NOVA Chronicles the Legal Battle to Settle the Status of a New Assault on Evolution in a Two-Hour Special Judge John E. Jones III And Kenneth R. Miller, PHD One of the latest battles in the war over evolution took place in a tiny town in eastern Pennsylvania called Dover. In 2004, the local school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to their high school biology students. The statement suggested that there is an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution called intelligent design, the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and therefore had to have been designed by an intelligent agent. The science teachers refused to comply with the order, and alarmed parents filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the separation of church and state. Suddenly, the small town of Dover was torn apart by controversy, pitting neighbor against neighbor. Townspeople, scientists, and lawyers participated in the historic six-week trial, Kitzmiller, et. al. v. Dover School District, et. al., which was closely watched by the world’s media. For years to come, the lessons from Dover will continue to have a profound impact on how science is viewed in our society and how it is taught in the classroom. In Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, NOVA captures the turmoil that tore apart the community. With recreations based on court transcripts, NOVA presents the arguments by lawyers and expert witnesses in riveting detail and provides an eye-opening crash course on questions such as “What is evolution?” and “Does intelligent design qualify as science?” Judge John E. Jones III and Kenneth R. Miller, PhD will discuss the controversy, their involvement in the events and the subsequent film. The honorable John E. Jones III is United States District Judge, Middle District of Pennsylvania. Judge Jones has presided over several noteworthy and high profile cases. In 2005, Judge Jones presided over the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, after which he held that it was unconstitutional to teach intelligent design within a public school science curriculum. Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. He serves as an advisor on life sciences to the NewsHour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs. He served as a science advisor for the 2001 NOVA series Evolution, and testified as lead witness for the plaintiffs in the Kitzmiller v. Dover School District trial. This interview is sponsored by NOVA.
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