Analysis Of American Experience : Monkey Trials

The two-hour special documentary, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, features the Kitzmiller v. Dover School District case in 2004. It captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools. Some members of the community believed that not only Darwinism, but also a so called theory, Intelligent Design, should be taught in their public high school. It was a battle between the two theories. It forced neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend. The community itself was broken half and half on the controversial issue.

Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion concentrates on the Scopes trial, otherwise called the "Monkey Trial," which happened in Dayton, Tennessee in the mid year of 1925. The trial occurred in excess of a Tennessee law that banned the educating of human development out in the open schools. The American Civil Liberties Union needed to test the law, and a junior instructor named John Scopes, consented to help them. The alleged "trial of the century" united the well known government official and speaker, William Jennings Bryan, who headed the opposition to development campaign; and Clarence Darrow, who was viewed as the best criminal protection legal advisor of the time. The two men, plus their individual direction, clashed in the trail with the indictment in the end ready to maintain the law.

The twentieth century Scopes trial may have started out as a simple debate between evolutionists and creationists, but quickly escalated to a debate of historic proportions. The 1920s were times of change in the United States, from women getting the right to vote to prohibition to changes in education, such as the Butler Act, which created unease and animosity throughout the country. The Butler Act of 1925 prohibited the teaching of evolution and any other theories that deny the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible in all Universities and public schools in Tennessee. John Scopes, a high-school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee decided to test this law. He was found guilty of teaching evolution to his high-school

In an instant life was created. But the type of life that was created differs depending on who is asked. Scientists would claim that single-celled organisms were the first to be created, and only by evolution and survival of the fittest did humans come to be. Religious people would refute that claim and state that humans were created in the image and likeness of god and all other animals came separately and not by chance. This argument has plagued the world since Charles Darwin released his theory in 1859. It came to a point in Dayton, Tennessee with the Scopes Trial, also known as the “Monkey Trial”. This eleven-day trial pitted faith against reason and left a legacy of conflict in schoolrooms and legislature across America.

In the 1920's, many people became familiar with religions that are known today. Religions would follow what is so-called “ planned for them” written in the books. The Butler Act made it illegal to teach about religions from the textbooks. This included that teachers as any school were allowed to teach and about the science of evolution. The conflicts that the Butler Act made were between tradition and modernity. This act was worrying parents that it would change, and make a big effect for their children's education. These are reasons why people cared about the Butler Act. It also questioned the simple debate between evolution and creation. John Scopes was the first to argue about the importance of teaching science. Later on, there was a Scopes trial in Dayton,Tennessee.

On March 13, 1925 the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act. This law prohibited teaching the Theory of Evolution in Tennessee public schools. Any teacher who taught a theory that denied the story of the Divine Creation would be punished by a fine. The American Civil Liberties Union offered legal defense to any Tennessee teacher who would break the law and fight it in court. John Thomas Scopes was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, and he intentionally taught his class about the theory of evolution, which led to his arrest and trial.

The 1920’s was a time of prosperity and change in the United States, but with change comes disagreements. One of the largest debates during this time period, and still today, was the debate between science and religion. Many people were Christians in America during this time and they believed that the story of how God created the Earth should be taught in public schools. These people were called “fundamentalists.” They believed nothing could compare to or be as powerful as God’s word. The other side to this debate were the Modernists, or the ones who believed in science rather than religion. Modernists wanted to teach the theory of evolution in public schools instead of the Creation story the Fundamentalists believed in (“United States in History”). All of these different opinions led to one of the most famous trials known as the Scopes v. State of Tennessee trial. John Scopes was a substitute teacher in Tennessee who decided to teach the theory of evolution to a science class. Scopes was accused of violating the Butler Act, which states that teaching anything that

The Scopes Trial is a standout amongst the most well-known trials in American history. The trial was a lawful case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was charged with violating Tennessee 's Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach Darwinism in any state-financed school. This trial was a gathering between various polar opposites, for example, Fundamentalism and Modernism. The clash between fundamentalism and modernism during the Scopes Trial had a significant impact on the American education system.

In the “Monkey Trial” William Jennings Bryan spoke as the leader of the Christian fundamentalist, what him and his followers wanted to do was for the people and court to find out how unfair it was for something that they perceived as “materialistic and anti-religious be taught in the very same classrooms from which all religious instruction had been banned” (Thomas, 2009 p. 25). This situation created a lot of debates among the people. Many things changed in the American public schools that arise because of the evolution theory and religion.

1. Great Migration The Great Migration is when African Americans moved from the rural South to the cities up in the North, Midwest and West. The event was important because it began to build a new public life for African Americans which leads to creating a new black urban culture that would influence the United States later on. 2.

Ever since science began to explain the previously unexplainable, it has caused conflicts with religion. The Scopes “Monkey” Trial of Dayton, Tennessee was one of the most talked about trials in history because it was one of the first and most publicized times that this conflict occurred. The trial showed the schism between the faithful fundamentalists and the newly formed group of evolutionists. Although the jury was reminded that they only had to decide if Scopes had broken the law, the verdict was seen as much more than that. For one of the first times in history, it seemed as if the jury had to choose either religion or evolution. For the time being, there could not be both. The Scopes “Monkey” Trial revealed the ongoing conflict with

Scopes fine and conviction were overturned later on a technicality, but the debate between the anti-evolutionists and modernists continued over evolution and religion in the classroom subject matter long after the trial was over. Many books were written about the Scopes Trials that described what happened such as Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties, and Inherit the Wind. The author of Only Yesterday, Fredrick Lewis Allen, described the trials very simply as a loss for fundamentalism and many others followed in his description. Political and public views from this case also changed, which led toward the idea of creation to be taught in schools rather than so much emphasis on evolution being banned. This led to religious practices in schools began to diminish as the years went on as well. As more arguments arose and settled, the law that banned evolution in school was finally repealed in

The Scopes trial, writes Edward Larson, to most Americans embodies “the timeless debate over science and religion.” (265) Written by historians, judges, and playwrights, the history of the Scopes trial has caused Americans to perceive “the relationship between science and religion in . . . simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from allover to witness

Public schools are a place to learn proven facts and some very well—known and accepted theories. These schools have been led this way for a long time and show no signs of changing. Many states around the country have rejected the teaching of creationism in public schools, since the subject is so controversial among teachers and parents. In Ohio, a bill to develop new science content standards was not successfully passed. Many creationists were upset when they discovered that the first drafts of the standards were filled with evolutionary content, without any allowance for alternative explanations of life’s origins. In the uproar, the state board held a special meeting to investigate the process that the writing team and advisory committee used to draft the science standards (Matthews, Answering Genesis). This is why learning the facts about evolution should be taught at school. By doing this, there would be much less confrontation between teachers, students, and parents. If one has the desire to learn about creationism or any other beliefs of how the world came to be, one should learn it at a place outside of school, such as church or at home.

In the centuries leading up to the “Jazz and the Machine Age”, the nineteen-twenties was in a major dispute over religious beliefs between the traditionalist and the modernists. In 1925, a trial was held that was known as the Scopes trial. John scopes, a high school teacher, taught the theory of evolution in a Tennessee public high school. At the time, Tennessee had a state law they made it illegal to teach evolution in schools. The modernists had believed that the teachings of evolution gave the public another perspective through science but not religion. The traditionalist however, feared that the teaching of the Bible would be lost along with religious morals if Scope had won the trial. Traditionalist had