The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything: Evolution, Intelligent Design, and a School Board in Dover, PA

THE BATTLE OVER THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING is science journalist Gordy Slack's account of the Dover, PA, trial. It shows us that the trial revealed much more than a disagreement about how to approach science education. It revealed two essentially different and conflicting views of the world: the fundamentalist-creationist view, which mandates the existence of a creative and engaged personal God, and the secular-evolutionary one, which does not. The ruling by George W. Bush-appointed Judge John Jones III unexpectedly concluded that intelligent design was religion and not science and scolded the school board for wasting precious public time and money. This sophisticated examination of the deep cultural, religious, and political tensions that continue to divide America into two separate and increasingly alienated nations is based on Slack's personal account of the trial and interviews with key figures from both sides of the controversy. He reports not only on the trial but on the deep philosophical and cultural differences that drove it and that are still very much alive today in debates on education, government, and other American social institutions.