Author: Edward Humes

ISBN: 978-0-06-088548-9

In Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle For America's Soul author Edward Humes presents a compelling snap-shot of the Kitzmiller, et all v. Dover Area School District federal court case that made national headlines in 2005.

In this case, for anyone who may not be familiar, the school board members of the Dover, Pennsylvania school district instituted in 2004 a new education policy for the local high school biology class.  The new policy involved a brief statement read at a particular point in the curriculum alleging the incomplete nature of evolutionary theory and directing students to a separate text explaining Intelligent Design (ID), a purportedly scientific alternative to evolution that holds a lot of sway in conservative religious circles.   The policy and statement were enacted only once and the school board subsequently sued.

Monkey Girl spends a lot of time on the history of the Evolution/Creation debate in America.  From pro creation and pro evolution activists in the late 19^th and on through the 20^th century to the "Scopes Monkey Trial" immortalized in the film Inherit The Wind.  All the major court cases and education policy changes from the last half of the century come into play because there hasn't been this sort of challenge to science education in almost 20 years.

Mr. Humes tries as hard as anyone can be expected to understand the people involved in this case.  The board members, without knowing anything about either evolution or ID, wanted to "balance" the teaching of biology.  The parents sued the school district because they felt their children shouldn't be religiously indoctrinated in science class.  The experts and lawyers on each side of the line brought their knowledge, and in some cases lack of knowledge, to the courtroom.  All of these people and factors come into play in deciding, at least for now and for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, whether or not ID is a legitimate scientific theory and can be taught in schools.  Each person has their say and in their own words, sometimes embarrassingly so.

At the heart of Monkey Girl is the struggle against ignorance: of evolutionary theory, of our role in nature and, most assuredly, of ignorance itself.  It's not just that the Dover school board members tried to sneak religion into science class, it's that they did so without any real knowledge of what they offered as an alternative.  ID sounded scientific and fit more easily with religious ideology, or so they thought, so it must be valid enough to offer to the students.  Incidentally, all the policy ever seemed to do was divide the town and confuse the children.

Edward Humes has written a loving testament to the search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world.  With a journalistic integrity that many writers could not have handled he tells the tale instead of preaching the cause.

As you work your way through Monkey Girl's 17 sometimes long but generally well crafted chapters you can't help but feel that as Creationism is struck down in court and undone by science time and again its evolution into Intelligent Design is rather ironic.

The above review was contributed by:  David Allen: Passionate Reader & Writer