12:44,330 --> 00:12:47,833 or believe it because that's what everybody else believes. 290 00:12:47,833 --> 00:12:49,835 I think that he is really 291 00:12:49,835 --> 00:12:53,839 the kind of person who wants to get into the nitty-gritty 292 00:12:53,839 --> 00:12:56,842 and wants to get real... really understand. 293 00:12:56,842 --> 00:12:58,344 BAIRD: One thing that I've realized is 294 00:12:58,344 --> 00:13:00,346 in talking with my mom and stuff, going home 295 00:13:00,346 --> 00:13:02,848 I go home, she's, "So, what, are you an evolutionist now?" 296 00:13:03,349 --> 00:13:04,350 And it's the great evil. 297 00:13:04,350 --> 00:13:06,352 It's the great unknown evil, though. 298 00:13:06,352 --> 00:13:07,853 It's not even discussed. 299 00:13:07,853 --> 00:13:09,855 And that's what kind of perturbs me is 300 00:13:10,356 --> 00:13:13,359 before I came to Wheaton, one of my Mom's friends said 301 00:13:13,359 --> 00:13:16,362 "Don't let him go there; that's such a liberal school." 302 00:13:16,362 --> 00:13:19,365 And at first when I talked to him on the phone one time 303 00:13:19,365 --> 00:13:21,867 I was a little nervous, and I think I even said to Jim 304 00:13:21,867 --> 00:13:25,371 something to the effect that I hoped he hasn't lost his faith. 305 00:13:25,371 --> 00:13:30,876 CONGREGATION: "We cry, 'Holy, holy, holy'" 306 00:13:30,876 --> 00:13:32,878 "We cry, 'Holy, holy, holy'" 307 00:13:32,878 --> 00:13:36,382 NARRATOR: Long before Wheaton students like Nathan arrive on campus 308 00:13:36,382 --> 00:13:39,385 the most important lesson they have learned 309 00:13:39,385 --> 00:13:42,388 is that the Bible is true, from the very first word. 310 00:13:42,388 --> 00:13:45,891 PATTI: I think that the reason why our church is growing, 311 00:13:45,891 --> 00:13:48,394 and our pastor would say the same thing, 312 00:13:48,394 --> 00:13:51,397 is because he preaches the word of God, and that's all he does. 313 00:13:51,397 --> 00:13:56,902 He goes line upon line, verse upon verse, book by book. 314 00:13:56,902 --> 00:13:58,904 And that is the only reason 315 00:13:59,405 --> 00:14:02,408 why our church is growing as fast as it is. 316 00:14:02,908 --> 00:14:05,911 This world in which we live has convinced us 317 00:14:05,911 --> 00:14:07,913 that this life is all about 318 00:14:07,913 --> 00:14:10,916 our getting what we want when we want it 319 00:14:10,916 --> 00:14:13,419 and supplying all of our needs 320 00:14:13,419 --> 00:14:15,921 so that we can enjoy all of this life. 321 00:14:15,921 --> 00:14:17,923 But the Bible tells us very clearly 322 00:14:17,923 --> 00:14:19,925 that this life is not about you and me. 323 00:14:19,925 --> 00:14:22,928 This life that you and I live is all about God. 324 00:14:22,928 --> 00:14:25,431 BAIRD: Coming home is a good thing for me 325 00:14:25,431 --> 00:14:28,934 because I get to be in much more discussion with my parents 326 00:14:28,934 --> 00:14:31,937 and being reminded that, you know, I'm one of four kids. 327 00:14:31,937 --> 00:14:33,439 I have a fianc�. 328 00:14:33,439 --> 00:14:36,442 I have a grandma who I go over and I mow her lawn. 329 00:14:36,442 --> 00:14:37,943 I'm not just a person who sits 330 00:14:37,943 --> 00:14:41,947 and studies physical chemistry all day. 331 00:14:41,947 --> 00:14:43,449 And that's why, for me 332 00:14:43,449 --> 00:14:46,452 it's always been good when at Wheaton 333 00:14:46,452 --> 00:14:48,954 to call home and to talk to Dad and Mom 334 00:14:48,954 --> 00:14:52,458 or when at home to be in conversation with them. 335 00:14:52,458 --> 00:14:55,461 BAIRD: Thank you for these times you've blessed us with as a family. 336 00:14:55,461 --> 00:14:56,962 And we just thank you for this time, Lord 337 00:14:56,962 --> 00:14:58,464 and for the beautiful day 338 00:14:58,464 --> 00:15:01,967 and that we could have a barbecue family time outside 339 00:15:01,967 --> 00:15:03,969 this evening, Lord. 340 00:15:03,969 --> 00:15:05,471 We thank you for all you've done for us. 341 00:15:05,471 --> 00:15:06,972 In Jesus' name, we pray. 342 00:15:06,972 --> 00:15:07,973 ALL: Amen. 343 00:15:07,973 --> 00:15:09,475 He forgets Melissa. 344 00:15:09,475 --> 00:15:12,478 And be with my fianc�, Melissa. 345 00:15:12,478 --> 00:15:13,979 Can I have a little bit of steak? 346 00:15:13,979 --> 00:15:15,481 PATTI: Yeah. 347 00:15:15,481 --> 00:15:17,983 BAIRD: I would say Christians in general 348 00:15:17,983 --> 00:15:20,486 and myself included 349 00:15:20,486 --> 00:15:22,988 don't know anything about evolution. 350 00:15:22,988 --> 00:15:25,991 So when we're bashing it or when we're telling... 351 00:15:26,492 --> 00:15:27,993 just dismissing it outright 352 00:15:27,993 --> 00:15:29,995 we're not even understanding what it says. 353 00:15:29,995 --> 00:15:32,998 And to me, to understand that God created 354 00:15:32,998 --> 00:15:33,999 will never change. 355 00:15:33,999 --> 00:15:37,503 No matter how much science discovers 356 00:15:37,503 --> 00:15:39,505 God tells us, and I believe it, 357 00:15:39,505 --> 00:15:42,007 that man's wisdom is foolishness. 358 00:15:42,007 --> 00:15:44,510 To me, that tells me if I don't go 359 00:15:44,510 --> 00:15:46,512 and I don't study to become a preacher 360 00:15:46,512 --> 00:15:48,013 then it's foolishness. 361 00:15:48,013 --> 00:15:49,515 No, no, no, no. 362 00:15:49,515 --> 00:15:50,516 I know you're not saying that 363 00:15:50,516 --> 00:15:52,518 but when you say man's wisdom is foolishness 364 00:15:52,518 --> 00:15:55,521 then why can't a Christian scientist 365 00:15:55,521 --> 00:15:58,524 come to the conclusions that evolution is true? 366 00:15:58,524 --> 00:16:01,026 We have to define what evolution is. 367 00:16:01,026 --> 00:16:03,028 I heard a guy say 368 00:16:03,028 --> 00:16:06,532 that he holds wholeheartedly to the evolutionary theory 369 00:16:06,532 --> 00:16:09,535 as the best fit to its data. 370 00:16:09,535 --> 00:16:11,036 What does he mean from that? 371 00:16:11,036 --> 00:16:14,540 He probably means it started with the Big Bang, um, and... 372 00:16:14,540 --> 00:16:16,041 Then he has to be wrong. 373 00:16:16,041 --> 00:16:18,544 And that's where I would say no. 374 00:16:18,544 --> 00:16:21,547 Why can't God do the Big Bang, and why can't God... 375 00:16:21,547 --> 00:16:23,549 I can't agree on that. 376 00:16:23,549 --> 00:16:26,051 Which day did he do it? 377 00:16:26,051 --> 00:16:28,053 I'm not exactly sure 378 00:16:28,053 --> 00:16:30,055 the whole day stuff is my cup of tea. 379 00:16:30,055 --> 00:16:32,057 BOY: Maybe he yelled bang... 380 00:16:32,057 --> 00:16:34,059 What's that, he yelled bang? 381 00:16:34,059 --> 00:16:35,060 BOY: On the seventh day. 382 00:16:35,060 --> 00:16:37,563 I'm not saying science is... is worthless 383 00:16:37,563 --> 00:16:41,567 but if a scientist's goal in life is to prove 384 00:16:41,567 --> 00:16:46,071 that Darwinism is the way that we got here 385 00:16:46,071 --> 00:16:49,074 he is going to die a very disappointed man. 386 00:16:49,074 --> 00:16:51,076 The thing that I don't necessarily appreciate 387 00:16:51,076 --> 00:16:52,578 about the Christian community 388 00:16:52,578 --> 00:16:56,081 is the dismissal of all things of evolution 389 00:16:56,081 --> 00:16:59,585 as being just a natural evil. 390 00:16:59,585 --> 00:17:05,591 And that's how I feel things are taught to students, 391 00:17:05,591 --> 00:17:07,092 growing up in a Christian school 392 00:17:07,092 --> 00:17:09,094 or a Christian church or whatever, 393 00:17:09,094 --> 00:17:12,598 is that, at the mention of evolution, you run. 394 00:17:12,598 --> 00:17:15,601 And I think that's almost ridiculous. 395 00:17:15,601 --> 00:17:18,103 And as a scientist, as a Christian 396 00:17:18,103 --> 00:17:19,605 I would like to understand those things. 397 00:17:20,105 --> 00:17:23,108 And I would not like to say, "Oh, well, God just did it." 398 00:17:23,108 --> 00:17:28,113 That's not an answer, one, that holds much for me 399 00:17:28,113 --> 00:17:30,616 or two, that will hold much in the world. 400 00:17:31,116 --> 00:17:32,618 Does that frighten you, Mom? 401 00:17:32,618 --> 00:17:34,620 No, that doesn't frighten me 402 00:17:34,620 --> 00:17:39,625 because I know he'll have the ability to search it out. 403 00:17:39,625 --> 00:17:42,127 So it doesn't frighten me. 404 00:17:42,127 --> 00:17:43,629 But Darwin 405 00:17:43,629 --> 00:17:46,131 as I understand his teaching, maybe I'm wrong, 406 00:17:46,131 --> 00:17:49,635 made a direct frontal assault to Genesis 1. 407 00:17:49,635 --> 00:17:54,139 And if he is going to say that man evolved 408 00:17:54,139 --> 00:17:57,643 from some slimy thing in a stream... 409 00:17:57,643 --> 00:17:59,812 GIRL: We call it a fish. 410 00:17:59,812 --> 00:18:03,315 I feel it's appropriate for me to tell... 411 00:18:03,315 --> 00:18:04,817 to tell him he's wrong 412 00:18:04,817 --> 00:18:07,319 because I know man didn't. 413 00:18:08,821 --> 00:18:10,322 Okay, because... 414 00:18:10,322 --> 00:18:12,825 BAIRD: I don't know if man did or didn't. 415 00:18:12,825 --> 00:18:15,828 Then you're saying that we had one slimy thing 416 00:18:15,828 --> 00:18:17,830 and he... and it created Adam. 417 00:18:17,830 --> 00:18:20,332 Another slimy thing created Eve. 418 00:18:22,835 --> 00:18:24,336 And it's from Adam and Eve... 419 00:18:24,336 --> 00:18:26,839 That's such a gross, um... 420 00:18:26,839 --> 00:18:29,842 gross simplification of evolution. 421 00:18:29,842 --> 00:18:31,343 I understand. 422 00:18:31,343 --> 00:18:33,846 But that's the most important element... 423 00:18:33,846 --> 00:18:38,350 But God's infusion of His self and of His spirit into... 424 00:18:38,350 --> 00:18:39,852 Mom, help me out here. 425 00:18:39,852 --> 00:18:41,854 ...into humans was a supernatural thing 426 00:18:41,854 --> 00:18:43,856 no matter how we look at it. 427 00:18:43,856 --> 00:18:46,358 Whether he picked up dust and like the Snickers commercial 428 00:18:46,358 --> 00:18:48,360 where you used to have peanuts in your hand 429 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:49,862 and you get a Snickers bar 430 00:18:49,862 --> 00:18:51,363 whether it was dust and man. 431 00:18:51,363 --> 00:18:53,365 And then God says, "Poof," you know 432 00:18:53,365 --> 00:18:54,867 "I'm in you"... 433 00:18:54,867 --> 00:18:58,871 So you're saying God created the elephants and the giraffes 434 00:18:58,871 --> 00:18:59,872 and... and he created man. 435 00:19:00,372 --> 00:19:01,373 He looked around and said 436 00:19:01,373 --> 00:19:02,875 "Which one do I think is the best 437 00:19:02,875 --> 00:19:04,877 to represent my nature?" 438 00:19:04,877 --> 00:19:06,879 And he said, "Oh, it must be man. 439 00:19:06,879 --> 00:19:08,881 "So we'll make man intelligent 440 00:19:08,881 --> 00:19:11,884 and give him the ability to reason and to think." 441 00:19:11,884 --> 00:19:13,385 I don't know. 442 00:19:13,385 --> 00:19:15,387 GIRL: Oh, yeah. 443 00:19:15,387 --> 00:19:18,390 BAIRD: As I've tried to open up and tried to at least catch 444 00:19:18,390 --> 00:19:21,393 what is true and what is not true 445 00:19:21,393 --> 00:19:23,395 I want my dad to be open to that, too. 446 00:19:23,395 --> 00:19:24,396 He's... he's a... 447 00:19:24,396 --> 00:19:27,900 I wouldn't say stubborn, but he's a firm man. 448 00:19:27,900 --> 00:19:30,903 But I wanted him to at least consider 449 00:19:30,903 --> 00:19:32,905 and have an open mind towards the things 450 00:19:32,905 --> 00:19:34,907 that I have an open mind towards 451 00:19:34,907 --> 00:19:37,910 such that I can go ahead and say with freedom 452 00:19:37,910 --> 00:19:42,414 the things that I would consider a possibility. 453 00:19:42,414 --> 00:19:44,917 Well, the only thing I have a concern about 454 00:19:44,917 --> 00:19:49,421 in his exploring evolution, as I understand it 455 00:19:49,421 --> 00:19:52,925 is that if Nathan spent his life work 456 00:19:52,925 --> 00:19:55,427 trying to explain creation 457 00:19:55,427 --> 00:19:58,430 he would come one step short 458 00:19:58,430 --> 00:19:59,932 and that's the miraculous element 459 00:19:59,932 --> 00:20:02,434 that God introduced that no man can explain. 460 00:20:02,434 --> 00:20:06,438 So if his hope and his dream in life 461 00:20:06,438 --> 00:20:07,940 is to explain creation 462 00:20:07,940 --> 00:20:10,442 he is going to die a disappointed man 463 00:20:10,442 --> 00:20:13,445 because you can't explain the miraculous. 464 00:20:13,445 --> 00:20:15,447 He was laying down the line where he would stop 465 00:20:15,948 --> 00:20:17,449 and I was just trying to tell him 466 00:20:17,449 --> 00:20:18,951 "I'm not sure I would stop there. 467 00:20:18,951 --> 00:20:20,953 "I might go over the hill 468 00:20:20,953 --> 00:20:23,455 "go over the ridge a little bit further 469 00:20:23,455 --> 00:20:26,458 to explore and see what God has over there." 470 00:20:26,458 --> 00:20:28,961 (bell chiming) 471 00:20:29,461 --> 00:20:30,963 NARRATOR: But back at Wheaton 472 00:20:30,963 --> 00:20:33,966 exploration beyond the limits imposed by parents and pastors 473 00:20:33,966 --> 00:20:37,469 can take students to some very disturbing places. 474 00:20:37,469 --> 00:20:38,971 Some of the most troubling questions 475 00:20:38,971 --> 00:20:43,475 come not just from science, but from the Bible itself. 476 00:20:43,475 --> 00:20:46,478 WOMAN: How do we make sense of sin coming into this world? 477 00:20:46,478 --> 00:20:47,980 If we evolved from apes 478 00:20:47,980 --> 00:20:50,482 did just one day an ape woke up and decided that he had... 479 00:20:50,482 --> 00:20:51,984 God said, "You are humans now 480 00:20:51,984 --> 00:20:53,485 "and so I'm going to give you a soul 481 00:20:53,485 --> 00:20:55,487 "that is responsible to know right from wrong 482 00:20:55,487 --> 00:20:57,990 "and who my son, Jesus Christ, will die for 483 00:20:58,490 --> 00:20:59,992 "after you've populated the whole planet 484 00:20:59,992 --> 00:21:01,994 with your little humans"? 485 00:21:01,994 --> 00:21:03,495 So, the... 486 00:21:03,495 --> 00:21:04,997 There's that to deal with 487 00:21:04,997 --> 00:21:08,000 and when you look at some of the family trees in the Bible 488 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,003 they all go back to Adam or refer to a descendant of Adam. 489 00:21:11,003 --> 00:21:14,006 So we seem to think that Adam was an actual person 490 00:21:14,006 --> 00:21:16,508 and I don't know how to make sense of that. 491 00:21:20,012 --> 00:21:23,515 NARRATOR: Emi Hayashi is studying to be a veterinarian. 492 00:21:23,515 --> 00:21:25,517 She went to a Christian elementary school 493 00:21:25,517 --> 00:21:27,519 but a secular high school. 494 00:21:28,020 --> 00:21:30,022 At Wheaton, she is struggling to reconcile 495 00:21:30,022 --> 00:21:32,024 their opposing lessons. 496 00:21:32,024 --> 00:21:33,525 In high school, they automatically 497 00:21:33,525 --> 00:21:35,027 discounted the Bible 498 00:21:35,027 --> 00:21:36,528 versus, in my Southern Baptist church 499 00:21:36,528 --> 00:21:38,530 they automatically discounted evolution. 500 00:21:38,530 --> 00:21:42,534 So these two paradigms were just completely separated. 501 00:21:42,534 --> 00:21:44,036 High school, it was... 502 00:21:44,036 --> 00:21:45,537 It was tough, and yet at the same time 503 00:21:45,537 --> 00:21:47,539 I think it made my faith a lot stronger 504 00:21:47,539 --> 00:21:50,042 because I was constantly tested on my faith. 505 00:21:50,042 --> 00:21:52,044 People expected me to be a Christian 506 00:21:52,044 --> 00:21:54,046 and they didn't know what a Christian was. 507 00:21:54,046 --> 00:21:56,048 I usually take the defense of evolution 508 00:21:56,048 --> 00:21:59,051 only because I get annoyed when I hear a Christian say 509 00:21:59,051 --> 00:22:01,053 "Well, it has to be six-day creation. 510 00:22:01,053 --> 00:22:02,554 The Bible says so." 511 00:22:02,554 --> 00:22:04,556 Of course, I just flip to the opposite side. 512 00:22:04,556 --> 00:22:06,058 And I play the devil's advocate 513 00:22:06,058 --> 00:22:08,060 and that's not necessarily a good thing to do. 514 00:22:08,060 --> 00:22:10,562 But it's more fun, it's intellectually challenging 515 00:22:10,562 --> 00:22:12,064 to be able to think from a point of view 516 00:22:12,064 --> 00:22:14,066 that you might not necessarily agree with. 517 00:22:14,066 --> 00:22:17,569 MAN: If you look at the Bible, if you look at scripture... 518 00:22:17,569 --> 00:22:19,071 NARRATOR: But for most Wheaton students 519 00:22:19,071 --> 00:22:21,573 this is more than an intellectual challenge. 520 00:22:21,573 --> 00:22:23,575 Debates over creation and evolution 521 00:22:23,575 --> 00:22:25,577 go to the very heart of their ideas 522 00:22:25,577 --> 00:22:28,580 about who they are and why they exist. 523 00:22:28,580 --> 00:22:30,082 And no part of Darwin's theory 524 00:22:30,082 --> 00:22:32,584 is more troubling for conservative Christians 525 00:22:32,584 --> 00:22:34,586 than the claim that we have descended 526 00:22:34,586 --> 00:22:36,588 from nonhuman ancestors 527 00:22:36,588 --> 00:22:39,591 and not from Adam and Eve. 528 00:22:39,591 --> 00:22:42,094 I'm leaning towards the idea 529 00:22:42,094 --> 00:22:46,098 that at some certain point in hominid evolution 530 00:22:46,098 --> 00:22:50,602 God gave his spirit to hominids, making us human. 531 00:22:50,602 --> 00:22:53,605 I don't believe early hominids were human. 532 00:22:53,605 --> 00:22:55,607 I believe that we're categorically different 533 00:22:55,607 --> 00:22:58,110 and that we do have a soul and we do have a relationship 534 00:22:58,110 --> 00:22:59,611 to the creator of the universe. 535 00:22:59,611 --> 00:23:01,613 But I don't know where that happened. 536 00:23:01,613 --> 00:23:03,115 I don't know if there was one Adam 537 00:23:03,115 --> 00:23:04,616 or if it was a group of people. 538 00:23:04,616 --> 00:23:06,118 I haven't decided that yet. 539 00:23:06,118 --> 00:23:07,619 Well, I was going to disagree 540 00:23:07,619 --> 00:23:10,622 with your Adam being a group of people. 541 00:23:10,622 --> 00:23:11,623 I haven't decided about that. 542 00:23:12,124 --> 00:23:12,624 What do you mean? 543 00:23:13,125 --> 00:23:14,126 Well, I think theologically 544 00:23:14,126 --> 00:23:15,627 Adam has to be an individual. 545 00:23:15,627 --> 00:23:18,130 Paul basically says flat out 546 00:23:18,130 --> 00:23:20,632 since sin came through one man, and he means Adam 547 00:23:20,632 --> 00:23:23,635 so salvation, redemption comes through one man, Jesus Christ. 548 00:23:23,635 --> 00:23:27,139 And so personally, I'm all... I'm all... 549 00:23:27,139 --> 00:23:28,640 WOMAN: Like, do you think he was... 550 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,143 he was, like, one of a group or there was just one? 551 00:23:31,143 --> 00:23:34,146 Depends on how you interpret "man" 552 00:23:34,146 --> 00:23:35,647 to take that paraphrase of the... 553 00:23:35,647 --> 00:23:38,150 NARRATOR: At Wheaton today, students are free to argue 554 00:23:38,150 --> 00:23:41,153 the possibilities of a literal or an allegorical 555 00:23:41,153 --> 00:23:44,156 or a multiple Adam and Eve. 556 00:23:44,156 --> 00:23:46,158 But for their professors 557 00:23:46,158 --> 00:23:49,161 open debate on this subject is impossible 558 00:23:49,161 --> 00:23:51,163 thanks to the controversy stirred up 559 00:23:51,163 --> 00:23:54,166 by one man's remarks almost 40 years ago. 560 00:23:54,166 --> 00:23:56,668 MAN: At that time, I had hardly been on the campus 561 00:23:56,668 --> 00:23:59,171 of a Christian college before. 562 00:23:59,171 --> 00:24:02,174 I had an entirely secular education 563 00:24:02,174 --> 00:24:03,675 but I had been a Christian for a long time. 564 00:24:04,176 --> 00:24:06,678 So being on a Christian campus was kind of new to me 565 00:24:06,678 --> 00:24:09,681 and I'm not sure I knew exactly how to behave 566 00:24:09,681 --> 00:24:12,184 and probably didn't behave very well. 567 00:24:12,184 --> 00:24:15,687 NARRATOR: In 1961, at a Wheaton symposium 568 00:24:15,687 --> 00:24:18,190 on Christianity and human origins 569 00:24:18,190 --> 00:24:19,691 Walter Hearn told the crowd 570 00:24:19,691 --> 00:24:21,693 that the same chemical processes 571 00:24:21,693 --> 00:24:24,196 that bring each of us into existence today 572 00:24:24,196 --> 00:24:26,698 could have produced Adam and Eve. 573 00:24:26,698 --> 00:24:30,202 When the news got out, Wheaton found itself under attack. 574 00:24:30,202 --> 00:24:32,704 What had happened is that some reporter 575 00:24:32,704 --> 00:24:35,707 for a very conservative Christian paper 576 00:24:35,707 --> 00:24:38,210 which was called The Sword of the Lord, 577 00:24:38,210 --> 00:24:40,212 which you can tell from the title of it 578 00:24:40,212 --> 00:24:44,716 that it wasn't exactly, you know, a peacemaking outfit, 579 00:24:44,716 --> 00:24:46,718 this guy had been really upset 580 00:24:46,718 --> 00:24:50,222 by my remarks or by the style. 581 00:24:50,222 --> 00:24:52,224 NARRATOR: "It is time for all of us to be shocked!" 582 00:24:52,224 --> 00:24:54,726 thundered The Sword of the Lord. 583 00:24:54,726 --> 00:24:57,229 "Wheaton has swallowed a wholesale dose of evolution 584 00:24:57,229 --> 00:24:59,231 "by allowing such men as Walter Hearn 585 00:24:59,231 --> 00:25:01,233 "to express their wild viewpoint 586 00:25:01,233 --> 00:25:03,735 "on the campus of a Christian college. 587 00:25:03,735 --> 00:25:05,737 "Untold numbers of Christian people 588 00:25:05,737 --> 00:25:09,241 are seriously concerned about Wheaton." 589 00:25:09,241 --> 00:25:11,243 Fundamentalists flooded the school 590 00:25:11,243 --> 00:25:13,245 with hundreds of protest letters 591 00:25:13,245 --> 00:25:16,748 including one from the mother of a Wheaton student. 592 00:25:16,748 --> 00:25:20,252 WOMAN (dramatized): "Twice I have heard that the college is growing liberal 593 00:25:20,252 --> 00:25:23,255 "that they teach evolution at Wheaton... 594 00:25:23,255 --> 00:25:25,257 "What grieves me most 595 00:25:25,257 --> 00:25:27,759 "is that our daughter may lose her faith at Wheaton. 596 00:25:27,759 --> 00:25:29,761 "Is this possible? 597 00:25:29,761 --> 00:25:33,265 "If her faith should be shattered or even shaken 598 00:25:33,265 --> 00:25:36,768 I'd rather see her dead." 599 00:25:36,768 --> 00:25:39,271 NARRATOR: To reassure concerned alumni and parents 600 00:25:39,271 --> 00:25:41,273 Wheaton ordered every member of the faculty 601 00:25:41,273 --> 00:25:44,776 to sign a statement of faith affirming their belief 602 00:25:44,776 --> 00:25:46,278 in mankind's direct descent 603 00:25:46,278 --> 00:25:49,281 from two real people named Adam and Eve 604 00:25:49,281 --> 00:25:52,784 who had been created by God. 605 00:25:52,784 --> 00:25:54,786 Today, every professor at Wheaton 606 00:25:55,287 --> 00:25:57,789 is still required to sign this statement. 607 00:25:59,791 --> 00:26:01,793 MAN: The reason why, as I understand it, 608 00:26:01,793 --> 00:26:04,296 that Wheaton College continues to maintain the existence 609 00:26:04,296 --> 00:26:07,799 of a historical Adam and Eve in its statement of faith 610 00:26:07,799 --> 00:26:10,802 is simply because the existence of those two people 611 00:26:10,802 --> 00:26:13,805 occupies a key theological role 612 00:26:13,805 --> 00:26:17,309 in everything else that we believe. 613 00:26:17,309 --> 00:26:19,811 Evangelical Christians and, indeed, all orthodox Christians 614 00:26:19,811 --> 00:26:22,314 believe that Jesus had to come 615 00:26:22,314 --> 00:26:25,317 and sacrifice himself on the cross 616 00:26:25,317 --> 00:26:28,320 and then conquer death by rising from the dead. 617 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:30,322 Why did he have to do that? 618 00:26:30,322 --> 00:26:33,325 He had to do it because all of humanity 619 00:26:33,325 --> 00:26:36,828 was in bondage to universal sin. 620 00:26:36,828 --> 00:26:38,830 And then that leads to the question 621 00:26:38,830 --> 00:26:40,332 of where did that come from? 622 00:26:40,332 --> 00:26:42,334 Well, that in turn came 623 00:26:42,834 --> 00:26:45,837 from what Christians have historically believed 624 00:26:45,837 --> 00:26:49,341 was a historical fall by two human parents who bore, 625 00:26:49,341 --> 00:26:51,343 in a sense, carried along with them, 626 00:26:51,343 --> 00:26:53,345 bore with them the rest of the human race 627 00:26:53,345 --> 00:26:54,846 in what happened. 628 00:26:54,846 --> 00:26:59,351 And so Adam and Eve, in fact, play a very strategic role 629 00:26:59,351 --> 00:27:01,353 in all of the theology 630 00:27:01,353 --> 00:27:04,356 of what Christians have historically believed. 631 00:27:05,357 --> 00:27:07,459 (bell ringing) 632 00:27:07,459 --> 00:27:10,462 NARRATOR: 40 years after Walter Hearn shook the campus 633 00:27:10,462 --> 00:27:11,963 with his shocking remarks 634 00:27:11,963 --> 00:27:14,466 Wheaton is ready to try again. 635 00:27:14,466 --> 00:27:16,968 MAN: The branching tree of life constructed from the DNA... 636 00:27:16,968 --> 00:27:19,971 NARRATOR: To help their students take a fresh look at the evidence 637 00:27:19,971 --> 00:27:21,473 Wheaton professors asked 638 00:27:21,473 --> 00:27:24,476 Kansas State University geologist Keith Miller, 639 00:27:24,476 --> 00:27:25,977 a devout Christian 640 00:27:25,977 --> 00:27:28,480 and advocate for the teaching of evolution, 641 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,982 to give the keynote address at a symposium 642 00:27:30,982 --> 00:27:34,986 on the fossil record in geologic history. 643 00:27:34,986 --> 00:27:36,988 MILLER: So my response was 644 00:27:36,988 --> 00:27:38,990 to come to present myself 645 00:27:38,990 --> 00:27:42,994 as a strong advocate for the teaching of evolution 646 00:27:42,994 --> 00:27:44,496 and for the centrality of evolution 647 00:27:44,496 --> 00:27:45,997 as a unifying scientific theory 648 00:27:45,997 --> 00:27:47,999 and at the same time 649 00:27:47,999 --> 00:27:53,004 make very clear my evangelical Christian position. 650 00:27:53,004 --> 00:27:56,508 Many evangelical Christians like myself 651 00:27:56,508 --> 00:27:59,010 and historically, again, since the time of Darwin 652 00:27:59,010 --> 00:28:03,014 have seen no necessary conflict between the two. 653 00:28:03,014 --> 00:28:05,016 What does the fossil record tell us? 654 00:28:05,016 --> 00:28:08,520 Are there transitional forms preserved in the fossil record? 655 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,023 And my answer is a resounding yes, lots of them. 656 00:28:12,023 --> 00:28:16,027 But first we have to know what is a transitional form 657 00:28:16,027 --> 00:28:18,029 and I'll go back to Darwin's definition 658 00:28:18,029 --> 00:28:21,533 of a transitional form. 659 00:28:21,533 --> 00:28:24,035 NARRATOR: Keith Miller's message to these Christian students 660 00:28:24,536 --> 00:28:26,037 is that all the evidence, 661 00:28:26,037 --> 00:28:30,041 from the ancient fossil record to the latest DNA analysis, 662 00:28:30,041 --> 00:28:34,045 compels us to accept the evolutionary theory in full. 663 00:28:37,048 --> 00:28:39,050 But for some Wheaton students 664 00:28:39,050 --> 00:28:42,053 the implications of our descent from a common ancestor 665 00:28:42,053 --> 00:28:45,056 are still troubling. 666 00:28:45,056 --> 00:28:48,560 How do you connect the Genesis account 667 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:51,062 of man being unique in God's eyes 668 00:28:51,062 --> 00:28:53,565 and we're made in the image of God 669 00:28:53,565 --> 00:28:56,568 with us descending from a common ancestor? 670 00:28:56,568 --> 00:28:58,570 I think understanding what it means 671 00:28:58,570 --> 00:29:00,071 to be made in the image of God 672 00:29:00,071 --> 00:29:02,073 is a very, very important question. 673 00:29:02,073 --> 00:29:03,575 Um... 674 00:29:03,575 --> 00:29:05,076 I personally do not believe 675 00:29:05,076 --> 00:29:07,078 that the image of God is connected 676 00:29:07,078 --> 00:29:10,081 to our physical appearance 677 00:29:10,081 --> 00:29:13,084 or our origin 678 00:29:13,585 --> 00:29:15,587 as far as how we were brought into being. 679 00:29:15,587 --> 00:29:20,091 YOUNG WOMAN: This is kind of a weird question 680 00:29:20,091 --> 00:29:24,596 but do you think he just picked an organism or... 681 00:29:24,596 --> 00:29:27,599 and, like, said, "Okay, I'm going to put my soul in him"? 682 00:29:27,599 --> 00:29:29,601 MILLER: I think one possibility is 683 00:29:29,601 --> 00:29:32,103 that God chose Adam and Eve 684 00:29:32,103 --> 00:29:36,608 out amongst the other humans that existed at the time 685 00:29:36,608 --> 00:29:41,613 and said, "I am going to make you a soulful, spiritual being 686 00:29:41,613 --> 00:29:43,615 in communion with me." 687 00:29:43,615 --> 00:29:46,618 I think that's a viable possibility. 688 00:29:46,618 --> 00:29:48,119 YOUNG WOMAN: Thanks. 689 00:29:48,119 --> 00:29:50,121 I found it very, very good. 690 00:29:50,121 --> 00:29:51,122 I mean, I really... 691 00:29:51,122 --> 00:29:54,125 I thought to myself what a freeing thing it is 692 00:29:54,125 --> 00:29:56,628 that he would say very unapologetically 693 00:29:56,628 --> 00:29:57,629 "This is my position. 694 00:29:57,629 --> 00:30:00,632 "I buy completely into the theory of evolution. 695 00:30:00,632 --> 00:30:02,133 "This is the way it is. 696 00:30:02,133 --> 00:30:04,135 This is the way it's going to be." 697 00:30:04,135 --> 00:30:06,137 Just from what I heard from Dr. Miller 698 00:30:06,137 --> 00:30:08,640 I talked it over with my roommate afterwards 699 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,643 and what was refreshing, she and I think a lot alike 700 00:30:11,643 --> 00:30:13,144 so this wasn't terribly surprising, 701 00:30:13,144 --> 00:30:15,146 but for us it was incredibly refreshing 702 00:30:15,146 --> 00:30:17,148 to have someone come and blatantly say 703 00:30:17,148 --> 00:30:20,652 "I am an evangelical Christian and I believe in evolution" 704 00:30:20,652 --> 00:30:22,153 and to not blink. 705 00:30:22,153 --> 00:30:23,655 That was very exciting for both of us. 706 00:30:23,655 --> 00:30:25,156 Because I feel that sometimes 707 00:30:25,156 --> 00:30:27,158 the professors here may believe that 708 00:30:27,158 --> 00:30:30,662 but they can't openly come out and say, "This is what I feel" 709 00:30:30,662 --> 00:30:33,164 because it's like coming out of the closet almost 710 00:30:33,164 --> 00:30:34,666 in our interpretation. 711 00:30:34,666 --> 00:30:36,167 You don't want to do that 712 00:30:36,167 --> 00:30:38,169 because then someone may label you 713 00:30:38,169 --> 00:30:39,170 a liberal, you know. 714 00:30:39,170 --> 00:30:41,673 God forbid. 715 00:30:41,673 --> 00:30:43,675 (blows note on pitch pipe) 716 00:30:43,675 --> 00:30:47,679 NARRATOR: The symposium may have reassured students like Emi Hayashi 717 00:30:47,679 --> 00:30:50,682 that Christianity and evolution can coexist. 718 00:30:50,682 --> 00:30:53,184 But not everyone on campus feels so comfortable 719 00:30:53,685 --> 00:30:55,186 with Darwin and his theory. 720 00:30:55,186 --> 00:30:57,188 YOUNG MEN: "...Turning and turning" 721 00:30:57,188 --> 00:30:59,190 "We come round right..." 722 00:30:59,691 --> 00:31:03,695 NARRATOR: Peter Slayton is an anthropology major, a singer 723 00:31:03,695 --> 00:31:07,198 and, he says, a Texan born in the Bible Belt. 724 00:31:07,198 --> 00:31:09,200 For him, the arguments for evolution 725 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:10,702 still aren't strong enough 726 00:31:10,702 --> 00:31:14,205 to overcome the convictions he brought with him to Wheaton. 727 00:31:14,205 --> 00:31:15,707 (singing a round) 728 00:31:15,707 --> 00:31:18,209 SLAYTON: At this point, I'm still asking questions. 729 00:31:18,209 --> 00:31:19,210 Like, I don't know... 730 00:31:19,210 --> 00:31:20,712 If I had to pick a side 731 00:31:21,212 --> 00:31:24,215 I would probably pick young Earth creationism 732 00:31:24,215 --> 00:31:26,217 just because that's what I grew up with 733 00:31:26,217 --> 00:31:28,219 that's what I'm comfortable with 734 00:31:28,219 --> 00:31:29,721 and, so far, nothing in evolution 735 00:31:30,221 --> 00:31:32,223 has been able to convince me, like, soundly 736 00:31:32,223 --> 00:31:34,225 that this is the way it happened. 737 00:31:34,225 --> 00:31:36,227 One, two, three. 738 00:31:36,227 --> 00:31:37,228 "The gift to..." 739 00:31:37,228 --> 00:31:38,229 Why don't you play with this 740 00:31:38,730 --> 00:31:39,731 after we're done singing? 741 00:31:39,731 --> 00:31:41,232 Yeah, after we're done singing. 742 00:31:41,232 --> 00:31:43,735 SLAYTON: I think what upsets me about the issue is 743 00:31:44,235 --> 00:31:45,737 the fact that, one way or another 744 00:31:45,737 --> 00:31:47,739 you're called to reinterpret something. 745 00:31:47,739 --> 00:31:50,742 Like, if you pick sides, the other side's going to accuse you 746 00:31:51,242 --> 00:31:53,745 of either doing bad science or doing bad theology 747 00:31:53,745 --> 00:31:56,247 and, like, either way, it's like a lose-lose situation. 748 00:31:56,748 --> 00:31:59,250 You can't really pick sides and do everything right. 749 00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:02,754 What bugs me the most is, um, students or maybe people 750 00:32:02,754 --> 00:32:07,258 who, um, don't know a lot about the issues, try to threaten me 751 00:32:07,258 --> 00:32:09,761 by saying, "If you believe this," you know 752 00:32:09,761 --> 00:32:13,765 "you're not really believing the Bible is true" or whatever. 753 00:32:13,765 --> 00:32:18,269 NARRATOR: Beth Stuebing, a premed student in her final year at Wheaton 754 00:32:18,269 --> 00:32:20,772 is the daughter of missionaries. 755 00:32:20,772 --> 00:32:23,274 She grew up in Zambia, surrounded by nature. 756 00:32:23,274 --> 00:32:26,778 STUEBING: We lived kind of outside of town in the forest 757 00:32:26,778 --> 00:32:28,780 and we just kept all sorts of pets 758 00:32:28,780 --> 00:32:31,783 like chameleons, bush babies, snakes, you name it. 759 00:32:31,783 --> 00:32:34,786 So we were always kind of surrounded by nature. 760 00:32:34,786 --> 00:32:38,289 And I didn't really grow up with the baggage of, you know 761 00:32:38,790 --> 00:32:41,292 "Six-day creation is the only way to go." 762 00:32:41,292 --> 00:32:42,794 And so, from an early age 763 00:32:42,794 --> 00:32:44,796 I was just taught to be open 764 00:32:44,796 --> 00:32:46,798 to a lot of different ideas. 765 00:32:46,798 --> 00:32:49,300 And I think that was really beneficial. 766 00:32:49,300 --> 00:32:50,301 Point two. 767 00:32:50,301 --> 00:32:52,804 Point two. 768 00:32:52,804 --> 00:32:57,809 STUEBING: One of the things that I've thought a lot about is 769 00:32:57,809 --> 00:33:01,312 just how God works in us, where is God's place 770 00:33:01,813 --> 00:33:04,816 if everything does have a natural cause? 771 00:33:06,317 --> 00:33:10,321 And it's been difficult for me, especially being in science 772 00:33:10,321 --> 00:33:12,824 to think about that in an intellectual way. 773 00:33:12,824 --> 00:33:14,826 HAYASHI: So, I was hoping, by coming to Wheaton 774 00:33:14,826 --> 00:33:16,828 that I could be in a Christian environment 775 00:33:16,828 --> 00:33:17,829 where I could think. 776 00:33:17,829 --> 00:33:19,831 That was really, really important to me 777 00:33:19,831 --> 00:33:21,332 because I wanted the Bible 778 00:33:21,332 --> 00:33:22,834 brought into some of these issues 779 00:33:22,834 --> 00:33:24,335 that I thought about in science. 780 00:33:24,335 --> 00:33:25,837 That was important to me. 781 00:33:25,837 --> 00:33:26,838 But at the same time 782 00:33:27,338 --> 00:33:28,840 I didn't want to have someone open the Bible 783 00:33:29,340 --> 00:33:31,342 and say, "This is how you will interpret the Bible." 784 00:33:31,342 --> 00:33:33,845 We can't have that many idiots out there in science. 785 00:33:33,845 --> 00:33:35,346 That's just not possible. 786 00:33:35,346 --> 00:33:36,848 So for a Christian to point 787 00:33:36,848 --> 00:33:37,849 their finger at a scientist 788 00:33:37,849 --> 00:33:39,350 and say, "You're wrong" 789 00:33:39,851 --> 00:33:42,353 without having any understanding of what they're talking about 790 00:33:42,353 --> 00:33:43,855 is laughable. 791 00:33:43,855 --> 00:33:46,357 Just as if a scientist laughs at someone's theology 792 00:33:46,357 --> 00:33:47,859 who's never cracked the Bible at all. 793 00:33:47,859 --> 00:33:49,360 Again, it's the same thing. 794 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:50,862 You can't do it one way or the other. 795 00:33:50,862 --> 00:33:52,864 It's just... they have to understand 796 00:33:52,864 --> 00:33:54,365 where scientists are coming from. 797 00:33:54,365 --> 00:33:57,368 They have to understand this is the data, this is what we have. 798 00:33:57,368 --> 00:33:59,871 Now can you make sense of that with the Bible? 799 00:33:59,871 --> 00:34:01,873 Okay, my question for you is 800 00:34:01,873 --> 00:34:04,876 how many of you have turned out to be more confused 801 00:34:04,876 --> 00:34:08,880 now that you've been at Wheaton than you were when you came? 802 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,383 Okay, well, that's interesting in itself. 803 00:34:12,383 --> 00:34:13,885 But, uh, what does that mean? 804 00:34:13,885 --> 00:34:15,386 I mean, confused in what sense? 805 00:34:15,386 --> 00:34:16,387 Are you going out 806 00:34:16,387 --> 00:34:17,889 having lost your faith or... 807 00:34:17,889 --> 00:34:19,390 BAIRD: It's a struggle. 808 00:34:19,390 --> 00:34:21,392 It's a struggle in my life to go back and forth 809 00:34:21,392 --> 00:34:23,895 where, where does God infuse his image in us? 810 00:34:23,895 --> 00:34:25,396 Where does God select us? 811 00:34:25,396 --> 00:34:27,398 I want that warm, fuzzy feeling 812 00:34:27,398 --> 00:34:30,401 of, God specifically took his hands, if he has hands 813 00:34:30,401 --> 00:34:33,404 and picked up some stuff and put me together 814 00:34:33,404 --> 00:34:34,906 whether it's taking my DNA 815 00:34:34,906 --> 00:34:37,909 and putting the nucleotides together or what. 816 00:34:37,909 --> 00:34:39,911 I want something like that. 817 00:34:39,911 --> 00:34:44,415 HAYASHI: I think to a certain degree it's expected 818 00:34:44,415 --> 00:34:46,417 that you do believe in six-day creation. 819 00:34:46,417 --> 00:34:47,919 I think so. 820 00:34:47,919 --> 00:34:50,922 I would almost gather that's the overall theme on this campus 821 00:34:50,922 --> 00:34:53,925 though you're not condemned for believing in evolution 822 00:34:53,925 --> 00:34:54,926 I... there's a distinction. 823 00:34:54,926 --> 00:34:57,428 Because six-day creation is taught in Sunday school 824 00:34:57,428 --> 00:34:58,930 and I'd say 75% of us 825 00:34:58,930 --> 00:35:00,431 come from the Sunday school background 826 00:35:00,431 --> 00:35:01,933 so that's all we've learned. 827 00:35:01,933 --> 00:35:03,935 And we've been taught by our Sunday school teachers 828 00:35:03,935 --> 00:35:06,437 "Evolution is bad; evolution is of the devil. 829 00:35:06,437 --> 00:35:08,940 So therefore, whatever they say, just don't believe it." 830 00:35:08,940 --> 00:35:11,943 NARRATOR: For students like Emi Hayashi 831 00:35:11,943 --> 00:35:15,947 biblical literalism no longer defines their faith. 832 00:35:18,449 --> 00:35:19,951 But for Ken Ham 833 00:35:19,951 --> 00:35:23,454 the frequently repeated fundamentalist expression 834 00:35:23,454 --> 00:35:26,457 still holds true: God said it; I believe it; 835 00:35:26,457 --> 00:35:27,458 That settles it. 836 00:35:27,458 --> 00:35:28,960 HAM: What are these, Buddy? 837 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:29,961 You're a dinosaur expert. 838 00:35:29,961 --> 00:35:31,462 BUDDY: Okay, that's Triceratops. 839 00:35:31,462 --> 00:35:32,964 You don't see many Noah's ark models 840 00:35:32,964 --> 00:35:34,465 with dinosaurs going on the ark. 841 00:35:34,465 --> 00:35:36,968 No, you don't, but dinosaurs were land animals 842 00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:39,470 and all land animals would have went on the ark 843 00:35:39,470 --> 00:35:40,972 so it needs to be done. 844 00:35:40,972 --> 00:35:43,975 NARRATOR: Ham and millions of other conservative Christians 845 00:35:43,975 --> 00:35:46,477 are convinced that it is the biblical story 846 00:35:46,477 --> 00:35:50,481 not the evolutionary story, that America's children need to hear 847 00:35:50,481 --> 00:35:55,486 not just in Sunday school, but in every school. 848 00:35:55,486 --> 00:35:56,487 Yes, we are concerned 849 00:35:56,487 --> 00:35:58,489 about what's happening in high schools. 850 00:35:58,489 --> 00:36:01,492 We're concerned about what's happening in the culture. 851 00:36:01,492 --> 00:36:03,995 We're concerned that whole generations of children 852 00:36:03,995 --> 00:36:05,997 are coming through an education system 853 00:36:05,997 --> 00:36:08,499 basically devoid of the knowledge of God. 854 00:36:08,499 --> 00:36:11,002 Ultimately, if you're just a mixture of chemicals 855 00:36:11,002 --> 00:36:12,503 what is life all about? 856 00:36:12,503 --> 00:36:16,507 Why this sense of hopelessness, this sense of purposelessness? 857 00:36:16,507 --> 00:36:18,009 And the reason is 858 00:36:18,009 --> 00:36:21,512 because they're given no purpose and meaning in life. 859 00:36:21,512 --> 00:36:23,514 WOMAN: If you aren't on the computer tutorial today 860 00:36:23,514 --> 00:36:25,016 at least beginning it 861 00:36:25,016 --> 00:36:27,518 and getting a good... a good piece of that done 862 00:36:27,518 --> 00:36:30,521 you're not going to finish it up before the end of the unit. 863 00:36:30,521 --> 00:36:33,090 And is that all we have to tell them? 864 00:36:33,090 --> 00:36:35,092 Yep, that's it; let's go. 865 00:36:35,092 --> 00:36:37,595 Okay, let's go! 866 00:36:37,595 --> 00:36:39,096 And if this were something to eat... 867 00:36:39,096 --> 00:36:41,098 Let me borrow this a second, Joe. 868 00:36:41,098 --> 00:36:45,603 NARRATOR: Claire McKinney, a scientist and Christian in Lafayette, Indiana 869 00:36:45,603 --> 00:36:48,606 is one of thousands of high school science teachers 870 00:36:48,606 --> 00:36:51,609 across the country caught in the ongoing struggle 871 00:36:51,609 --> 00:36:54,612 between biblical literalism and evolution. 872 00:36:54,612 --> 00:36:57,615 The stakes are high, for teachers and students alike. 873 00:36:57,615 --> 00:37:00,117 Oh... 874 00:37:00,117 --> 00:37:04,121 McKINNEY: When I was the same age as the students that I now teach 875 00:37:04,121 --> 00:37:06,624 my experience was much the same as theirs 876 00:37:06,624 --> 00:37:09,126 coming from a strong Christian home 877 00:37:09,126 --> 00:37:11,128 and active involvement in my church. 878 00:37:11,128 --> 00:37:14,632 I did accept that the Bible was the word of God 879 00:37:14,632 --> 00:37:16,634 and not to be challenged. 880 00:37:16,634 --> 00:37:18,636 And I did accept that. 881 00:37:18,636 --> 00:37:20,137 And then, as a teenager 882 00:37:20,137 --> 00:37:23,641 when I really started having an increased interest 883 00:37:23,641 --> 00:37:25,142 in the sciences 884 00:37:25,142 --> 00:37:28,646 and really started looking at scientific method 885 00:37:28,646 --> 00:37:31,148 and what makes science science, and... 886 00:37:31,148 --> 00:37:33,150 they seemed contrary to me. 887 00:37:36,153 --> 00:37:38,656 NARRATOR: McKinney knew that some of her students 888 00:37:38,656 --> 00:37:41,659 were feeling these same frustrations over the conflicts 889 00:37:41,659 --> 00:37:45,162 between what they had learned in their Sunday schools and homes 890 00:37:45,162 --> 00:37:47,665 and what they were learning in her class. 891 00:37:47,665 --> 00:37:49,166 But she never expected them 892 00:37:49,166 --> 00:37:51,669 to take matters into their own hands. 893 00:37:51,669 --> 00:37:55,172 She was taken aback when the students circulated a petition 894 00:37:55,172 --> 00:37:58,676 demanding that something they call "special creation" 895 00:37:58,676 --> 00:38:00,678 be added to their science curriculum. 896 00:38:00,678 --> 00:38:04,181 McKinney and her fellow teachers were even more surprised 897 00:38:04,181 --> 00:38:07,184 when over half the students in the school 898 00:38:07,184 --> 00:38:10,187 and 35 members of the faculty signed on 899 00:38:10,187 --> 00:38:12,189 in support of their cause. 900 00:38:12,189 --> 00:38:15,192 MAN: When I looked at the paper yesterday morning 901 00:38:15,192 --> 00:38:16,694 the five pictures I saw were 902 00:38:16,694 --> 00:38:19,697 outstanding kids that are outstanding students 903 00:38:19,697 --> 00:38:21,198 that did very well in this class. 904 00:38:21,198 --> 00:38:22,700 And I was really surprised 905 00:38:22,700 --> 00:38:25,202 to see some of them sitting in that picture 906 00:38:25,202 --> 00:38:27,705 because I thought they understood the difference 907 00:38:27,705 --> 00:38:29,707 between science and non-science. 908 00:38:29,707 --> 00:38:31,208 And it's fairly obvious to me 909 00:38:31,208 --> 00:38:32,710 that if they did at one time 910 00:38:32,710 --> 00:38:34,211 they don't right now. 911 00:38:34,211 --> 00:38:36,213 All the teachers, you always hear that 912 00:38:36,714 --> 00:38:39,717 "We do not accept or reject the existence of God." 913 00:38:39,717 --> 00:38:42,720 But when they're accepting biology so freely 914 00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:44,221 and saying it's the only way 915 00:38:44,722 --> 00:38:47,725 then, I mean, they might not directly be saying it 916 00:38:47,725 --> 00:38:50,227 but indirectly that's what they mean. 917 00:38:50,227 --> 00:38:51,228 BOY: Why are we so afraid 918 00:38:51,228 --> 00:38:53,230 about mentioning that there is a God 919 00:38:53,230 --> 00:38:54,732 if, in fact, about 80%, I would say 920 00:38:54,732 --> 00:38:55,733 in the world believe 921 00:38:55,733 --> 00:38:56,734 there is a God? 922 00:38:56,734 --> 00:38:57,735 If you have a religion 923 00:38:57,735 --> 00:38:59,236 and unless you're an atheist 924 00:38:59,236 --> 00:39:01,739 which I'm sure is a small minority 925 00:39:01,739 --> 00:39:03,240 then there is a God. 926 00:39:03,240 --> 00:39:05,743 You believe, hey, there is a higher being out there 927 00:39:05,743 --> 00:39:07,244 and even if you're afraid to admit that 928 00:39:07,745 --> 00:39:09,246 if you're afraid to admit that in class 929 00:39:09,246 --> 00:39:11,248 because, ooh, you'd be pressing on someone 930 00:39:11,248 --> 00:39:12,249 that there is a God 931 00:39:12,249 --> 00:39:13,751 wouldn't you be just as afraid 932 00:39:13,751 --> 00:39:15,753 to press on someone there isn't a God? 933 00:39:15,753 --> 00:39:16,754 That, to me, is a scary world. 934 00:39:16,754 --> 00:39:18,255 GIRL: It just shocks me 935 00:39:18,255 --> 00:39:19,757 that we could find all this information 936 00:39:20,257 --> 00:39:21,258 to support special creation 937 00:39:21,258 --> 00:39:23,260 and they say there's none out there. 938 00:39:23,260 --> 00:39:24,762 It's, like, where are you looking 939 00:39:24,762 --> 00:39:26,764 because I can, like, give you a book, you know 940 00:39:26,764 --> 00:39:27,765 if you want to know. 941 00:39:27,765 --> 00:39:28,766 RANDAK: I don't know 942 00:39:28,766 --> 00:39:31,268 if this is an isolated incidence 943 00:39:31,268 --> 00:39:34,772 of kids just becoming passionate about the situation 944 00:39:34,772 --> 00:39:38,275 or if this is actually the new creationists' game plan. 945 00:39:38,275 --> 00:39:41,278 If you can't... if you can't attack evolution 946 00:39:41,278 --> 00:39:44,782 in the Supreme Court, then maybe you can go around 947 00:39:44,782 --> 00:39:48,285 and pull one evolution weed at a time to get rid of it. 948 00:39:48,285 --> 00:39:50,287 That's what I'm afraid of. 949 00:39:50,287 --> 00:39:52,790 People actually don't understand the issues. 950 00:39:52,790 --> 00:39:54,291 People are being told 951 00:39:54,291 --> 00:39:58,295 first you have to choose between faith and science. 952 00:39:58,295 --> 00:39:59,296 You have to choose 953 00:39:59,296 --> 00:40:02,800 between especially Christianity and evolution. 954 00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:04,802 They're being told, "Well, it's only fair 955 00:40:04,802 --> 00:40:06,303 "to give both points of view. 956 00:40:06,303 --> 00:40:08,305 "It's only fair to teach evolution 957 00:40:08,305 --> 00:40:10,307 "and balance it with creation science 958 00:40:10,307 --> 00:40:13,310 or intelligent design theory" or something like that. 959 00:40:13,310 --> 00:40:18,816 NARRATOR: From their tiny offices in a small northern California town 960 00:40:19,316 --> 00:40:20,818 Eugenie Scott and the staff 961 00:40:20,818 --> 00:40:23,320 of the National Center for Science Education 962 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:24,822 deploy an arsenal of weapons 963 00:40:25,322 --> 00:40:27,324 to defend the teaching of evolution. 964 00:40:27,825 --> 00:40:28,325 Hi, Emily. 965 00:40:28,826 --> 00:40:29,827 Hi, Genie. 966 00:40:31,829 --> 00:40:36,333 NARRATOR: Often, the hardest part is just getting people to understand 967 00:40:36,333 --> 00:40:38,836 what is and what isn't science. 968 00:40:38,836 --> 00:40:41,338 SCOTT: Evolution or science in general can't say anything 969 00:40:41,338 --> 00:40:45,342 about whether God did or did not have anything to do with it. 970 00:40:45,342 --> 00:40:48,846 All evolution as a science can tell us is what happened. 971 00:40:48,846 --> 00:40:50,347 Can't tell us who done it. 972 00:40:50,347 --> 00:40:51,849 And as what happened 973 00:40:51,849 --> 00:40:55,853 the evidence is extremely strong that the galaxies evolved 974 00:40:55,853 --> 00:40:58,355 the planets evolved, the sun evolved 975 00:40:58,355 --> 00:41:01,859 and living things on Earth shared common ancestors. 976 00:41:01,859 --> 00:41:03,861 They're probably right. 977 00:41:03,861 --> 00:41:06,363 NARRATOR: At the National Center for Science Education 978 00:41:06,363 --> 00:41:08,365 calls come in from across America 979 00:41:08,365 --> 00:41:11,368 from teachers who continue to be accused 980 00:41:11,368 --> 00:41:14,371 of locking God out of their classrooms. 981 00:41:16,373 --> 00:41:18,375 (beeping) 982 00:41:18,375 --> 00:41:21,378 When Steve Randak called from Lafayette, Indiana 983 00:41:21,378 --> 00:41:22,880 he got the help he wanted. 984 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:25,382 But he was troubled by what he heard. 985 00:41:25,382 --> 00:41:26,383 Eugenie Scott told me 986 00:41:26,383 --> 00:41:29,386 that this is the first time, to her knowledge 987 00:41:29,386 --> 00:41:31,388 that students have taken the initiative. 988 00:41:31,889 --> 00:41:35,893 And I am very much concerned that there will be other places 989 00:41:35,893 --> 00:41:38,896 where children will step forward, protest 990 00:41:38,896 --> 00:41:41,398 ask school boards to be listened to 991 00:41:41,398 --> 00:41:44,902 and the school boards won't do the right thing. 992 00:41:44,902 --> 00:41:47,404 McKINNEY: I think they think someone will come out a victor 993 00:41:47,404 --> 00:41:50,407 and I don't believe that that's going to be the case. 994 00:41:51,909 --> 00:41:53,410 NARRATOR: But win or lose 995 00:41:53,410 --> 00:41:57,414 for McKinney's students, this is a battle worth fighting. 996 00:41:57,414 --> 00:41:59,416 Tonight they are taking their petitions 997 00:41:59,416 --> 00:42:01,418 to the Lafayette School Board 998 00:42:01,418 --> 00:42:04,421 to demand that the members take a public stand 999 00:42:04,421 --> 00:42:06,423 for or against special creation. 1000 00:42:06,423 --> 00:42:09,426 They claim that complex biological structures 1001 00:42:09,426 --> 00:42:12,930 could not have arisen through natural selection at all 1002 00:42:12,930 --> 00:42:15,933 but had to have been created by some higher intelligence. 1003 00:42:15,933 --> 00:42:17,935 According to their teachers 1004 00:42:17,935 --> 00:42:20,938 the future of science education at Jefferson High 1005 00:42:20,938 --> 00:42:23,440 may be riding on the board's response. 1006 00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:25,442 RANDAK: As a teacher, you feel compelled 1007 00:42:25,943 --> 00:42:28,445 to soothe the distress these kids are having. 1008 00:42:28,445 --> 00:42:31,949 And so school boards are going to feel the same thing. 1009 00:42:31,949 --> 00:42:34,451 Joyce, if we could have a roll call, please. 1010 00:42:34,451 --> 00:42:37,955 RANDAK: And that sense of fairness is something 1011 00:42:38,455 --> 00:42:42,960 that school board members have and I think would respond to 1012 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:46,463 and I think it's... I think it's going to be dangerous. 1013 00:42:46,463 --> 00:42:48,966 MAN: I'd like to call this meeting to order 1014 00:42:48,966 --> 00:42:50,968 of the Lafayette School Board of Trustees. 1015 00:42:50,968 --> 00:42:52,970 First of all, welcome. 1016 00:42:52,970 --> 00:42:55,472 I understand some of you are here tonight 1017 00:42:55,472 --> 00:42:57,474 to discuss the science curriculum 1018 00:42:57,474 --> 00:42:58,976 at Jefferson High School. 1019 00:42:58,976 --> 00:43:00,978 So, let me see the show of hands of people 1020 00:43:01,478 --> 00:43:02,479 that are there for that. 1021 00:43:04,481 --> 00:43:06,483 Okay, thank you. 1022 00:43:06,483 --> 00:43:07,985 Let's just move in. 1023 00:43:07,985 --> 00:43:11,488 Are there any, uh, comments from the public? 1024 00:43:11,488 --> 00:43:12,990 It's now open. 1025 00:43:15,492 --> 00:43:16,994 All right. 1026 00:43:16,994 --> 00:43:19,997 One issue that continues to confront American society 1027 00:43:19,997 --> 00:43:22,499 is that of the teaching of the theories of evolution 1028 00:43:22,499 --> 00:43:24,501 and special creation in our schools. 1029 00:43:24,501 --> 00:43:26,503 The assumption of the theory of evolution is 1030 00:43:26,503 --> 00:43:28,505 that all living things have resulted 1031 00:43:28,505 --> 00:43:29,506 from chance interactions. 1032 00:43:29,506 --> 00:43:31,508 The assumption of special creation is 1033 00:43:32,009 --> 00:43:34,511 that the physical universe and living creatures in it 1034 00:43:34,511 --> 00:43:37,014 have been fashioned by a supreme being. 1035 00:43:37,014 --> 00:43:40,017 Please understand that those of us supporting this petition 1036 00:43:40,017 --> 00:43:41,518 do not advocate the tea... 1037 00:43:41,518 --> 00:43:45,022 the banning of teaching of the theory of evolution. 1038 00:43:45,022 --> 00:43:47,524 However, we believe that the theory of evolution 1039 00:43:47,524 --> 00:43:49,026 should be taught 1040 00:43:49,026 --> 00:43:51,528 alongside the alternative theory of special creation. 1041 00:43:51,528 --> 00:43:54,531 Let us be taught the facts so that we can decide on our own. 1042 00:43:55,032 --> 00:43:56,033 Thank you. 1043 00:43:56,033 --> 00:43:58,035 NARRATOR: For these students 1044 00:43:58,035 --> 00:44:01,538 the argument isn't about science versus the Bible. 1045 00:44:01,538 --> 00:44:05,042 It's about which views of science will be taught. 1046 00:44:05,042 --> 00:44:07,044 It is a tactic pioneered in 1961 1047 00:44:07,544 --> 00:44:11,548 when a revolutionary book by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb 1048 00:44:11,548 --> 00:44:14,551 used carefully selected scientific evidence 1049 00:44:14,551 --> 00:44:17,054 to support the creationist cause. 1050 00:44:17,054 --> 00:44:20,057 SCOTT: The Genesis Flood is the foundational document 1051 00:44:20,557 --> 00:44:21,558 for creation science. 1052 00:44:21,558 --> 00:44:24,561 Everything else has been built upon this book. 1053 00:44:24,561 --> 00:44:27,064 He makes a number of claims in here 1054 00:44:27,064 --> 00:44:29,566 that you can somehow find scientific evidence 1055 00:44:29,566 --> 00:44:32,569 to demonstrate that the earth was created 1056 00:44:32,569 --> 00:44:35,072 like a literal reading of Genesis says. 1057 00:44:36,573 --> 00:44:40,577 NARRATOR: The Genesis Flood was an inspiration to creationists. 1058 00:44:40,577 --> 00:44:44,581 In 1981, Louisiana Senator Bill Keith proposed a law 1059 00:44:44,581 --> 00:44:47,584 requiring the teaching of "creation science" 1060 00:44:47,584 --> 00:44:50,087 wherever evolution was taught. 1061 00:44:50,087 --> 00:44:52,589 Scientific creationism is pure science 1062 00:44:52,589 --> 00:44:54,591 and is just as unreligious 1063 00:44:54,591 --> 00:44:57,094 as the teaching of evolution science 1064 00:44:57,094 --> 00:45:01,098 and also that it's an abridgment of academic freedom 1065 00:45:01,098 --> 00:45:03,600 for our schoolchildren not to be given 1066 00:45:04,101 --> 00:45:07,104 all the scientific evidences regarding origins. 1067 00:45:07,104 --> 00:45:09,973 NARRATOR: Over opposition from educators 1068 00:45:09,973 --> 00:45:12,476 the Louisiana legislature passed the law. 1069 00:45:12,476 --> 00:45:16,480 Creation science and evolution became classmates. 1070 00:45:16,980 --> 00:45:19,483 But in 1987, the Supreme Court ruled 1071 00:45:19,483 --> 00:45:22,486 that teaching creationism alongside evolution 1072 00:45:22,486 --> 00:45:26,990 violated the First Amendment's separation of church and state. 1073 00:45:26,990 --> 00:45:29,993 In his opinion for the majority, however 1074 00:45:29,993 --> 00:45:32,496 Justice William Brennan wrote 1075 00:45:32,496 --> 00:45:35,499 that alternatives to evolutionary theory 1076 00:45:35,499 --> 00:45:39,002 can be taught if they have a scientific basis. 1077 00:45:39,002 --> 00:45:43,006 SCOTT: What Justice Brennan wrote in the 1987 decision 1078 00:45:43,006 --> 00:45:47,010 was that of course teachers have a right to teach any and all... 1079 00:45:47,010 --> 00:45:49,513 um... uh, scientific views about the origin of humans 1080 00:45:50,013 --> 00:45:51,515 or any other scientific theory 1081 00:45:51,515 --> 00:45:53,016 and that's absolutely true. 1082 00:45:53,016 --> 00:45:57,521 And what he said was, "any and all scientific views." 1083 00:45:57,521 --> 00:45:59,022 Now, of course, one reason 1084 00:45:59,022 --> 00:46:01,525 why the creationists have worked so hard 1085 00:46:01,525 --> 00:46:04,528 to try to present their ideas as being scientific 1086 00:46:04,528 --> 00:46:06,530 is so they can duck under the First Amendment. 1087 00:46:06,530 --> 00:46:08,532 I would just like to tell all of you 1088 00:46:08,532 --> 00:46:10,534 how we want special creation to be taught 1089 00:46:10,534 --> 00:46:12,035 and, like it's already been stated 1090 00:46:12,035 --> 00:46:14,037 we want it taught alongside evolution. 1091 00:46:14,037 --> 00:46:18,041 I would just like to say that we do not want a religion class 1092 00:46:18,041 --> 00:46:21,044 or any separate class, because it is not religion 1093 00:46:21,044 --> 00:46:23,547 so we're just begging of you to teach us the facts 1094 00:46:23,547 --> 00:46:25,048 and let us decide 1095 00:46:25,048 --> 00:46:28,051 and that is with evolution and special creation. 1096 00:46:28,051 --> 00:46:29,052 (applause) 1097 00:46:30,554 --> 00:46:33,557 McKINNEY: There's a large part of me that felt 1098 00:46:33,557 --> 00:46:36,059 "My gosh, we haven't done a very good job 1099 00:46:36,059 --> 00:46:39,563 "with the nature of science if we have this many students 1100 00:46:39,563 --> 00:46:41,565 "who don't understand the difference 1101 00:46:41,565 --> 00:46:43,567 "and why creation and... 1102 00:46:43,567 --> 00:46:47,571 "you know, any supreme being can't be addressed 1103 00:46:47,571 --> 00:46:49,573 in a science classroom." 1104 00:46:49,573 --> 00:46:53,577 And I kept thinking, "Gee, it seems like we try so hard 1105 00:46:53,577 --> 00:46:56,079 "to really hit home 1106 00:46:56,079 --> 00:47:01,084 with what makes a particular event science" 1107 00:47:01,084 --> 00:47:03,587 and the fact that there seems to be 1108 00:47:03,587 --> 00:47:08,091 a lack of understanding about that was disturbing to me. 1109 00:47:09,593 --> 00:47:12,095 RANDAK: What they don't understand is 1110 00:47:12,095 --> 00:47:16,099 that science is a rather brutal competition of ideas. 1111 00:47:16,099 --> 00:47:19,102 It is not particularly a situation 1112 00:47:19,102 --> 00:47:23,106 where you get to express your idea just because you want to. 1113 00:47:23,106 --> 00:47:25,609 That sense of fairness doesn't exist in science. 1114 00:47:25,609 --> 00:47:29,112 In science, ideas are supported by evidence 1115 00:47:29,112 --> 00:47:31,615 and that evidence has to be peer reviewed 1116 00:47:32,115 --> 00:47:35,619 and it has to be repeatable and it has to be testable. 1117 00:47:35,619 --> 00:47:37,621 And creationism is not that. 1118 00:47:37,621 --> 00:47:39,122 And we know 1119 00:47:39,122 --> 00:47:41,625 that it's our freedom to decide on the information. 1120 00:47:41,625 --> 00:47:43,126 And we think that it... 1121 00:47:43,126 --> 00:47:46,630 it's been neglected by the school system and the state 1122 00:47:46,630 --> 00:47:48,632 and maybe even in the nation... 1123 00:47:48,632 --> 00:47:51,134 that there are facts we don't have. 1124 00:47:51,134 --> 00:47:52,636 Thank you. 1125 00:47:52,636 --> 00:47:54,137 (applause) 1126 00:47:54,137 --> 00:48:00,143 It's real hard for me, as a parent and as a teacher, to know 1127 00:48:00,143 --> 00:48:03,647 that not only are they dealing with their own faith issues 1128 00:48:03,647 --> 00:48:06,650 at a very young age, 14-15 years old, 1129 00:48:06,650 --> 00:48:09,152 but they're also dealing with the issues 1130 00:48:09,152 --> 00:48:11,655 of being disobedient to their parents. 1131 00:48:11,655 --> 00:48:14,658 And I know that for many of them it's not only 1132 00:48:14,658 --> 00:48:16,660 "Oh, the evils of evolution" 1133 00:48:16,660 --> 00:48:19,663 it's that, "my parents don't even want me to hear about this 1134 00:48:19,663 --> 00:48:21,164 "or listen to it 1135 00:48:21,164 --> 00:48:23,166 much less participate in the conversation." 1136 00:48:23,166 --> 00:48:25,168 YOUNG MAN: I grew up in the church. 1137 00:48:25,168 --> 00:48:26,670 "God created all things", 1138 00:48:26,670 --> 00:48:29,172 that's the way it was, that's how it ever will be. 1139 00:48:29,172 --> 00:48:31,675 And I didn't get my first even notion of evolution 1140 00:48:31,675 --> 00:48:34,177 until like third grade when we were learning about insects. 1141 00:48:34,678 --> 00:48:36,680 They were, like, "Well, one day you'll learn 1142 00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:39,182 that the building blocks of life actually evolved from water." 1143 00:48:39,683 --> 00:48:40,684 (all laughing) 1144 00:48:40,684 --> 00:48:43,186 And so I went home to my mom and dad 1145 00:48:43,186 --> 00:48:45,188 and I was, like, "We came from water?" 1146 00:48:45,188 --> 00:48:47,691 And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, it's called evolution." 1147 00:48:47,691 --> 00:48:49,693 And I still didn't understand it. 1148 00:48:49,693 --> 00:48:51,194 GIRL: I guess I had read about it 1149 00:48:51,194 --> 00:48:53,196 but I just knew God created us in six days 1150 00:48:53,196 --> 00:48:55,198 and I knew he was the creator. 1151 00:48:55,198 --> 00:48:58,702 And my mom agreed with me on that; my stepdad doesn't. 1152 00:48:58,702 --> 00:49:01,204 But I don't really know how I learned that. 1153 00:49:01,204 --> 00:49:03,206 I just probably read it in the Bible. 1154 00:49:03,206 --> 00:49:04,207 Don't move this. 1155 00:49:04,207 --> 00:49:07,210 Okay, come on over here and look. 1156 00:49:07,210 --> 00:49:10,213 McKINNEY: And I had the same conflicts these kids are having. 1157 00:49:10,213 --> 00:49:13,216 I mean, I went through that whole growing process myself 1158 00:49:13,216 --> 00:49:14,718 and so I can really sympathize 1159 00:49:14,718 --> 00:49:18,221 and fortunately I had a lot of significant people in my life 1160 00:49:18,221 --> 00:49:21,224 that were willing to sit down and listen to me. 1161 00:49:22,726 --> 00:49:26,730 I had a very, very intelligent pastor tell me once 1162 00:49:26,730 --> 00:49:28,732 that... I asked him what he thought 1163 00:49:28,732 --> 00:49:30,734 and he said, "What I think doesn't matter; 1164 00:49:30,734 --> 00:49:31,735 it's what you think." 1165 00:49:32,235 --> 00:49:33,737 And he said, "Here is what I recommend. 1166 00:49:34,237 --> 00:49:35,238 "You learn a lot about both 1167 00:49:35,238 --> 00:49:37,240 and then you make your own decision." 1168 00:49:37,240 --> 00:49:39,242 And that's what I did. 1169 00:49:39,242 --> 00:49:43,747 I went to Bible studies and I pursued careers in science 1170 00:49:43,747 --> 00:49:45,749 and just fell in love with them. 1171 00:49:45,749 --> 00:49:49,252 And I would say that probably by the end of my senior... 1172 00:49:49,252 --> 00:49:50,754 or maybe I was even in college 1173 00:49:50,754 --> 00:49:53,256 before I really came to terms with the fact 1174 00:49:53,256 --> 00:49:56,760 that in my mind and in my heart there was no conflict. 1175 00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:58,762 They answer very different questions 1176 00:49:58,762 --> 00:50:01,264 they address very different things in our lives 1177 00:50:01,264 --> 00:50:04,267 and I think they're very... 1178 00:50:04,267 --> 00:50:05,268 as an individual, for me 1179 00:50:05,268 --> 00:50:07,270 they're very supportive of one another. 1180 00:50:07,270 --> 00:50:10,273 I can't really see that one could exist without the other 1181 00:50:10,273 --> 00:50:11,775 at least in my mind. 1182 00:50:11,775 --> 00:50:14,778 MAN: Other comments from the board? 1183 00:50:14,778 --> 00:50:16,279 NARRATOR: For over three hours 1184 00:50:16,279 --> 00:50:20,283 the students, their supporters and their detractors struggled 1185 00:50:20,283 --> 00:50:22,786 over the proposed change in the science curriculum. 1186 00:50:22,786 --> 00:50:25,288 Finally, the board made its position known. 1187 00:50:25,288 --> 00:50:30,293 There is well-defined legal and scientific definitions 1188 00:50:30,293 --> 00:50:33,797 that set out the boundaries for biological science. 1189 00:50:33,797 --> 00:50:36,800 There are certainly points to be discussed 1190 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:38,802 about special creationism 1191 00:50:38,802 --> 00:50:42,806 but it does not belong in the biological curriculum. 1192 00:50:42,806 --> 00:50:45,308 EILER: We've made it very clear that we're not going to change 1193 00:50:45,308 --> 00:50:47,310 the biological science curriculum 1194 00:50:47,310 --> 00:50:50,814 that if we want to address their intellectual curiosity 1195 00:50:50,814 --> 00:50:54,317 it has to be under the umbrella of a humanities topic 1196 00:50:54,317 --> 00:50:55,819 in some fashion. 1197 00:50:55,819 --> 00:50:58,321 I want to say thank you so much for coming. 1198 00:50:58,321 --> 00:50:59,823 I hope you all understand 1199 00:50:59,823 --> 00:51:02,325 that when we make a decision about our position 1200 00:51:02,325 --> 00:51:04,327 we do it because we believe it's our duty. 1201 00:51:04,327 --> 00:51:07,330 We believe that the law requires us to do what we do 1202 00:51:07,330 --> 00:51:10,333 and that we, in our meager understanding of science 1203 00:51:10,333 --> 00:51:12,335 are trying to do what we think is right. 1204 00:51:12,335 --> 00:51:13,837 If you have any other questions... 1205 00:51:13,837 --> 00:51:16,840 NARRATOR: The decision preserved the integrity 1206 00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,342 of Jefferson High's science curriculum. 1207 00:51:19,342 --> 00:51:22,846 But the teachers know this is not the end of the debate. 1208 00:51:22,846 --> 00:51:24,848 McKINNEY: I have yet to hear of a case 1209 00:51:24,848 --> 00:51:28,351 where they've given equal time in a science classroom. 1210 00:51:28,351 --> 00:51:29,853 However, I have heard of cases 1211 00:51:29,853 --> 00:51:33,356 where they've removed evolution from the curriculum. 1212 00:51:33,356 --> 00:51:34,858 And I don't think 1213 00:51:34,858 --> 00:51:38,361 the three of us would have continued teaching here 1214 00:51:38,361 --> 00:51:40,363 had that been the case. 1215 00:51:40,363 --> 00:51:42,365 I can't speak for them 1216 00:51:42,365 --> 00:51:46,870 but I really don't think, as an educator, I could teach biology 1217 00:51:46,870 --> 00:51:51,374 and do it well if I couldn't talk about the natural processes 1218 00:51:51,374 --> 00:51:52,876 that make it work. 1219 00:51:52,876 --> 00:51:56,880 To take that element out would be removing one of the... 1220 00:51:56,880 --> 00:51:58,381 well, the major pillar 1221 00:51:58,882 --> 00:52:01,384 that supports that whole field of science. 1222 00:52:01,384 --> 00:52:03,386 And in good conscience 1223 00:52:03,386 --> 00:52:06,890 I couldn't have slighted my kids that way in my classroom. 1224 00:52:08,892 --> 00:52:12,896 (harmonizing a cappella): "A gift to be simple" 1225 00:52:12,896 --> 00:52:14,898 "A gift to be free" 1226 00:52:14,898 --> 00:52:16,399 "The gift to be free" 1227 00:52:16,399 --> 00:52:18,401 "The gift to be simple" 1228 00:52:18,401 --> 00:52:20,904 "'Tis the gift to be..." 1229 00:52:20,904 --> 00:52:24,407 JONES: Are we placing students' faith at risk 1230 00:52:24,407 --> 00:52:26,910 by examining these hard questions? 1231 00:52:26,910 --> 00:52:28,411 Absolutely. 1232 00:52:28,411 --> 00:52:32,415 But I would add additionally that there is no such thing 1233 00:52:32,415 --> 00:52:36,920 as a safe place from which to hide from these issues. 1234 00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:38,922 BOYS: ? ...free. ? 1235 00:52:38,922 --> 00:52:42,926 If we engage in the most rigid biblical literalism 1236 00:52:42,926 --> 00:52:46,429 the fact that our students live in a real world indicates 1237 00:52:46,429 --> 00:52:49,432 that their faith is always at risk. 1238 00:52:49,432 --> 00:52:50,934 Christians believe 1239 00:52:50,934 --> 00:52:55,438 that our faith is rooted in real happenings in a real world. 1240 00:52:55,438 --> 00:52:57,941 And so to try and structure a place 1241 00:52:57,941 --> 00:53:01,945 or a way of conceptualizing our faith that insulates us 1242 00:53:02,445 --> 00:53:03,947 and isolates us from risk 1243 00:53:04,447 --> 00:53:07,951 is to rob Christianity of its very essence. 1244 00:53:09,953 --> 00:53:11,955 HAYASHI: One problem we have a lot of times is 1245 00:53:11,955 --> 00:53:13,957 that people just look at Christians and they say 1246 00:53:13,957 --> 00:53:16,459 "Oh, you're just one of those religious fanatics." 1247 00:53:16,459 --> 00:53:17,961 I don't want to come across as that. 1248 00:53:17,961 --> 00:53:20,463 I want to be educated and I want to be intelligent. 1249 00:53:20,463 --> 00:53:21,965 I want to have answers that someone can say 1250 00:53:21,965 --> 00:53:23,967 "I can respect that, I can respect that." 1251 00:53:23,967 --> 00:53:26,970 And also be able to argue some answers without God. 1252 00:53:26,970 --> 00:53:28,972 I mean, that sounds almost sacrilegious 1253 00:53:28,972 --> 00:53:30,974 but I want to be able to reason some things 1254 00:53:30,974 --> 00:53:32,475 without having to bring... 1255 00:53:32,475 --> 00:53:34,978 without necessarily having to bring God into the picture. 1256 00:53:34,978 --> 00:53:37,480 And then I want my life and the way that I live it 1257 00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:39,482 to reflect God. 1258 00:53:39,482 --> 00:53:42,485 STUEBING: I don't think science and faith are inevitably in conflict. 1259 00:53:42,485 --> 00:53:43,987 I am a scientist. 1260 00:53:43,987 --> 00:53:45,488 I enjoy doing science 1261 00:53:45,488 --> 00:53:48,992 and I haven't thrown God out the window at all. 1262 00:53:48,992 --> 00:53:51,995 I mean, I know a lot of people who live the same way. 1263 00:53:51,995 --> 00:53:54,998 And because we look for natural causes and things 1264 00:53:54,998 --> 00:53:58,501 doesn't mean we think that that's all there is. 1265 00:53:58,501 --> 00:53:59,502 It doesn't mean 1266 00:53:59,502 --> 00:54:02,005 that we're throwing out the meaning of life. 1267 00:54:02,005 --> 00:54:06,009 We're just studying what God has made, however he made it 1268 00:54:06,009 --> 00:54:09,012 and I don't think those are in conflict at all. 1269 00:54:11,514 --> 00:54:14,017 BAIRD: When I hear a God-fearing man say 1270 00:54:14,017 --> 00:54:16,019 "I hold to the evolutionary theory" 1271 00:54:16,019 --> 00:54:19,522 that was... that was... that worked wonders for me. 1272 00:54:19,522 --> 00:54:22,525 It... it... once again, it gave me a little bit of a freedom 1273 00:54:22,525 --> 00:54:23,526 to say "Wow, God is bigger 1274 00:54:23,526 --> 00:54:25,528 than the box that I may have put him in." 1275 00:54:29,032 --> 00:54:34,537 NARRATOR: As his grandmother predicted, Nathan is searching it out. 1276 00:54:34,537 --> 00:54:38,041 He is finding his own answer to the question 1277 00:54:38,041 --> 00:54:39,542 "What about God?" 1278 00:54:39,542 --> 00:54:43,546 Charles Darwin's answer came in the mystery of evolution itself. 1279 00:54:43,546 --> 00:54:47,550 In the final edition of his book On the Origin of Species 1280 00:54:47,550 --> 00:54:51,054 Darwin wrote, "There is grandeur in this view of life 1281 00:54:51,054 --> 00:54:53,056 "with its several powers 1282 00:54:53,056 --> 00:54:56,559 "having been originally breathed by a creator 1283 00:54:56,559 --> 00:54:59,062 "into a few forms or into one. 1284 00:54:59,062 --> 00:55:01,064 "From so simple a beginning 1285 00:55:01,064 --> 00:55:04,567 "endless forms most beautiful have been 1286 00:55:04,567 --> 00:55:06,569 and are being, evolved." 1287 00:55:49,612 --> 00:55:51,114 Continue the journey 1288 00:55:51,114 --> 00:55:53,116 into where we're from and where we're going 1289 00:55:53,116 --> 00:55:54,117 at the Evolution web site. 1290 00:55:54,617 --> 00:55:56,619 Visit www.pbs.org. 1291 00:55:57,620 --> 00:55:59,622 The seven-part Evolution boxed set 1292 00:55:59,622 --> 00:56:01,124 and the companion book 1293 00:56:01,124 --> 00:56:04,627 are available from WGBH Boston Video. 1294 00:56:04,627 --> 00:56:08,131 To place an order, please call: