Half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech about the importance of the government always maintaining a neutral attitude toward religion. President Kennedy declared, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” The United States has been a country where the separation of church and state has been adopted and supposedly practiced, but there has been perennial conflict that has disrupted the balance between church and state. In his groundbreaking film, The Revisionaries, director Scott Thurman exposes how the public education system has become the latest battleground in the face of an old conflict – between religion and science – that challenges the ideological edifice on which the nation rests . The contention is shrouded in the vehement claims of those who maintain that Intelligent Design, a refinement of creationism, is true; and believers in the theory of evolution, who claim scientific merit, come to no conclusion different from that presented in the theory of evolution. As a result, the consequences of the conflict are now in classrooms. In Austin, Texas, every decade fifteen people influence what the next generation of American children is taught. The highly politicized Texas Board of Education manages to rewrite the teaching and textbook standards for its approximately 5 million schoolchildren. However, any changes made in Texas will reverberate across the rest of the nation. Texas is home to one of the largest textbook markets in the nation (the other being the state of California), because as a state it decides which textbooks schools can purchase, rather than leaving it up to local districts ("The Revolutionaries") . So publishers are faced with the economic dilemma of whether to limit the intellect...... middle of paper ......ov. 2013.Kroll, Paul. “Genesis 1: The Evolution vs. Creation Controversy.” Grace International Communion. Gci.org, 2013. Web. 03 December 2013. Laing, Robert L. "94. 37 creation facts versus 30 false theories of evolution." 37 Facts of Creation vs. 30 False Theories of Evolution. IntelligentDesignTheory.info, 2007. Web. 01 December 2013Layton, Julia."How intelligent design works." September 26, 2005. http://people.howstuffworks.com/intelligent-design.htm. Web.November 30, 2013.Rich, Motoko. “The Texas Education Board Flags Biology Textbook Over Evolution Concerns.” com, November 22, 2013. Web. November 30, 2013. Spence, Thomas “To Teach or Not to Teach: Intelligent Design in the Public Classroom?” Examiner.com, 25 September 2009. 2013 “The Revisionaries”. Independent PBS target. 11/19/13