This question is about creationism, only it isnt...?

Question

i read in a book about the history of science the following paragraph:

There are ...[those]..., who deny that evolution has ever occurred. Most of them are American, because a quirk of history (coupled with some idiosyncratic tax laws) has made evolution into a major educational issue in the United States. There, the battle between Darwins followers and his opponents is not just about the intellectual high ground. It is about dollars and cents...

Unfortunately, the author does not elaborate on this, and leaves me to wonder what quirk of history and in particular which tax laws he is referring to, and what exactly their impact on the issue is.

Can anyone enlighten me, please?

...oh, and please do elaborate, since i am not a citizen of the United States and not familiar with their 'idiosyncrasies'. :)

Answer 1

He may be referring to Bush's "faith-based" initiative, which purports to provide tax dollars to religious charities. The program has been very controversial, mainly because it conflicts with the 1st amendment (church-state separation), and there is almost no ability to ensure that the religious organizations obey the law. That is, they are not allowed to discriminate based on religion or otherwise, and they are not to use the funds for anything except charity.

According to a former 2nd in charge at the office of Faith-Based Initiaitives, David Kuo, the money was misallocated from the beginning. Many of the "charities" are really focused on other than charity, such as homosexuality, intelligent design, abortion, stem cell research, or even proselytizing. They routinely discriminate (both in terms of hiring and providing benefits) against people of other faiths. And the money only went to christian organizations.

Answer 2

There is a group know as Intelligent Design which have have challenged some of the tenets of Darwinian theory of evolution well at the same time providing another interesting model which displays irreducibly complexity even in simple organisms once thought to be simple cells. Because of the fear being felt by those who hard die hard Darwinists they have tried to portray these people as trying to kill science and turn the country into a theocracy. It is nothing but the sky is falling fear mongering. To better understand their theories I would recommend you read their material for yourself as they are very often distorted and vilified. I don't know about the tax law thing but can imagine it is further example of this same kind of fear mongering. I would recommend the book Darwin's black box by Michael Behe. In his new tenth edition he deals with the critics. I would also recommend the icons of evolution by Jonathan wells and Darwin on trial by Berkley law professor Phillip Johnson. The reason why intelligent design is not religion is there is a difference between a theory and an implacation from a theory. The big bang theory which now has evidence is another example of this. The Big Bang is a theory which has reglious implcations.Some people are not comfortable with those implicatons, but thatdoes not make the theory unscientific in itself it onlymeans some people might be uncomfortable with the implications of such a theory. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

The Scopes Trial.

Answer 4

That question is about one author's subjective viewpoint not about evolution or creationism. The use of the phrase "Darwin's followers" tells me he isn't a professional biologist.