Charles,

I thought we Bible-thumpers were supposed to be the angry, uptight ones. Come on, man, you’re stealing my thunder when you refer to creationist “nonsense.”

As far as the states and the First Amendment are concerned: when the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, several of the colonies had established religions (e.g., Virginia had the taxpayer-supported Anglican church), and maintained those establishments after ratification, a fact that apparently did not trouble anyone, including John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (also president of the American Bible Society). The only intent of the establishment clause was avoidance of the experience in England, where dissenters from the established church were persecuted. The Framers wanted to ensure that no specific denomination would ever be established over the nation.

It wasn’t until the 1940’s, specifically the Everson decision, that the Supremes got into the mischief of marginalizing religion in American public llife.

The hard evolution line in public schools leads to a real dilemma for believing parents, because the effect of the evolutional model is not limited to the physical sciences: it has a profound effect on worldview. Whether one believes he is an accident of nature or the unique creation of a loving, involved God cannot help but color everything. Some of you guys are pretty hard core about all this, but I think you can still appreciate the dilemma. One answer, of course, would be private religious schools, but not everyone can afford that. There is home schooling, but working parents have trouble making that work. In my view, there is an excellent case here for school vouchers.