...Scopes Trial Name Institutional Affiliation Scopes Trial America was just recovering from the after effects of the world war. It was a common trend for people specifically from the rural areas to be nostalgic. Their desire was to maintain simplicity and engage in the normal activities they used to before the war. The religious turned to their religious practices and beliefs. The south and mid westerners are specifically remembered for their strong beliefs. Faith was associated with providing consolation and peace. Consequently, the rise of fundamentalist religion took shape. The fundamentalists relied on the literal aspects of the biblical teachings. The theory of evolution was therefore seen as ridicule to their faith. They considered it a threat especially because they believed they were the only one teaching the truth. The believers looked into ways through which they could terminate the theory of evolution from the society thus; they began with the education sector. Laws were passed in the South outlawing teaching of Darwinian theories in class by 1925. The towns of Tennessee, and Florida regarded the law significantly. In the summer of the same year, a school tutor by the name John Scopes of Dayton violated it. Consequently, Scopes was put under trial. The prosecution intentionally staged the case to attract the attention of the public throughout Tennessee. Although Scopes doubted to having taught the Darwinian theory, he incriminated himself, therefore serving as...
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...Evan Boiko HIS 112-005 10-16-11 The Scopes Trial The Scopes Trial was one of the most famous trials in the history of the United States due to the intense passion and concern that people had for it. The defense was defending personal freedom and democracy while the prosecution imposed on these values. In the end, even though John Scopes and his defense team lost the trial, they won in the long run by influencing decisions made in the future regarding free speech in the classroom and what teachers were required to teach. Many people had intense feelings for the Scopes Trial. These feelings and concern people had for the trial made it one of the most famous trials in America. Some people simplified the trial to Darwin vs. the Bible. This issue made the Scopes trial a large concern to many because Darwin undermined the literal reading of the bible. Darwin's theory of evolution more specifically struck at two major parts of the Bible, the seven days of creation story, and the story of Adam and Eve and how they were the first humans on earth. Many people also considered Darwin's theory to be a "moral outrage" because of how the process of natural selection worked. For natural selection to occur, the unfit of the species were killed off in extremely large numbers. With this information, Darwin was suggesting that "nature revealed a God who was cruel and wasteful or absent altogether." This particular notion created strong opposition to Darwin's theory because of the possibility...
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...between forces of tradition and modernity. This tension was represented in whole by the Scopes Trial. The Scopes Trial was a court case where the Attorney General of Tennessee charged a high school biology teacher named John Scopes for going against the law of not being able to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution in school. Darwin’s theory of evolution stated that complex forms of life, like human beings, developed from simpler forms of life. Darwin’s modern theory clashed heavily with the fundamentalist, or traditionalist, view in the Bible, where God creates humans. The law of not being able to teach Darwinism in public schools was passed in 1925 by the state of Tennessee. The ACLU, or American...
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...Summary of Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion by Edward J. Larson (New York, Basic Books: 1997, 318 pp.) Part I: Before… Chapter One: Digging Up Controversy Decades before the Scopes Trial, Charles Darwin discovered fragments of a prehistoric human skull which became known as the "Piltdown skull." It was believed to originate from an ape due to its size and shape, but the jaw appeared to resemble an undiscovered ape. As popularity of the subject grew, newspapers started to take notice saying that the skull was a missing link between humans and ape, and that Darwin's theory of evolution had now been proven correct. As the United States took notice, controversy related to religion...
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...ACLU, which only formed five years prior was determined to defend any teacher willing to challenge this law; Such a teacher, was a young Biologist at Dayton High School, John T. Scopes who agreed to be tried for violating the Butler Act and was charged. The ACLU, for all its efforts, at the time had little success, took the case and hired Clarence Darrow, a famous trial lawyer of the era, to defend Scopes in, The State of Tennessee v John Thomas Scopes, commonly referred to, as The Scopes Trial. The prosecution countered with, Christian fundamentalist, William Jennings Bryan, who proposed that only creationism should be taught in school....
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...parties, flappers, and roaring jazz music. Although the decade seems like a collection of rowdy social festivities, grander complications lied at the surface. Author and Harvard American History professor, Joshua Zeitz underlines the conjuncture between innovation and tradition in his essay The Roaring Twenties. Although major religious conflicts erupted, giving the conservatives a win, the 1920’s were a decade of liberalism because of backlash from government control and advancements in media A major disagreement between church and education was the John Scopes trial (aka the monkey trial.) In 1925, the Butler Act was passed to end the teaching of anything that goes against biblical teachings. That same year, John Scopes was challenged by peers to violate the anti-evolution law and teach Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to his class. A Duke University Article, by Christopher Armstrong and Grant Wacker, entitled The Scopes Trial states that “Resistance grew especially acute when such conservatives saw their sons and daughters going off to college and, faced with teachings that contradicted their parents' beliefs, seemed to lose their faith entirely.” This reveals the parent’s conservative fears of a radically different America where there would be diversity amongst religions. Adding on to conservative victory, Zeitz claims that the conservatives were nowhere near close to being beat. Zeits states in his essay that after their court victory,...
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...The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. New York: BasicBooks, 1997. Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion, by Edward J. Larson, tells of the court trial of Clarence Darrow defending John Scopes against the radical populist William Jennings Bryan. Scopes had been challenged for going against the law by teaching evolution to students in a public school. The length of text begins with Scope studying the scientific findings of Charles Dawson, who examined skull pieces that may have filled the gap between apes and humans. This is what motivated Scopes with the fascination of evolution. But then there were people like William Jennings Bryan who come into play and take the religious side, wanting to go against the idea of evolution. Society wasn’t exactly mostly favoring the idea of evolution since there were laws against spreading the idea as Scopes had. This is, of course, how Scopes ended up in court. However, the text does not end with the ruling of the trial. The text stretches to the anti-evolution movement continuing on with Bryan trying to start his crusade, and eventually gets to how schools restructure what society thinks should be the new benchmarks of education. Basically, the text tells the history of these two ideas, but in the end, neither is right or wrong since everyone has the liberty for their own beliefs. The 1920s hosted a famous court case between John Scopes and...
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...The Scopes Monkey Trial 1925 The Scopes Monkey Trial demonstrates how religious fundamentalists used the power of the state to promote their view of society. Like the Prohibition laws used to legislate morality laws against the teachings of evolution in high schools attempted to legislate thinking. The Tennessee antievolution law (the Butler Act) came to national prominence in 1925. The American civil liberty union wanted to test the law and needed a teacher willing to be arrested for breaking the law. John T. Scopes the 24-year-old science teacher and a football coach at Dayton High School agreed to be the defendant in the case. He had thought the evolution theory at the school and had therefor broken the new law the punishment under the law was a 100$ fine under the law. In the summer of 1925 the case was brought to the Dayton courthouse with 150 members of the press in attendance. The state prosecutor was a fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan. Farmers in the families rushed though the heat wave as they were looking forward to Brian defending their bible against the idea “Everyone’s great grand pappy was a monkey”. Judge John. T. Raulston from Fiery Grizzard stated that the issue was not the truth of the evolution or the wisdom of the law it simply if the John T. Scopes had broken the law. Scopes agreed that he taught the theory of evolution and was fined a 100$. Brian had won the case but it was a hollow victory as Scopes defense Clarance Darrow had made the...
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...raises him above the other creatures of the earth? The power of his brain to reason.” Aside from evolution being on trial, the right to think is also on trail in the Scopes case. Evolution is change of species over time, not saying we came from apes. You can believe in evolution without it contradicting your religion. Through Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence and the Scopes Trial I have learned a lot about evolution and how it might of happened. Inherit the Wind and the Scopes trial have very different purposes. The Scopes trial is more to inform us on the trial. For example, “There is never a duel with the truth. The truth always wins and we are not afraid of it. The truth is no coward. The truth does not need the law. The truth does not need the force of government.” Scopes has the cold hard facts, not un-textual extras. However Inherit the Wind is more to entertain. “How flattering it is to know I'm being clipped.” There are tons of examples for sarcasm in this book, and the reason you put sarcasm in a book is to keep it enjoyable and lively....
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...The Scopes Monkey Trial The Trial of the Century, Scopes Monkey Trial, The Monkey Trial these are a few names the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas legal case could be called. This court case was an unusual one because the State of Tennessee had passed an antievolutionary law named the Butler Act that outlawed the teaching of evolution in the classroom (New World Encyclopedia). While the scopes trial looked like ballyhoo, because of its substance it was actually important to America because of its substance and final showdown. The Scopes Trial had almost a circus or carnival like element to it. Especially in the town of Dayton Tennessee where the trial was being held because of a multitude of revival tents and other various things (Pierce)....
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...Modeled after the Scopes Monkey Trial, Inherit the Wind has the citizens of Hillsboro remain intransigent in their observance to Christianity and reject the concept of evolution, resulting in the trial that would bring attention from everywhere in the country. Referred to as the “buckle on the Bible Belt” (Act 1. Scene 1), the town is known for its strict adherence to its religion and puts a school teacher named Bert Cates on trail with the intent of imprisoning him for teaching evolution since it was illegal to do so. Although characters such as prosecuter Matthew Harrison Brady condemn Cates as a sinner and blame him for spoiling the minds of the town’s youth, he has never read the works of Darwin to understand why evolution would be taught. When questioned by the defense attorney Drummond, Brady...
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...Chapter 21: Scopes Monkey Trial The scopes monkey trial occurred because religious fundamentalists, who believed that God created life, believed that the theory of evolution was heretic. In early in 1925 state legislature of Tennessee passed a law forbidding public school teachers to teach the theory of evolution instead of teaching the story of Adam and Eve. John Scopes was a high school teacher in Dayton Tennessee who was a modernist, meaning that he believed in social sciences and evolution. In 1925 Scopes volunteered to serve in a test case and was arrested for teaching evolution in school. Scopes trial that summer became a headline event and though he won the trial, fundamentalism remained popular. 2nd Kkk In 1915, William J. Simmons,...
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...The Scopes “Monkey” Trial was an American legal case in 1925 which involved a 24-year old high school teacher named John Thomas Scopes who was prosecuted for teaching the theory of evolution. The trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee on July 25th 1995. Scopes was accused of violating the Tennessee’s Butler Act by teaching Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The Butler Act forbids the teaching of theory that goes against the biblical story of Creationism. Scopes was found guilty and was charged a fine of $100. In 1925, the Tennessee legislature passed the Butler Act which prohibits the teaching of the theory of evolution in all the universities, normal and all other public school in Tennessee. Any teacher who fails to abide the law would be fined not less than a $100 or more than $500. Other southern states followed suit. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) offered to defend the teaching of evolution. Scopes agreed to purposefully incriminate himself so the ACLU could challenge the Butler’s Act....
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...HIGHER CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE-------------------------------------------------- THE SOCIAL GOSPEL--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FUNDAMENTALS------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE SCOPES TRIAL----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONCLUSION------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BIBLIOGRAPHY---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Introduction The word fundamentalism is surrounded and associated with disturbing controversy in our contemporary society. Although the term fundamentalism has become a somewhat theological dirty word, in connection with the explosive theory of evolution, espoused by Charles Darwin; and in relation to the world famous Scopes trial, the...
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...the Wind” was a film that was originally released in 1960, however it has been remade several times since that time. It was directed by Stanley Kramer and written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. It is based on the true story of John “Monkey” Scope’s trial of being convicted of teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in a high school, even though it was illegal in the state of Tennessee. The story is told in Tennessee around the time of 1925. The film shows issues between cultures about how some believe in evolution and some believe in the Church, however, the major issue is the one on how Americans can think for themselves. I feel the movie depicted the issues in neither a negative nor a positive manner. I think it was more of a historical film than a film that takes a side on either side of the issue. It is negative in the fact that the way it was handled and the laws at the time thoroughly showed that it was illegal. At the time, teaching the theory of evolution was illegal in high school. The thought of children learning of how humans came to be outside of what the bible described was blasphemy. The people showing hatred towards Bertram Cates, the name of the character in the film that portrayed Scope, was a prime example of the way people viewed those who thought this type of way. I feel that it depicted society in a negative manner more than the situation itself. In the film, you heard citizens singing for the defendant and his attorney for their death. This...
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