Original subtitles

NARRATOR: The majesty of our earth, the beauty of life,

are they the result of a natural process called "evolution"

or the work of a divine creator?

This question is at the heart of a struggle

that has threatened to tear our nation apart.

That's an outdated religious book.

NARRATOR: For fundamentalist Christians like Ken Ham

evolution is an evil that must be fought.

You can't hold up your moral here.

Well, I think it's a war.

It's a real battle between world views.

NARRATOR: For embattled teachers in Lafayette, Indiana,

evolution is a truth that must be defended.

I think they think someone will come out a victor

and I don't believe that that's going to be the case.

NARRATOR: For Christian students at Wheaton College

evolution is an idea that is hard to accept.

Where is God's place

if everything does have a natural cause?

NARRATOR: For all of us, the future of religion, science

and science education are at stake

in the creation-evolution debate.

Today, even as science continues to provide evidence

supporting the theory of evolution

for millions of Americans, the most important question remains:

"What about God?"

(applause)

MAN: Well, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to High Mill.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this ministry

for Ken Ham and for the truth that he brings

to Canton, Ohio, here tonight.

In Jesus's name, amen.

(guitar playing lively tune)

WOMAN: Thank you.

MAN: Oh, that sounds real good.

Everybody, here we go.

(people clapping to music)

MAN: "I don't believe in evolution, I know creation's true"

"I believe that God above created me and you"

"So praise his name for what he made"

"Give credit where it's due"

"I don't believe in evolution, I know creation's true."

NARRATOR: Over 140 years after Charles Darwin first seemed to challenge

the creation accounts in Genesis

many conservative Christians are more committed than ever

to fighting the war against evolution.

Today, they have come here

to the High Mill Church of the Resurrection

for some basic training.

"I didn't crawl out of a pond or swing down from a tree"

"Adam is my ancestor and not a chimpanzee"

"God created everything, in six days he was through"

"So the Big Bang theory's just a dud"

"And the million years are, too."

(song ends)

(cheering and applause)

HAM: If you look at what the Bible says

if we start with the revealed word of God

and we build our thinking on the Bible

it tells us about the history of the universe

from beginning to end.

It says that God made everything...

NARRATOR: Today, Biblical literalism has no more forceful an advocate

than Ken Ham.

5,000 to 10,000 people visit his Web site every day.

And his 250 lectures each year reach over a million people

eager to hear his message

that we need to look no further than the Bible

to find the truth about who we are.

HAM: I think it means Adam took fruit from the tree, you know?

You see, people say

"You have a particular interpretation of Genesis."

I don't think so.

I think I just read it.

And what it says is what it means.

Other people interpret it and they get into trouble.

That's the problem, I think.

Now, I believe God created in six literal days

and I believe it's important.

I believe it relates to the authority of scripture

and the Gospel.

Now, people say to me, "Well, look, the point is

"the word 'day' can mean something other

than an ordinary day."

That's true.

I had a pastor once who said

"But the word 'day' can mean something other

than an ordinary day."

And I said, "But it can also mean an ordinary day."

He said, "But it can also mean something other

than an ordinary day."

I said, "But it can also mean an ordinary day.

"Does the word 'day' ever mean day?

"Can day mean day or doesn't day mean day?

"And when does day mean day?

Can you give me an example when day means day?"

(laughter)

The Bible says God created the earth covered with water

the sun, moon and stars on day four.

Well, that's very different to the Big Bang.

If the Big Bang is true

well, the Bible got it wrong in astronomy.

The Bible says there was a global flood.

But today we have a lot of people saying

"No, there wasn't."

But if the Bible gets it wrong in geology

and the Bible says God made distinct kinds of animals

and plants to reproduce after their own kind

well, today evolutionists would say

"No, one kind of animal changed into another

over millions of years."

So the Bible gets it wrong in biology

then why should I trust the Bible

when it talks about morality and salvation?

On this foundation here of creation, God's word is truth.

"You sinner, repent of your sin."

People understand.

"Abortion is wrong."

People understand.

"Homosexual behavior is wrong."

People understand.

But on this foundation, "You, sinner..."

"What are you talking about?"

On this foundation of evolution, man determines truth.

"Homosexual behavior is wrong."

"No, it's not."

"Abortion is wrong."

"No, it's not."

You see, what has happened

is that this nation has changed foundation.

And so have other nations around the world.

NARRATOR: Ken Ham is not the first defender of the faith

who is challenging accepted views of science

to justify a literal reading of Genesis.

Back in 1925, William Jennings Bryan capped his long career

as a crusader for Christian values

by upholding the state of Tennessee's law

banning the teaching of evolution

at the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.

Despite a scathing attack on his creationist views

Bryan prevailed.

Scopes was fined $100.

Within four years

37 anti-evolution bills had been introduced in 20 states.

It had a chilling effect on the teaching of evolution

and the publishers of science textbooks.

For decades

Darwin seemed to be locked out of America's public schools.

But then, evolution received an unexpected boost

from a very unlikely source:

the Soviet Union.

In 1957, Americans were horrified to learn

that their Cold War communist rivals had beaten the U.S.

into outer space with the launch of the satellite called Sputnik.

The Space Race was on.

Scientific education became a national priority.

And as long-neglected science programs were revived

in America's classrooms, evolution was, too.

Biblical literalists have been doing their best

to discredit Darwin's theory ever since.

HAM: I want to teach you something very special this morning.

The next time somebody says "millions of years ago"

I want you to put your hand up and say

"Excuse me," in a nice way, you say, "Were you there?"

Can you remember that?

Next time somebody says "millions of years ago"

what do you say?

CONGREGATION: Were you there?

HAM: Boy, I couldn't hear that.

Next time somebody says "millions of years ago"

what do you say?

CONGREGATION (shouting): Were you there?!

HAM: And you know what, moms and dads?

The world scoffs at those of us

who believe in Noah's flood and Noah's ark.

Why let the world scoff by putting Noah's ark...

making it look like a fairy tale?

It wasn't a fairy tale; it was a real boat, wasn't it?

What happened?

Fountains of the deep broke open all over the earth

volcanoes, tidal waves.

But of course, all the animals, including dinosaurs, on the ark

were safe, weren't they?

What happened to those that didn't go on the ark?

They drowned.

Then what happened?

They were covered in mud.

What would you expect to find?

Fossils.

In fact, as Buddy sang

you'd expect to find billions of dead things

buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.

And boys and girls, do you know what you find?

You find billions of dead things buried in rock layers

laid down by water all over the earth.

BUDDY: "Well, there really was a worldwide flood,"

"just look at the stony curse"

"With billions of dead things, buried in rock layers,"

"laid down by water all over the Earth."

Real good singing for the morning.

Let's see if we can make the whole town hear us.

NARRATOR: If you've been told all your life

that the billions of dead things buried in the earth

got there because of a worldwide flood

the evidence for an ancient earth comes as a shock.

MAN: So we do see evidence of change, but how that change has occurred

whether it has occurred through some sort of a...

as Darwin would have said, some sort of a natural selection

or if it's taken place through some sort of a design

if God has been directly involved

in what we see as evolution, that's a bigger question.

I think it's a more troubling question

for an awful lot of Christians as well.

WOMAN: We actually have a watering hole

that existed here about 33 million years ago.

And many of the animals would die in this area

leaving their carcasses behind.

And that's where we see a lot of the skeletons.

NARRATOR: At the Wheaton College Science Station

in the Black Hills of South Dakota

the shock of the new has started more than one student

on his or her way

to an understanding of evolutionary history.

YOUNG MAN 1: You said the age of the site was around 30 million years old?

How did you come to that age?

Like, through what processes did you decide on that age

and come to that conclusion?

MAN: When we have independent ages

of, say, about 30 million years for the ashes

and then we find fossils that represent

that type of development evolution-wise across the world

that makes sense.

YOUNG MAN 2: What do you do when the evidence is before you?

You're a scientist, the evidence is before you

and you want to say

"Well, then this completely goes against my whole upbringing.

"This completely goes against everything

"I have known to be true thus far.

Can I toss it out the window?"

That's a struggle I've gone through this year.

Where is God?

BAIRD: Here, you look at it and tell me.

NARRATOR: Nathan Baird is a geology major

in his final year at Wheaton College in Illinois.

BAIRD: I believe we're good to go.

NARRATOR: This quiet campus is at the eye of a storm

raging over opposing views about how life developed.

Wheaton, one of the top 50 schools in America, is committed

to exposing its students to the discoveries of science.

But as a Christian college, it is also committed

to preserving their faith in the God of the Bible.

Students here are part

of the largest religious group in America,

conservative Christians.

For them, conflicts between adherence to the Christian faith

and the assertions of evolutionary theory

are not just political or academic

they are personal.

MAN: The emotions are very real

and they do play into the whole picture, I think

and it's because it's about something

that's to do with human beings.

It's to do with our very, very souls, our very existence

and that's what makes it so important, I think.

NARRATOR: Wheaton calls itself a marketplace of ideas.

But some students inevitably feel threatened

as they confront ways of thinking

without precedent in the world from which they came.

BAIRD: I was definitely, definitely indoctrinated in...

along those lines of

"This is how Genesis 1 and 2 entails the story of creation.

And this is how it's got to be."

And yes, evolution was portrayed as an evil, you know;

it was Satan's doing, and it's something that, you know

is the demise of the Church if we even listen to it.

As a kid, I had the questions of...

"Well, how did God create the earth?"

and, you know, "Well, let's go back to Genesis 1," you know

"and let's read the account."

And it's: God formed it, he separated the expanses

he created day and night.

But my mind wants to know the details;

it wants to know what happened.

He has asked difficult questions.

Nathan has asked difficult questions.

But I think that that's the kind of person he is.

He is not willing just to take just what everybody else says

or believe it because that's what everybody else believes.

I think that he is really

the kind of person who wants to get into the nitty-gritty

and wants to get real... really understand.

BAIRD: One thing that I've realized is

in talking with my mom and stuff, going home

I go home, she's, "So, what, are you an evolutionist now?"

And it's the great evil.

It's the great unknown evil, though.

It's not even discussed.

And that's what kind of perturbs me is

before I came to Wheaton, one of my Mom's friends said

"Don't let him go there; that's such a liberal school."

And at first when I talked to him on the phone one time

I was a little nervous, and I think I even said to Jim

something to the effect that I hoped he hasn't lost his faith.

CONGREGATION: "We cry, 'Holy, holy, holy'"

"We cry, 'Holy, holy, holy'"

NARRATOR: Long before Wheaton students like Nathan arrive on campus

the most important lesson they have learned

is that the Bible is true, from the very first word.

PATTI: I think that the reason why our church is growing,

and our pastor would say the same thing,

is because he preaches the word of God, and that's all he does.

He goes line upon line, verse upon verse, book by book.

And that is the only reason

why our church is growing as fast as it is.

This world in which we live has convinced us

that this life is all about

our getting what we want when we want it

and supplying all of our needs

so that we can enjoy all of this life.

But the Bible tells us very clearly

that this life is not about you and me.

This life that you and I live is all about God.

BAIRD: Coming home is a good thing for me

because I get to be in much more discussion with my parents

and being reminded that, you know, I'm one of four kids.

I have a fianc�.

I have a grandma who I go over and I mow her lawn.

I'm not just a person who sits

and studies physical chemistry all day.

And that's why, for me

it's always been good when at Wheaton

to call home and to talk to Dad and Mom

or when at home to be in conversation with them.

BAIRD: Thank you for these times you've blessed us with as a family.

And we just thank you for this time, Lord

and for the beautiful day

and that we could have a barbecue family time outside

this evening, Lord.

We thank you for all you've done for us.

In Jesus' name, we pray.

ALL: Amen.

He forgets Melissa.

And be with my fianc�, Melissa.

Can I have a little bit of steak?

PATTI: Yeah.

BAIRD: I would say Christians in general

and myself included

don't know anything about evolution.

So when we're bashing it or when we're telling...

just dismissing it outright

we're not even understanding what it says.

And to me, to understand that God created

will never change.

No matter how much science discovers

God tells us, and I believe it,

that man's wisdom is foolishness.

To me, that tells me if I don't go

and I don't study to become a preacher

then it's foolishness.

No, no, no, no.

I know you're not saying that

but when you say man's wisdom is foolishness

then why can't a Christian scientist

come to the conclusions that evolution is true?

We have to define what evolution is.

I heard a guy say

that he holds wholeheartedly to the evolutionary theory

as the best fit to its data.

What does he mean from that?

He probably means it started with the Big Bang, um, and...

Then he has to be wrong.

And that's where I would say no.

Why can't God do the Big Bang, and why can't God...

I can't agree on that.

Which day did he do it?

I'm not exactly sure

the whole day stuff is my cup of tea.

BOY: Maybe he yelled bang...

What's that, he yelled bang?

BOY: On the seventh day.

I'm not saying science is... is worthless

but if a scientist's goal in life is to prove

that Darwinism is the way that we got here

he is going to die a very disappointed man.

The thing that I don't necessarily appreciate

about the Christian community

is the dismissal of all things of evolution

as being just a natural evil.

And that's how I feel things are taught to students,

growing up in a Christian school

or a Christian church or whatever,

is that, at the mention of evolution, you run.

And I think that's almost ridiculous.

And as a scientist, as a Christian

I would like to understand those things.

And I would not like to say, "Oh, well, God just did it."

That's not an answer, one, that holds much for me

or two, that will hold much in the world.

Does that frighten you, Mom?

No, that doesn't frighten me

because I know he'll have the ability to search it out.

So it doesn't frighten me.

But Darwin

as I understand his teaching, maybe I'm wrong,

made a direct frontal assault to Genesis 1.

And if he is going to say that man evolved

from some slimy thing in a stream...

GIRL: We call it a fish.

I feel it's appropriate for me to tell...

to tell him he's wrong

because I know man didn't.

Okay, because...

BAIRD: I don't know if man did or didn't.

Then you're saying that we had one slimy thing

and he... and it created Adam.

Another slimy thing created Eve.

And it's from Adam and Eve...

That's such a gross, um...

gross simplification of evolution.

I understand.

But that's the most important element...

But God's infusion of His self and of His spirit into...

Mom, help me out here.

...into humans was a supernatural thing

no matter how we look at it.

Whether he picked up dust and like the Snickers commercial

where you used to have peanuts in your hand

and you get a Snickers bar

whether it was dust and man.

And then God says, "Poof," you know

"I'm in you"...

So you're saying God created the elephants and the giraffes

and... and he created man.

He looked around and said

"Which one do I think is the best

to represent my nature?"

And he said, "Oh, it must be man.

"So we'll make man intelligent

and give him the ability to reason and to think."

I don't know.

GIRL: Oh, yeah.

BAIRD: As I've tried to open up and tried to at least catch

what is true and what is not true

I want my dad to be open to that, too.

He's... he's a...

I wouldn't say stubborn, but he's a firm man.

But I wanted him to at least consider

and have an open mind towards the things

that I have an open mind towards

such that I can go ahead and say with freedom

the things that I would consider a possibility.

Well, the only thing I have a concern about

in his exploring evolution, as I understand it

is that if Nathan spent his life work

trying to explain creation

he would come one step short

and that's the miraculous element

that God introduced that no man can explain.

So if his hope and his dream in life

is to explain creation

he is going to die a disappointed man

because you can't explain the miraculous.

He was laying down the line where he would stop

and I was just trying to tell him

"I'm not sure I would stop there.

"I might go over the hill

"go over the ridge a little bit further

to explore and see what God has over there."

(bell chiming)

NARRATOR: But back at Wheaton

exploration beyond the limits imposed by parents and pastors

can take students to some very disturbing places.

Some of the most troubling questions

come not just from science, but from the Bible itself.

WOMAN: How do we make sense of sin coming into this world?

If we evolved from apes

did just one day an ape woke up and decided that he had...

God said, "You are humans now

"and so I'm going to give you a soul

"that is responsible to know right from wrong

"and who my son, Jesus Christ, will die for

"after you've populated the whole planet

with your little humans"?

So, the...

There's that to deal with

and when you look at some of the family trees in the Bible

they all go back to Adam or refer to a descendant of Adam.

So we seem to think that Adam was an actual person

and I don't know how to make sense of that.

NARRATOR: Emi Hayashi is studying to be a veterinarian.

She went to a Christian elementary school

but a secular high school.

At Wheaton, she is struggling to reconcile

their opposing lessons.

In high school, they automatically

discounted the Bible

versus, in my Southern Baptist church

they automatically discounted evolution.

So these two paradigms were just completely separated.

High school, it was...

It was tough, and yet at the same time

I think it made my faith a lot stronger

because I was constantly tested on my faith.

People expected me to be a Christian

and they didn't know what a Christian was.

I usually take the defense of evolution

only because I get annoyed when I hear a Christian say

"Well, it has to be six-day creation.

The Bible says so."

Of course, I just flip to the opposite side.

And I play the devil's advocate

and that's not necessarily a good thing to do.

But it's more fun, it's intellectually challenging

to be able to think from a point of view

that you might not necessarily agree with.

MAN: If you look at the Bible, if you look at scripture...

NARRATOR: But for most Wheaton students

this is more than an intellectual challenge.

Debates over creation and evolution

go to the very heart of their ideas

about who they are and why they exist.

And no part of Darwin's theory

is more troubling for conservative Christians

than the claim that we have descended

from nonhuman ancestors

and not from Adam and Eve.

I'm leaning towards the idea

that at some certain point in hominid evolution

God gave his spirit to hominids, making us human.

I don't believe early hominids were human.

I believe that we're categorically different

and that we do have a soul and we do have a relationship

to the creator of the universe.

But I don't know where that happened.

I don't know if there was one Adam

or if it was a group of people.

I haven't decided that yet.

Well, I was going to disagree

with your Adam being a group of people.

I haven't decided about that.

What do you mean?

Well, I think theologically

Adam has to be an individual.

Paul basically says flat out

since sin came through one man, and he means Adam

so salvation, redemption comes through one man, Jesus Christ.

And so personally, I'm all... I'm all...

WOMAN: Like, do you think he was...

he was, like, one of a group or there was just one?

Depends on how you interpret "man"

to take that paraphrase of the...

NARRATOR: At Wheaton today, students are free to argue

the possibilities of a literal or an allegorical

or a multiple Adam and Eve.

But for their professors

open debate on this subject is impossible

thanks to the controversy stirred up

by one man's remarks almost 40 years ago.

MAN: At that time, I had hardly been on the campus

of a Christian college before.

I had an entirely secular education

but I had been a Christian for a long time.

So being on a Christian campus was kind of new to me

and I'm not sure I knew exactly how to behave

and probably didn't behave very well.

NARRATOR: In 1961, at a Wheaton symposium

on Christianity and human origins

Walter Hearn told the crowd

that the same chemical processes

that bring each of us into existence today

could have produced Adam and Eve.

When the news got out, Wheaton found itself under attack.

What had happened is that some reporter

for a very conservative Christian paper

which was called The Sword of the Lord,

which you can tell from the title of it

that it wasn't exactly, you know, a peacemaking outfit,

this guy had been really upset

by my remarks or by the style.

NARRATOR: "It is time for all of us to be shocked!"

thundered The Sword of the Lord.

"Wheaton has swallowed a wholesale dose of evolution

"by allowing such men as Walter Hearn

"to express their wild viewpoint

"on the campus of a Christian college.

"Untold numbers of Christian people

are seriously concerned about Wheaton."

Fundamentalists flooded the school

with hundreds of protest letters

including one from the mother of a Wheaton student.

WOMAN (dramatized): "Twice I have heard that the college is growing liberal

"that they teach evolution at Wheaton...

"What grieves me most

"is that our daughter may lose her faith at Wheaton.

"Is this possible?

"If her faith should be shattered or even shaken

I'd rather see her dead."

NARRATOR: To reassure concerned alumni and parents

Wheaton ordered every member of the faculty

to sign a statement of faith affirming their belief

in mankind's direct descent

from two real people named Adam and Eve

who had been created by God.

Today, every professor at Wheaton

is still required to sign this statement.

MAN: The reason why, as I understand it,

that Wheaton College continues to maintain the existence

of a historical Adam and Eve in its statement of faith

is simply because the existence of those two people

occupies a key theological role

in everything else that we believe.

Evangelical Christians and, indeed, all orthodox Christians

believe that Jesus had to come

and sacrifice himself on the cross

and then conquer death by rising from the dead.

Why did he have to do that?

He had to do it because all of humanity

was in bondage to universal sin.

And then that leads to the question

of where did that come from?

Well, that in turn came

from what Christians have historically believed

was a historical fall by two human parents who bore,

in a sense, carried along with them,

bore with them the rest of the human race

in what happened.

And so Adam and Eve, in fact, play a very strategic role

in all of the theology

of what Christians have historically believed.

(bell ringing)

NARRATOR: 40 years after Walter Hearn shook the campus

with his shocking remarks

Wheaton is ready to try again.

MAN: The branching tree of life constructed from the DNA...

NARRATOR: To help their students take a fresh look at the evidence

Wheaton professors asked

Kansas State University geologist Keith Miller,

a devout Christian

and advocate for the teaching of evolution,

to give the keynote address at a symposium

on the fossil record in geologic history.

MILLER: So my response was

to come to present myself

as a strong advocate for the teaching of evolution

and for the centrality of evolution

as a unifying scientific theory

and at the same time

make very clear my evangelical Christian position.

Many evangelical Christians like myself

and historically, again, since the time of Darwin

have seen no necessary conflict between the two.

What does the fossil record tell us?

Are there transitional forms preserved in the fossil record?

And my answer is a resounding yes, lots of them.

But first we have to know what is a transitional form

and I'll go back to Darwin's definition

of a transitional form.

NARRATOR: Keith Miller's message to these Christian students

is that all the evidence,

from the ancient fossil record to the latest DNA analysis,

compels us to accept the evolutionary theory in full.

But for some Wheaton students

the implications of our descent from a common ancestor

are still troubling.

How do you connect the Genesis account

of man being unique in God's eyes

and we're made in the image of God

with us descending from a common ancestor?

I think understanding what it means

to be made in the image of God

is a very, very important question.

Um...

I personally do not believe

that the image of God is connected

to our physical appearance

or our origin

as far as how we were brought into being.

YOUNG WOMAN: This is kind of a weird question

but do you think he just picked an organism or...

and, like, said, "Okay, I'm going to put my soul in him"?

MILLER: I think one possibility is

that God chose Adam and Eve

out amongst the other humans that existed at the time

and said, "I am going to make you a soulful, spiritual being

in communion with me."

I think that's a viable possibility.

YOUNG WOMAN: Thanks.

I found it very, very good.

I mean, I really...

I thought to myself what a freeing thing it is

that he would say very unapologetically

"This is my position.

"I buy completely into the theory of evolution.

"This is the way it is.

This is the way it's going to be."

Just from what I heard from Dr. Miller

I talked it over with my roommate afterwards

and what was refreshing, she and I think a lot alike

so this wasn't terribly surprising,

but for us it was incredibly refreshing

to have someone come and blatantly say

"I am an evangelical Christian and I believe in evolution"

and to not blink.

That was very exciting for both of us.

Because I feel that sometimes

the professors here may believe that

but they can't openly come out and say, "This is what I feel"

because it's like coming out of the closet almost

in our interpretation.

You don't want to do that

because then someone may label you

a liberal, you know.

God forbid.

(blows note on pitch pipe)

NARRATOR: The symposium may have reassured students like Emi Hayashi

that Christianity and evolution can coexist.

But not everyone on campus feels so comfortable

with Darwin and his theory.

YOUNG MEN: "...Turning and turning"

"We come round right..."

NARRATOR: Peter Slayton is an anthropology major, a singer

and, he says, a Texan born in the Bible Belt.

For him, the arguments for evolution

still aren't strong enough

to overcome the convictions he brought with him to Wheaton.

(singing a round)

SLAYTON: At this point, I'm still asking questions.

Like, I don't know...

If I had to pick a side

I would probably pick young Earth creationism

just because that's what I grew up with

that's what I'm comfortable with

and, so far, nothing in evolution

has been able to convince me, like, soundly

that this is the way it happened.

One, two, three.

"The gift to..."

Why don't you play with this

after we're done singing?

Yeah, after we're done singing.

SLAYTON: I think what upsets me about the issue is

the fact that, one way or another

you're called to reinterpret something.

Like, if you pick sides, the other side's going to accuse you

of either doing bad science or doing bad theology

and, like, either way, it's like a lose-lose situation.

You can't really pick sides and do everything right.

What bugs me the most is, um, students or maybe people

who, um, don't know a lot about the issues, try to threaten me

by saying, "If you believe this," you know

"you're not really believing the Bible is true" or whatever.

NARRATOR: Beth Stuebing, a premed student in her final year at Wheaton

is the daughter of missionaries.

She grew up in Zambia, surrounded by nature.

STUEBING: We lived kind of outside of town in the forest

and we just kept all sorts of pets

like chameleons, bush babies, snakes, you name it.

So we were always kind of surrounded by nature.

And I didn't really grow up with the baggage of, you know

"Six-day creation is the only way to go."

And so, from an early age

I was just taught to be open

to a lot of different ideas.

And I think that was really beneficial.

Point two.

Point two.

STUEBING: One of the things that I've thought a lot about is

just how God works in us, where is God's place

if everything does have a natural cause?

And it's been difficult for me, especially being in science

to think about that in an intellectual way.

HAYASHI: So, I was hoping, by coming to Wheaton

that I could be in a Christian environment

where I could think.

That was really, really important to me

because I wanted the Bible

brought into some of these issues

that I thought about in science.

That was important to me.

But at the same time

I didn't want to have someone open the Bible

and say, "This is how you will interpret the Bible."

We can't have that many idiots out there in science.

That's just not possible.

So for a Christian to point

their finger at a scientist

and say, "You're wrong"

without having any understanding of what they're talking about

is laughable.

Just as if a scientist laughs at someone's theology

who's never cracked the Bible at all.

Again, it's the same thing.

You can't do it one way or the other.

It's just... they have to understand

where scientists are coming from.

They have to understand this is the data, this is what we have.

Now can you make sense of that with the Bible?

Okay, my question for you is

how many of you have turned out to be more confused

now that you've been at Wheaton than you were when you came?

Okay, well, that's interesting in itself.

But, uh, what does that mean?

I mean, confused in what sense?

Are you going out

having lost your faith or...

BAIRD: It's a struggle.

It's a struggle in my life to go back and forth

where, where does God infuse his image in us?

Where does God select us?

I want that warm, fuzzy feeling

of, God specifically took his hands, if he has hands

and picked up some stuff and put me together

whether it's taking my DNA

and putting the nucleotides together or what.

I want something like that.

HAYASHI: I think to a certain degree it's expected

that you do believe in six-day creation.

I think so.

I would almost gather that's the overall theme on this campus

though you're not condemned for believing in evolution

I... there's a distinction.

Because six-day creation is taught in Sunday school

and I'd say 75% of us

come from the Sunday school background

so that's all we've learned.

And we've been taught by our Sunday school teachers

"Evolution is bad; evolution is of the devil.

So therefore, whatever they say, just don't believe it."

NARRATOR: For students like Emi Hayashi

biblical literalism no longer defines their faith.

But for Ken Ham

the frequently repeated fundamentalist expression

still holds true: God said it; I believe it;

That settles it.

HAM: What are these, Buddy?

You're a dinosaur expert.

BUDDY: Okay, that's Triceratops.

You don't see many Noah's ark models

with dinosaurs going on the ark.

No, you don't, but dinosaurs were land animals

and all land animals would have went on the ark

so it needs to be done.

NARRATOR: Ham and millions of other conservative Christians

are convinced that it is the biblical story

not the evolutionary story, that America's children need to hear

not just in Sunday school, but in every school.

Yes, we are concerned

about what's happening in high schools.

We're concerned about what's happening in the culture.

We're concerned that whole generations of children

are coming through an education system

basically devoid of the knowledge of God.

Ultimately, if you're just a mixture of chemicals

what is life all about?

Why this sense of hopelessness, this sense of purposelessness?

And the reason is

because they're given no purpose and meaning in life.

WOMAN: If you aren't on the computer tutorial today

at least beginning it

and getting a good... a good piece of that done

you're not going to finish it up before the end of the unit.

And is that all we have to tell them?

Yep, that's it; let's go.

Okay, let's go!

And if this were something to eat...

Let me borrow this a second, Joe.

NARRATOR: Claire McKinney, a scientist and Christian in Lafayette, Indiana

is one of thousands of high school science teachers

across the country caught in the ongoing struggle

between biblical literalism and evolution.

The stakes are high, for teachers and students alike.

Oh...

McKINNEY: When I was the same age as the students that I now teach

my experience was much the same as theirs

coming from a strong Christian home

and active involvement in my church.

I did accept that the Bible was the word of God

and not to be challenged.

And I did accept that.

And then, as a teenager

when I really started having an increased interest

in the sciences

and really started looking at scientific method

and what makes science science, and...

they seemed contrary to me.

NARRATOR: McKinney knew that some of her students

were feeling these same frustrations over the conflicts

between what they had learned in their Sunday schools and homes

and what they were learning in her class.

But she never expected them

to take matters into their own hands.

She was taken aback when the students circulated a petition

demanding that something they call "special creation"

be added to their science curriculum.

McKinney and her fellow teachers were even more surprised

when over half the students in the school

and 35 members of the faculty signed on

in support of their cause.

MAN: When I looked at the paper yesterday morning

the five pictures I saw were

outstanding kids that are outstanding students

that did very well in this class.

And I was really surprised

to see some of them sitting in that picture

because I thought they understood the difference

between science and non-science.

And it's fairly obvious to me

that if they did at one time

they don't right now.

All the teachers, you always hear that

"We do not accept or reject the existence of God."

But when they're accepting biology so freely

and saying it's the only way

then, I mean, they might not directly be saying it

but indirectly that's what they mean.

BOY: Why are we so afraid

about mentioning that there is a God

if, in fact, about 80%, I would say

in the world believe

there is a God?

If you have a religion

and unless you're an atheist

which I'm sure is a small minority

then there is a God.

You believe, hey, there is a higher being out there

and even if you're afraid to admit that

if you're afraid to admit that in class

because, ooh, you'd be pressing on someone

that there is a God

wouldn't you be just as afraid

to press on someone there isn't a God?

That, to me, is a scary world.

GIRL: It just shocks me

that we could find all this information

to support special creation

and they say there's none out there.

It's, like, where are you looking

because I can, like, give you a book, you know

if you want to know.

RANDAK: I don't know

if this is an isolated incidence

of kids just becoming passionate about the situation

or if this is actually the new creationists' game plan.

If you can't... if you can't attack evolution

in the Supreme Court, then maybe you can go around

and pull one evolution weed at a time to get rid of it.

That's what I'm afraid of.

People actually don't understand the issues.

People are being told

first you have to choose between faith and science.

You have to choose

between especially Christianity and evolution.

They're being told, "Well, it's only fair

"to give both points of view.

"It's only fair to teach evolution

"and balance it with creation science

or intelligent design theory" or something like that.

NARRATOR: From their tiny offices in a small northern California town

Eugenie Scott and the staff

of the National Center for Science Education

deploy an arsenal of weapons

to defend the teaching of evolution.

Hi, Emily.

Hi, Genie.

NARRATOR: Often, the hardest part is just getting people to understand

what is and what isn't science.

SCOTT: Evolution or science in general can't say anything

about whether God did or did not have anything to do with it.

All evolution as a science can tell us is what happened.

Can't tell us who done it.

And as what happened

the evidence is extremely strong that the galaxies evolved

the planets evolved, the sun evolved

and living things on Earth shared common ancestors.

They're probably right.

NARRATOR: At the National Center for Science Education

calls come in from across America

from teachers who continue to be accused

of locking God out of their classrooms.

(beeping)

When Steve Randak called from Lafayette, Indiana

he got the help he wanted.

But he was troubled by what he heard.

Eugenie Scott told me

that this is the first time, to her knowledge

that students have taken the initiative.

And I am very much concerned that there will be other places

where children will step forward, protest

ask school boards to be listened to

and the school boards won't do the right thing.

McKINNEY: I think they think someone will come out a victor

and I don't believe that that's going to be the case.

NARRATOR: But win or lose

for McKinney's students, this is a battle worth fighting.

Tonight they are taking their petitions

to the Lafayette School Board

to demand that the members take a public stand

for or against special creation.

They claim that complex biological structures

could not have arisen through natural selection at all

but had to have been created by some higher intelligence.

According to their teachers

the future of science education at Jefferson High

may be riding on the board's response.

RANDAK: As a teacher, you feel compelled

to soothe the distress these kids are having.

And so school boards are going to feel the same thing.

Joyce, if we could have a roll call, please.

RANDAK: And that sense of fairness is something

that school board members have and I think would respond to

and I think it's... I think it's going to be dangerous.

MAN: I'd like to call this meeting to order

of the Lafayette School Board of Trustees.

First of all, welcome.

I understand some of you are here tonight

to discuss the science curriculum

at Jefferson High School.

So, let me see the show of hands of people

that are there for that.

Okay, thank you.

Let's just move in.

Are there any, uh, comments from the public?

It's now open.

All right.

One issue that continues to confront American society

is that of the teaching of the theories of evolution

and special creation in our schools.

The assumption of the theory of evolution is

that all living things have resulted

from chance interactions.

The assumption of special creation is

that the physical universe and living creatures in it

have been fashioned by a supreme being.

Please understand that those of us supporting this petition

do not advocate the tea...

the banning of teaching of the theory of evolution.

However, we believe that the theory of evolution

should be taught

alongside the alternative theory of special creation.

Let us be taught the facts so that we can decide on our own.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: For these students

the argument isn't about science versus the Bible.

It's about which views of science will be taught.

It is a tactic pioneered in 1961

when a revolutionary book by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb

used carefully selected scientific evidence

to support the creationist cause.

SCOTT: The Genesis Flood is the foundational document

for creation science.

Everything else has been built upon this book.

He makes a number of claims in here

that you can somehow find scientific evidence

to demonstrate that the earth was created

like a literal reading of Genesis says.

NARRATOR: The Genesis Flood was an inspiration to creationists.

In 1981, Louisiana Senator Bill Keith proposed a law

requiring the teaching of "creation science"

wherever evolution was taught.

Scientific creationism is pure science

and is just as unreligious

as the teaching of evolution science

and also that it's an abridgment of academic freedom

for our schoolchildren not to be given

all the scientific evidences regarding origins.

NARRATOR: Over opposition from educators

the Louisiana legislature passed the law.

Creation science and evolution became classmates.

But in 1987, the Supreme Court ruled

that teaching creationism alongside evolution

violated the First Amendment's separation of church and state.

In his opinion for the majority, however

Justice William Brennan wrote

that alternatives to evolutionary theory

can be taught if they have a scientific basis.

SCOTT: What Justice Brennan wrote in the 1987 decision

was that of course teachers have a right to teach any and all...

um... uh, scientific views about the origin of humans

or any other scientific theory

and that's absolutely true.

And what he said was, "any and all scientific views."

Now, of course, one reason

why the creationists have worked so hard

to try to present their ideas as being scientific

is so they can duck under the First Amendment.

I would just like to tell all of you

how we want special creation to be taught

and, like it's already been stated

we want it taught alongside evolution.

I would just like to say that we do not want a religion class

or any separate class, because it is not religion

so we're just begging of you to teach us the facts

and let us decide

and that is with evolution and special creation.

(applause)

McKINNEY: There's a large part of me that felt

"My gosh, we haven't done a very good job

"with the nature of science if we have this many students

"who don't understand the difference

"and why creation and...

"you know, any supreme being can't be addressed

in a science classroom."

And I kept thinking, "Gee, it seems like we try so hard

"to really hit home

with what makes a particular event science"

and the fact that there seems to be

a lack of understanding about that was disturbing to me.

RANDAK: What they don't understand is

that science is a rather brutal competition of ideas.

It is not particularly a situation

where you get to express your idea just because you want to.

That sense of fairness doesn't exist in science.

In science, ideas are supported by evidence

and that evidence has to be peer reviewed

and it has to be repeatable and it has to be testable.

And creationism is not that.

And we know

that it's our freedom to decide on the information.

And we think that it...

it's been neglected by the school system and the state

and maybe even in the nation...

that there are facts we don't have.

Thank you.

(applause)

It's real hard for me, as a parent and as a teacher, to know

that not only are they dealing with their own faith issues

at a very young age, 14-15 years old,

but they're also dealing with the issues

of being disobedient to their parents.

And I know that for many of them it's not only

"Oh, the evils of evolution"

it's that, "my parents don't even want me to hear about this

"or listen to it

much less participate in the conversation."

YOUNG MAN: I grew up in the church.

"God created all things",

that's the way it was, that's how it ever will be.

And I didn't get my first even notion of evolution

until like third grade when we were learning about insects.

They were, like, "Well, one day you'll learn

that the building blocks of life actually evolved from water."

(all laughing)

And so I went home to my mom and dad

and I was, like, "We came from water?"

And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, it's called evolution."

And I still didn't understand it.

GIRL: I guess I had read about it

but I just knew God created us in six days

and I knew he was the creator.

And my mom agreed with me on that; my stepdad doesn't.

But I don't really know how I learned that.

I just probably read it in the Bible.

Don't move this.

Okay, come on over here and look.

McKINNEY: And I had the same conflicts these kids are having.

I mean, I went through that whole growing process myself

and so I can really sympathize

and fortunately I had a lot of significant people in my life

that were willing to sit down and listen to me.

I had a very, very intelligent pastor tell me once

that... I asked him what he thought

and he said, "What I think doesn't matter;

it's what you think."

And he said, "Here is what I recommend.

"You learn a lot about both

and then you make your own decision."

And that's what I did.

I went to Bible studies and I pursued careers in science

and just fell in love with them.

And I would say that probably by the end of my senior...

or maybe I was even in college

before I really came to terms with the fact

that in my mind and in my heart there was no conflict.

They answer very different questions

they address very different things in our lives

and I think they're very...

as an individual, for me

they're very supportive of one another.

I can't really see that one could exist without the other

at least in my mind.

MAN: Other comments from the board?

NARRATOR: For over three hours

the students, their supporters and their detractors struggled

over the proposed change in the science curriculum.

Finally, the board made its position known.

There is well-defined legal and scientific definitions

that set out the boundaries for biological science.

There are certainly points to be discussed

about special creationism

but it does not belong in the biological curriculum.

EILER: We've made it very clear that we're not going to change

the biological science curriculum

that if we want to address their intellectual curiosity

it has to be under the umbrella of a humanities topic

in some fashion.

I want to say thank you so much for coming.

I hope you all understand

that when we make a decision about our position

we do it because we believe it's our duty.

We believe that the law requires us to do what we do

and that we, in our meager understanding of science

are trying to do what we think is right.

If you have any other questions...

NARRATOR: The decision preserved the integrity

of Jefferson High's science curriculum.

But the teachers know this is not the end of the debate.

McKINNEY: I have yet to hear of a case

where they've given equal time in a science classroom.

However, I have heard of cases

where they've removed evolution from the curriculum.

And I don't think

the three of us would have continued teaching here

had that been the case.

I can't speak for them

but I really don't think, as an educator, I could teach biology

and do it well if I couldn't talk about the natural processes

that make it work.

To take that element out would be removing one of the...

well, the major pillar

that supports that whole field of science.

And in good conscience

I couldn't have slighted my kids that way in my classroom.

(harmonizing a cappella): "A gift to be simple"

"A gift to be free"

"The gift to be free"

"The gift to be simple"

"'Tis the gift to be..."

JONES: Are we placing students' faith at risk

by examining these hard questions?

Absolutely.

But I would add additionally that there is no such thing

as a safe place from which to hide from these issues.

BOYS: ? ...free. ?

If we engage in the most rigid biblical literalism

the fact that our students live in a real world indicates

that their faith is always at risk.

Christians believe

that our faith is rooted in real happenings in a real world.

And so to try and structure a place

or a way of conceptualizing our faith that insulates us

and isolates us from risk

is to rob Christianity of its very essence.

HAYASHI: One problem we have a lot of times is

that people just look at Christians and they say

"Oh, you're just one of those religious fanatics."

I don't want to come across as that.

I want to be educated and I want to be intelligent.

I want to have answers that someone can say

"I can respect that, I can respect that."

And also be able to argue some answers without God.

I mean, that sounds almost sacrilegious

but I want to be able to reason some things

without having to bring...

without necessarily having to bring God into the picture.

And then I want my life and the way that I live it

to reflect God.

STUEBING: I don't think science and faith are inevitably in conflict.

I am a scientist.

I enjoy doing science

and I haven't thrown God out the window at all.

I mean, I know a lot of people who live the same way.

And because we look for natural causes and things

doesn't mean we think that that's all there is.

It doesn't mean

that we're throwing out the meaning of life.

We're just studying what God has made, however he made it

and I don't think those are in conflict at all.

BAIRD: When I hear a God-fearing man say

"I hold to the evolutionary theory"

that was... that was... that worked wonders for me.

It... it... once again, it gave me a little bit of a freedom

to say "Wow, God is bigger

than the box that I may have put him in."

NARRATOR: As his grandmother predicted, Nathan is searching it out.

He is finding his own answer to the question

"What about God?"

Charles Darwin's answer came in the mystery of evolution itself.

In the final edition of his book On the Origin of Species

Darwin wrote, "There is grandeur in this view of life

"with its several powers

"having been originally breathed by a creator

"into a few forms or into one.

"From so simple a beginning

"endless forms most beautiful have been

and are being, evolved."

Continue the journey

into where we're from and where we're going

at the Evolution web site.

Visit www.pbs.org.

The seven-part Evolution boxed set

and the companion book

are available from WGBH Boston Video.

To place an order, please call: