Charles Darwin

Today's installment of Great Lives on BBC Radio 4 was on Charles Darwin. The panel discussion included speculation on why Darwin and his theory of evolution, which are generally accepted in Britain, are so controversial in the United States. One of the panelists speculated (as I suggested in an earlier post) that in the United States the separation of church and state has paradoxically made religion a more charged topic than in England where there is official recognition of religion by the state. If religion could be taught as a separate subject in American schools, perhaps fundamentalists wouldn't demand that it be taught as part of the science curriculum.