TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: November 13, 2007
In this program, NOVA captures the turmoil that tore apart the
community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles
over teaching evolution in public schools. Featuring trial
reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with
key participants, including expert scientists and Dover
parents, teachers, and town officials, "Judgment Day:
Intelligent Design on Trial" follows the celebrated federal
case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District. This
two-hour special was coproduced with Paul G. Allen's Vulcan
Productions, Inc.
In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to
read a statement to high school biology students suggesting
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 must have been
designed by an intelligent agent. The teachers refused to
comply. (For more on this, see
Board vs. Teachers.) Later, parents opposed to intelligent design filed a
lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of
violating the constitutional separation of church and state.
"There was a blow-up like you couldn't believe," Bill
Buckingham, head of the school board's curriculum committee,
tells NOVA. Buckingham helped formulate the intelligent-design
policy when he noticed that the biology textbook chosen by
teachers for classroom use was, in his words, "laced with
Darwinism."
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 "Is intelligent
design a scientifically valid alternative?"
Kitzmiller v. Dover was the first legal test of
intelligent design as a scientific theory, with the plaintiffs
arguing that it is a thinly veiled form of creationism, the
view that a literal interpretation of the Bible accounts for
all observed facts about nature. (See
Defining Science and
arguments for and
against
evolution.)
During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs showed that
evolution is one of the best-tested and most thoroughly
confirmed theories in the history of science, and that its
unresolved questions are normal research problems—the
type that arise in any flourishing scientific field.
U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III ultimately decided
for the plaintiffs, writing in his decision that intelligent
design "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus
religious, antecedents." As part of his decision, Judge Jones
ordered the Dover school board to pay legal fees and damages,
which were eventually set at $1 million. (Hear
Judge Jones read
excerpts from his historic decision.)
"Judgment Day captures on film a landmark court case
with a powerful scientific message at its core," says Paula
Apsell, NOVA's Senior Executive Producer. "Evolution is one of
the most essential yet, for many people, least understood of
all scientific theories, the foundation of biological science.
We felt it was important for NOVA to do this program to
heighten the public understanding of what constitutes science
and what does not, and therefore, what is acceptable for
inclusion in the science curriculum in our public schools."
(Hear more from
Paula Apsell on why
NOVA took on this controversial subject.)
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.
Program Transcript
Program Credits
