Creationism vs. Evolution

Creationism vs. Evolution is very popular research paper topic for students. Epperson v. Arkansas was a United States Supreme Court case which nullified an Arkansas statute that banned the instruction of evolution in the public schools. The Supreme Court contested that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a state from requiring "that teaching and learning must be tailored to the principles or prohibitions of any religious sect or dogma." The Supreme Court declared the Arkansas statute unconstitutional because it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Ultimately, the courts' holding was that states may not require curricula to align with the views of any particular religion. In the early 1980s, the Louisiana legislature passed a law titled the "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science in Public School Instruction Act". The Act did not require teaching either creationism or evolution, but did require that when evolution was taught, then creation theory had to be taught as well.

Lower courts had ruled that the State's actual purpose was to promote the religious doctrine of "creation science", but the State appealed to the Supreme Court. Edwards v. Aguillard was the court case that came about, and was heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools whenever evolution was taught was unconstitutional, because the law was specifically intended to progress a particular religion. At the same time, it held that "teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind to school children might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction." You need to conclude your essay by stating that the decision in this case ruled the teaching of creation science in public school systems was unconstitutional on the basis of a violation of the Lemon Test.