John Scopes Research Paper

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

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.

Another source of tension was the difference in religious beliefs among people. A new way of thinking called Modernism emerged in which people took a slightly more critical look at the Bible. The people claimed to believe in the theory of evolution as opposed to the seven-day Creation story of Genesis. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, denounced this as blasphemy. These traditionalists took the word of the Bible as exact and literal. Nowhere was the conflict between these two parties more highlighted than in the Scopes Trial in Tennessee. John Scopes, a schoolteacher, had been arrested for teaching the theory of evolution to his students. He was eventually convicted (but later

On April 24, 1925, John Thomas Scopes was charged with the teaching of evolution, which went against the Butler Act. The Butler Act made it illegal to teach any theory denying the divine creation of man in all of Tennessee’s public schools. Up until then, it was widely accepted that the origin of man hadn’t derived from wild animals.

Facts: The parties in this case are the appellant, Susan Epperson an Arkansas public high school teacher, and the State of Arkansas. Ms. Epperson brought legal action against the State of Arkansas in order to challenge the Constitutional legitimacy of the State’s “Anti-evolution” law. The “Anti-evolution” law made it illegal for any teacher in a state supported school to teach evolution or to use a book, which included the theory. Ms. Epperson believed the State’s prohibition of teaching evolution violated her Constitutional rights and thus initiated legal action in the courts.

Can you imagine not learning how to multiply or divide or anything else that you find necessary to help you succeed in school? Then maybe you can visualize living in the state of Tennessee, where public schools could not teach Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. It all started when the teachers Butler Act was passed, it banned the teaching of the Evolution. Most people were indignant because of how the law favored those who acclaimed the bible. The conviction of John Scopes in the Scopes Trial was caused by political factors like the laws passed and the trial itself, the geographic factors such as the location also known as the Bible Belt and lastly the primary factor is social factors, such as religious beliefs.

Starting with the Scopes Trial, many more cases have occurred concerning the teaching of evolution. “By 1928 every southern state except Virginia had debated or was considering legislation banning the teaching of evolution in the

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

“In 1925, Tennessee outlawed teaching the theory of human evolution in public schools.” This ban of evolution was taken to court and was named the Scopes Monkey Trial, since the Tennessee teacher John Scopes was the defendant in the case. However, as Ronald Numbers states in his book, Galileo Goes to Jail: and other myths about science and religion, this was a response “to the invitation of the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the statute on free-speech grounds, [so] town leaders in Dayton, Tennessee, decided to test the new statute in court by arranging a friendly indictment of a local science teacher named John Scopes.” In this trial many celebrities in politics and law presided over this trial, in the end it was more of a publicity stunt than anything else. Yet for many years, this trial was believed to be entirely about how the very Christian based community of Tennessee didn’t agree with the teachings of evolution. This event was misconstrued so much that it was even printed in school books that give examples of Sciences fight against the tyranny of Christianity. Newspapers printed headlines about this trial for years to come and it lead the public to believe that this was not just about publicity but about the actual fight of science vs

Bryan traveled around the United States campaigning for laws that banned the teaching of evolution. One such law passed in Tennessee prohibited teachers in state supported schools and universities from teaching any theory of the origin of human life other than the creation story contained in the Bible. In 1925 John Thomas Scopes violated the law and was brought to trial. The trial quickly took on the air of a circus, with reporters and photographers from all over the world and the first live radio coverage of such an event broadcast by WGN in Chicago. The media cast the proceeding as a contest between science and the Bible. The defense tried to frame the issue as tolerance for new ideas. Ultimately,

"The hand that writes the paycheck rules the school," said William Jennings Bryan. From the beginning, Americans have struggled knowing what they should teach their children. In the 1920's, education was starting to boom. More and more people were attending school and as an effect school sizes were increasing dramatically. Then, the recurring topic of science and religion began to start controversy with public.Soon, two sides formed, the Fundamentalists and the Darwinist. Then, an antievolution law was passed in Tennessee. The American Civil Rights Union (ACLU) was against the new law, because it violated freedom of speech. As a result the Scopes trial formed. The Scopes trial brought big names to the town of Dayton, including Clarence Darrow defending John T. Scopes and William Jennings Bryan persecuting Scopes for teaching evolution. To the town of Dayton, the trial was hope. For Clarence Darrow, the trial was an opportunity to bash religion. For the ACLU, the trial was a cry for freedom. William Jennings Bryan believed he had the chance to protect his faith. Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson gives a reader every detail about the Scopes Trial there is to know. The book goes through the steps leading up to the trial, the actual trial, and the lasting effect of the trial. Larson believes that the Scopes Trial was a unique case and meant something different to everyone.

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