Ted Davis's Scopes Trial

Through the analysis of the major televised debate, held February this year, between the popular science communicator, Bill Nye, and the US-based Australian creationist, Ken Ham. It has come to light that through careful analysis and research it is my belief that scientists should not be involved within any debates “scientific” or otherwise regarding topics pertaining to creationism or any other religious perspective. The inappropriate use of the loose definitions of science and religion lead to the intertwining of the two subjects that are extremely different in methodology, leaving the audience up for misinterpretation. While the debate did bring about the topic to the forefront of the public, which in itself was a positive, I do not believe that the post debate result was a win for science. Bill Nye’s derogatory demeanour represented post debate towards Ken Ham was in turn a representation of institutional science. Leading to which the validity of the debate and post debate could be brought into question.

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.

In America, in the 1920s, two significant cultural movements arose that eventually clashed. A Christian fundamentalist movement arose in America and the fundamentalist’s goal during this time was to recover and publicly institutionalize old time religious fundamental values. Fundamentalist believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible, and thus strongly objected to the teachings of Charles Darwin, since his theory of evolution contradicted the origin of man as found in the Bible. In the 1920s, the Christian fundamentalist began to gain political power across America and started passing legislation banning the teaching of Darwinism in state funded schools. At the same time cultural modernism was also rising in America. Modernist believes in a secular government and their agenda was education, democratic reforms, and economic progress. These two conflicting ideologies would inevitably clash, which occurred in the Scopes Trial of

The 1920’s were a time of change. New ideas were becoming more readily experimented with and even accepted by large portions of the population. Some of these included jazz music and the fight against the alcoholic prohibition. The radical idea I will focus on in this paper, however, is Evolution. It is a theory that had been around for over half a century before the 20’s but had only more recently caught on in the US. It contradicted the Christian theory of Divine Creation as described in the Bible. This caused many religious fundamentalists to fight against it. They took their battle to the law books, and they were challenged by pro-evolution modernists in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925.

Although the 1920s was a lavish decade, there were other things going on while people were living in luxury; there was truth behind the glitter. The Eighteenth Amendment seemed like it was a good idea, but in reality, it brought people to a certain desperation to get at least a sip of an alcoholic beverage. The Ku Klux Klan marched to Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington on August 8, 1925 which succeeded in attracting national attention (1920’s KKK). John Scopes, a Tennessee schoolteacher, is arrested for teaching evolution, in violation of new state law banning the teaching of Darwin. The worst of times in the 1920s encapsulated the whole decade.

"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.

My claim would be that science, society, and religion constantly contradict each other. During the time period of the scientific revolution, we see how society worships an independent view, along with religious views agree with/encourage sciences or demean scientific ideas entirely.

The Scopes Trial induced a pivotal point in American history because it symbolizes the conflict between science and theology, faith and reason, individual liberty, and majority rule. This trial was to decide not only the fate of an evolution-teacher, but also to decide if traditionalists or modernists would rule American culture. An object of intense publicity, the trial was seen as a clash between urban sophistication and rural fundamentalism.

Clarence Darrow builds a potent argument against the creation of the Butler Act and the state of Tennessee's choice to outlaw the theory of evolution in favor of the Bible’s interpretation of the creation of humans by providing the audience with a clear understanding of the negative connotations of these choices. He clearly states that the decision of the government is an impediment between traditional beliefs and progression. Darrow claims that the act is a “brazen….attempt to destroy learning as ever was made during the Middle Ages” (Transcript A, Paragraph 1). By connecting the act to a period of time often associated with a lack of knowledge, Darrow is able to portray the act as oppressive and convince the audience to fear for the damage

The Scopes trial happened mainly because the Butler Act was passed, the Butler Act made it illegal to teach human Evolution in a public school. And even though the main objective of the scopes trial was to attract business to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee it ultimately ended in science gaining higher value in the American society over religion.

There were two sides to the debate of the Scopes trial when it took place in the year of 1925 which defined freedom differently. Times were changing and things weren’t the same anymore causing indifferences between individuals. John Scopes, was a teacher

With Darwinism, the poor, weak, or lacking were left behind. According to William Graham Sumner, social Darwinism is “liberty, inequality, and survival of the fittest”. Sumner states these characteristics will carry “society forward and favor all its best members”. William J. Bryan saw these “laws of nature” bringing society away from reform, but these were not his only quarrels with Darwin's ideas. Along with his opposition to social Darwinism, Bryan expressed his distaste and made his stand clear on Darwinian theories of biological evolution. He focused intently on the “theory’s three great crimes” believing it rationalized warfare, “undercut the impulse for political reform”, and lastly, and most importantly, it contradicted the Bible. Standing by his unmovable Presbyterian beliefs, Bryan lectures against these theories, and takes his most prominent stand against them in the Scopes trial in 1925. He is called to stand at points in the trial and is questioned, testing his strength in and the knowledge of his faith, on almost every disrupted story and account in the Bible. He stands true to his religion through the end of the trial, and was rewarded with a win on the side of anti revolutionist opposing

Throughout United States history, Americans have always remain separated on certain issues. Edward Larson’s work Summer for the Gods exemplifies just how issues split the population. Larson uses the Scopes Trial of 1925 to demonstrate to the rivalry between modernists and traditionalists in the early 20th century. Charles Dawson discovered fossilized human bones known as the “Piltdown skull” and bridged a gap in history that seemed to confirm Darwin’s theory of evolution. "Darwin 's account of random variations, coupled with his survival-of-the-fittest selection process, posed a critical problem for many Christians who retained a teleological view of nature.” (Larson, 17) This threat to Christian spirituality sparked an anti-evolution movement in an attempt to revoke the teachings of evolution in public school systems. The Tennessee House of Representatives soon passed a statute making it illegal for any public school official to teach any theory that rejected the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible. The Scopes Trial would prove to be more than an argument between science and religion and the removal of textbook content. It was individual rights versus the right of majority rule, freedom of speech versus censorship, and evolution versus creationism.

Wells’ articles… is whether ordinary people should be allowed to know the facts and should discuss their implications” (Woolf 498). This excerpt is a prime example of the division between science and religion that was occurring throughout the time period within this book was written. Many people began to support Wells in his beliefs of scientific principles such as Darwinism. However, there were those who strongly dejected it and even became hostile that those scientific ideas were available to the public. The reason the ideas were so easily accessible were because of literary interpretation in controversial books such as The Island of Dr. Moreau.

The topic of evolution was a hot topic back in the 1920s. It created a big stir due to the fear of modernism. People feared modernism was the reason for WWI and the increasing number of deaths during it. People also feared the popular evolutionists saying at the time, ‘survival of the fittest’, for they thought this would lead to domination and eventual elimination of the weaker population by the stronger population. The supporters of the evolution theory wanted increased public awareness of evolution as they believed in giving people the choice to choose between evolution and creationism. There is no evidence to suggest that the evolution theory was ever going to undermine morality and civilization. I believe the opposite would have occurred