f 1929 had teacher John Scopes, who taught his class evolution instead of the approved creation, convicted of violating the Tennessee statute known as the Butler Act. It said in part: "it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the state which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the state, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals" (Eldredge 14). This victory was more for creationists than for their opponents. By 1968, the issue of creationism in the classroom reached the Supreme Court. In the case Epperson v. Arkansas, biology teacher Mrs. Epperson successfully challenged the 1929 Arkansas law forbidding the teaching of evolution. It was the ruling of this case that caused the Tennessee and other similar statutes to be declared null and void."In 1654, Archbishop Ussher of Ireland deduced that the earth was created on October 26, 4004 B.C. and 9:00 in the morning. The basic result of such biblical scholarship is clear: if Genesis is literally correct, the earth is no more than a few thousand years old" (Eldredge 19). Geologists can now prove that the earth is vastly older than the creation story seems to allow. Although the creationists seem to be fighting a losing battle in their quest to deny the teachings of evolution in the classroom, there is substantial evidence to also disprove the big bang theory as the source of human evolution (Echoes 92).The debates between evolution and creation continue. Their persistence suggests that the truce between science and religion, based on the assumption that they deal with separate domains, may be a convenient but unrealistic myth....
