Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (1 of 50)

Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

In a tiny town of Dover in eastern Pennsylvania, in 2004, the local school board ordered science teachers to read to their high school biology students a statement that suggested there is an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution called "Intelligent Design." NOVA captures the emotional conflict in the historic six-week trial, Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, which was closely watched by the world's media.

NARRATOR: Dover, Pennsylvania.
Like much of the United States, Dover has become a town divided.
MAN: I personally don't believe in Darwin's theory of evolution.
Saying that you don't believe in evolution is almost saying, for us, Well, we don't believe that the Civil War ever took place in the United States.

NARRATOR: Dover is split between those who accept Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and those who reject it; and that rift, between science and scripture, nearly destroyed the community.
(church bells ring) Signs of trouble first appeared after a Dover High School student painted a mural, showing the evolution of humans from apelike ancestors.
WOMAN: It was a lovely piece of artwork, very well done, artistically, and it did not offend me in any way.
NARRATOR: But some in Dover were offended by the idea that humans and apes are related, and that mural was removed from the classroom and destroyed.
Flames soon spread to the local school board.
Angry that only Darwin's theory of evolution was being taught, the board required students hear about a controversial idea at odds with Darwin called intelligent design.
MAN: To just talk about Darwin to the exclusion of anything else perpetrates a fraud.
NARRATOR: But many say intelligent design is the fraud.
Intelligent design is a science stopper.
It makes people stupid.