What should we teach our children about where we come from? Is evolution a lie or good science? Is it incompatible with faith? Have scientists really detected evidence of a creator in nature? From bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes comes a dramatic story of faith, science, and courage unlike any since the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Monkey Girl takes you behind the scenes of the recent war on evolution in Dover, Pennsylvania, when the town's school board decision to confront the controversy head-on thrust its students, then the entire community, onto the front lines of America's culture wars. Told from the perspectives of all sides of the battle, it is a riveting true story about an epic court case on the teaching of "intelligent design," and what happens when science and religion collide. “A fascinatingly detailed record of the creationist war on science.” - Skeptic Magazine “In painstaking detail, Humes breaks down the politics and the science . . . inexhaustible reporting married to talent.” - St. Louis Post-Dispatch “An unusually deft analysis . . . based upon extensive behind-the-scenes interviews . . . highly recommended.” - Eugenie Scott “Compelling page-turning narrative . . . A must read for anyone who cares about science, education, and liberty.” - Michael Shermer “Monkey Girl is compelling and unsettling. - Patt Morrison “A real page-turner and an eye-opener for those who think they understand the American psyche.” - Lee M. Silver “Humes especially shines in his careful explication of the history of this larger fight.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review [cover review] “Making a complicated issue accessible . . . His fast-moving, richly detailed book reads like a suspense novel.” - Chicago Tribune “A valuable primer . . . An illuminating blend of science, religion and politics.” - Kirkus Reviews “[E]xcellent science writing, with crisp explanations of complicated evolutionary mechanisms, and fascinating material on Darwin.” - San Diego Union-Tribune “His writing is vivid, memorable, and engaging, and a welcome breath of common sense.” - Seattle Times “Rich back stories of characters from both sides of the courtroom make self-evident the fundamental culture war brewing.” - Seed Magazine “An absorbing, character-driven story of the Dover case.” - Publishers Weekly What should we teach our children about where we come from? Is evolution a lie or good science? Is it incompatible with faith? Have scientists really detected evidence of a creator in nature? From bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes comes a dramatic story of faith, science, and courage unlike any since the famous Scopes Monkey Trial. Monkey Girl takes you behind the scenes of the recent war on evolution in Dover, Pennsylvania, when the town's school board decision to confront the controversy head-on thrust its students, then the entire community, onto the front lines of America's culture wars. Told from the perspectives of all sides of the battle, it is a riveting true story about an epic court case on the teaching of "intelligent design," and what happens when science and religion collide. Edward Humes is the author of ten critically acclaimed nonfiction books, including Eco Barons , Monkey Girl , Over Here , School of Dreams , Baby E.R. , Mean Justice , No Matter How Loud I Shout , and the bestseller Mississippi Mud . He has received the Pulitzer Prize for his journalism and numerous awards for his books. He has written for the New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , Los Angeles Magazine , and Sierra . He lives in California. Monkey Girl Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul By Edward Humes HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2008 Edward Humes All right reserved. ISBN: 9780060885496 Chapter One Balancing Act To the combatants, the conflict in Dover seemed new and dangerous, even epochal, but in truth it was but the latest iteration of a battle spanning five centuries and continuing still. It began when Copernicus launched the scientific revolution, removing humanity from the center of the solar system and revealing the Earth, despite all appearances and assumptions and faith to the contrary, to be a mere mote adrift in a vast cosmos, no longer the apple of God's eye. Then came the Age of Enlightenment and the learned deists who founded America, men like Jefferson and Franklin and Washington, who envisioned a creator setting the universe in motion but then letting matters unfold on their own—one reason, perhaps, why the Founding Fathers so adamantly fashioned a nation in which religion and government were never to interfere with each other. A century later, the paleontologists and geologists began to unearth a past no one ever had suspected, of long-extinct jungles, giant reptilian monsters, and an Earth that appears to be billions of years old instead of the 6,000 years carefully calculated from the Bible