The Scopes “Monkey” Trial Clash over the teaching of Evolution

Fundamentalist Religion In general all fundamentalist movements arise when traditional societies are forced to face a kind of social disintegration of their way of life, a loss of personal and group meaning and the introduction of new customs that lead to a loss of personal and group orientation. Religious ideology is the basis for their personal and communal identity. They insist upon one statement of truth that is inerrant, revealed and unchangeable They see themselves as part of a cosmic struggle between good and evil. They seize on historical moments and reinterpret them in the light of this cosmic struggle. They demonize their opposition. They are selective in what parts of the religious tradition and heritage they will stress. The earliest phase of fundamentalism in the USA involved articulating what was fundamental to Christianity and initiating an urgent battle to expel the enemies of orthodox Protestantism from the ranks of the churches

Fundamentalist Christianity in America Early in the 20th century certain prominent American Christians began to see the Bible as a historical text rather than revealed truth. The Bible, according to these “higher critics,” had evolved over time and simply reflected the views of the men who wrote it. Fundamentalism arose within American churches to combat this modern view of the Bible. The name comes from a series of pamphlets called “The Fundamentals,” published in 1912.

Back to Basics Fundamentals Inerrancy of the Bible Biblical Literalism Virgin Birth of Christ Substitutionary Atonement Bodily Resurrection Second Coming “The Fundamentals” outlined the bedrock truths that all Christians should believe. Fundamentalists believed in a “back to basics” American theology: The Bible was not something to be interpreted, but the revealed word of God.

Anti-Evolution Crusade In the beginning, fundamentalism did not attempt to reach out and change society as a whole. It was the anti-evolution crusade led by William Jennings Bryan that turned fundamentalism into a political movement.

The Butler Act AN ACT prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof. Section 1.  Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals. Section 2.  Be it further enacted, That any teacher found guilty of the violation of this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction, shall be fined not less than One Hundred Dollars nor more than than Five Hundred Dollars for each offense. Section 3.  Be it further enacted, That this Act take effect from and after its passage, the public welfare requiring it. (Normals were teacher training colleges.) PUBLIC ACTS OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE PASSED BY THE SIXTY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1925 CHAPTER NO. 27 House Bill No. 185 (By John Washington Butler) Passed March 13,1925 W.F. Barry, Speaker of the House of Representatives L.D. Hill, Speaker of the Senate Approved March 21, 1925 Austin Peay, Governor.

The ACLU gets involved . . . The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920, largely in response to the Palmer Raids. its focus was on freedom of speech, primarily for anti-war protesters and radicals. During the 1920s, the ACLU expanded its scope to include protecting the free speech rights of artists and striking workers, and working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to decrease racism and discrimination. The ACLU was aware that the Butler Act was likely to become law because it had been passed by the lower house of the Tennessee legislature by a landslide (in January, 1925).  After a few false starts, the ACLU sent a press release to several Tennessee newspapers, including as the Chattanooga Daily Times, announcing that they would provide legal assistance for a school teacher in Tennessee who would be willing to stand trial for having taught evolution in a public school. The intention was to create a test case that would challenge the constitutional validity of the Act. From the ACLU point of view. The Butler Act was certainly not an isolated event.  Rather it was part of a wide-ranging campaign to banish the teaching of evolutionist ideas from America's classrooms. 

The Chance to Bring Money into Dayton . . . George Washington Rappleyea, the manager of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company in Dayton, Tennessee, became the chief architect of the Scopes Trial. Although he was a member of the Methodist Church, he was in agreement with the evolution theory. He recognized that the community could benefit economically from having what he knew would be a big trial in Dayton. On May 5th, 1925 he gathered together some of the leading citizens of Dayton at Robinson’s Drug Store and put to them his plan for using a trial, and the attendant media attention, as a means of publicizing Dayton. Standard Rights Managed (RM) BE043521 Discount available Conspirators of the Scopes Trial at Drugstore The men responsible for instigating the Scopes trial (from left to right): George W. Rappelyea, Professor Walter White, Clay Green, and R.E. Robinson. IMAGE: © Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS DATE PHOTOGRAPHED July 06, 1925 LOCATION Dayton, Tennessee, USA PHOTOGRAPHER George Rinhart COLLECTION Bettmann http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/BE043521.html

John Scopes Agrees to be the “Sacrificial Lamb” Having gained tacit agreement for his plan, Rappelyea then went on to recruit John Scopes as the 'sacrificial lamb'.  According to Scopes, Rappelyea arranged a meeting at Robinson's drug store where the conversation went something like this: Rappelyea: John, we've been arguing and I said nobody could teach biology without teaching evolution Scopes: (pulling a textbook from a shelf of books on sale in the store)   That's right Rappelyea: You've been teaching 'em this book? Scopes: So has every other teacher.  Evolution is explained in Hunter's Civic Biology, and that's our textbook. Rappelyea: Then you've been violating the law.  Would you be willing to stand for a test case?  Let's take this thing to court and test the legality of it.  I will swear out a warrant and have you arrested ... That will make a big sensation.  Why not bring a lot of doctors and preachers here? 

John Scopes It is actually unlikely that Scopes had taught evolution, since he was not a biology teacher. He was primarily a coach who taught some algebra, physics, and chemistry. He was subbing for the ill principal who was the actual biology teacher. His degree was actually in law Scopes was charged with having taught evolution on April 24th, 1925.  Scopes urged his students to testify against him and coached them in their answers. He was indicted on May 25, after three students testified against him at the grand jury; one student afterwards told reporters, "I believe in part of evolution, but I don't believe in the monkey business."[. At no time was Scopes held in jail on this charge which, by the way, was only classed as a "misdemeanor", not a "felony."

The Preliminaries The original prosecutors were Herbert E. and Sue K. Hicks, two brothers who were local attorneys and friends of Scopes, but the prosecution was ultimately led by Tom Stewart, who later became a U.S. Senator. The World Christian Fundamentals Association recruited the three-time Democratic presidential nominee and former United States Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan to act as special counsel for the prosecution. In response, the defense sought out America’s most famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow. Darrow originally declined, fearing that his presence would create a circus atmosphere, but eventually realized that the trial would be a circus with or without him, and agreed to lend his services to the defense. After many changes back and forth, the defense team consisted of Darrow, ACLU attorney Arthur Garfield Hays, and Dudley Field Malone, an international divorce lawyer who had worked at the State Department.

The trial begins At the outset of the trial, Judge John T. Raulston instructed the jury not to judge the merit of the law, but on whether or not Scopes violated the Butler Act. But, In their opening statements, the opposing lawyers recognized that what was on trial was the Bible and the Theory of Evolution, not the law. The ACLU had originally intended to oppose the Butler Act on the grounds that it violated the teacher's individual rights and academic freedom, and was therefore unconstitutional. Clarence Darrow changed this strategy to base the defense on the argument hat there was actually no conflict between evolution and the creation account in the Bible. Judge Raulston allowed only one expert witness for the defense, Dr. Maynard Metcalf, a zoologist from Johns Hopkins, to give evidence in person. He ruled that such evidence was irrelevant because the indictment related to whether Scopes had taught evolution and not whether evolution clashed with the story of the creation of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis.

http://www.antievolution.org/topics/law/scopes

“If evolution wins, Christianity goes”,” - warned William Jennings Bryan

“Scopes isn’t on trial: civilization is on trial” - argued Clarence Darrow

“There is never a duel with the truth” Bryan chastised evolution for teaching children that humans were but one of 35,000 types of mammals and bemoaned the notion that human beings were descended "Not even from American monkeys, but from old world monkeys". Dudley Malone responded for the defense in a speech that was universally considered the oratorical triumph of the trial. Arousing fears of "inquisitions", Malone argued that the Bible should be preserved in the realm of theology and morality and not put into a course of science. He declared that Bryan's "duel to the death" against evolution should not be made one-sided by a court ruling that took away the chief witnesses for the defense. Malone promised that there would be no duel because "there is never a duel with the truth." The courtroom went wild when Malone finished, and it was probably the reason why Bryan later agreed to go on the stand to regain some of his tarnished glory.

William Jennings Bryan on the Stand On the seventh day of the trial, Clarence Darrow took the unorthodox step of calling William Jennings Bryan, counsel for the prosecution, to the stand as a witness in an effort to demonstrate that belief in the historicity of the Bible and its many accounts of miracles was unreasonable. Bryan was questioned on the book of Genesis, including questions such as if Eve was actually created from Adam's rib, where did Cain get his wife, and how many people lived in Ancient Egypt. Darrow used these examples to suggest that the stories of the Bible could not be scientific and should not be used in teaching science with Darrow telling Bryan, "You insult every man of science and learning in the world because he does not believe in your fool religion.“ Stewart objected for the prosecution, demanding to know the legal purpose of Darrow's questioning. Bryan, gauging the effect the session was having, snapped that its purpose was "to cast ridicule on everybody who believes in the Bible". Darrow, with equal vehemence, retorted, "We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States." The confrontation between Bryan and Darrow lasted approximately two hours on the afternoon of the seventh day of the trial. It is likely that it would have continued the following morning but for Judge Raulston's announcement that he considered the whole examination irrelevant to the case and his decision that it should be "expunged" from the record.

“Do you claim that everything in the Bible should be literally interpreted?” – Darrow asked Bryan

“I believe everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is given there.” - William Jennings Bryan

However, when asked if Earth had been created in six days, Bryan answered, “I do not think it means necessarily a twenty-four-hour day,” Creation, he added, “might have continued for millions of years.”

Darrow had tricked Bryan, into admitting that he himself did not always interpret each and every word in the Bible as the literal truth.

The Trial Ends Darrow addressed the jury, telling them that: We came down here to offer evidence in this case and the court has held under the law that the evidence we had is not admissible, so all we can do is to take an exception and carry it to a higher court to see whether the evidence is admissible or not...we cannot even explain to you that we think you should return a verdict of not guilty. We do not see how you could. We do not ask it. Darrow closed the case for the defense without a final summation. Under Tennessee law, when the defense waived its right to make a closing speech, the prosecution was also barred from summing up its case. After eight days of trial, it took the jury only nine minutes to deliberate. Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered to pay a $100 fine (approximately $1,300 in present day terms when adjusted from 1925 for inflation) Scopes ten spoke for the only time in the trial: Your honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom—that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom. I think the fine is unjust. (World's Most Famous Court Trial, p. 313.)

A year later, the Tennessee Court of Appeals found the Butler Act to be constitutional, but set aside the conviction on appeal because of a legal technicality: the jury should have decided the fine, not the judge, since under the state constitution, Tennessee judges could not at that time set fines above $50, and the Butler Act specified a minimum fine of $100

The Aftermath After Scopes was convicted, creationists throughout the United States sought similar anti-evolution laws for their states.[42] By 1927, there were 13 states that considered some form of anti-evolution law. At least 41 bills or resolutions were introduced into the state legislatures, with some states facing the issue repeatedly. Nearly all of these efforts were rejected, but Mississippi and Arkansas did put anti-evolution laws on the books after the Scopes trial that would outlive the Butler Act The opponents of evolution made a transition from the anti-evolution crusade of the 1920s to the creation science movement of the 1960s. Despite some similarities between these two causes, the creation science movement represented a shift from overtly religious to covertly religious objections to evolutionary theory to raising what it claimed to be scientific evidence in support of a literal interpretation of the Bible. The neo-creationist intelligent design movement makes the claim that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."