DOCSLIB.ORG

II. the Aftermath of the Scopes Trial Randy Moore

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
II. the Aftermath of the Scopes Trial Randy Moore Secondin a Series Creationismin the United State II. The Aftermath of the Scopes Trial Randy Moore JUR011IY BTt lnt Q;0fQ k Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/60/8/568/48684/4450553.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 The 0at:prop1tTeda szr~et 4~ a ex.'~u anth**1atorwd im~~~~~~~.Th*bitA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ras~~~~~~~~ *f Dma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~wove~~.... , oiM"1OO It ......nicIa.x 'liglbIte ir 44 thVtta Figure 1. This front-page headline in the 23 July 1925 issue of The Dayton Heraldannounced that John Scopes had been convicted of teaching human evolution. The events and legend of Scopes' trial have influenced all subsequent aspects of the creationism/ evolution controversy. May the son of Charles Darwin send you one word of warm Thestate of Tennesseedoesn't rule the world yet.-Clarence Dar- encouragement.To state that which is true cannot be irreligious.- row, 17 July 1925. (Day 6 of the Scopes Trial) LeonardDarwin, in a letter to John Scopes, 1925 T HE Scopestrial, which was startedfor economic The Daytontrial is the beginningof a great battlebetween reasons and fostered for political ones, ended infidelity and Christianity ... This is the controversy of the age. abruptly on 21 July 1925 with the conviction of John Scopes (see Figure 1 above). On the day Others also issued statements.William Jennings Bryan after the verdict, The Dayton Herald(Tennessee) ran. announced that (de Camp 1968): a simple headline:"Jury Retums Verdict of 'Guilty' in ... I rejoicethat the followersof our Lord and Saviour Scopes Case." The accompanying story summarized Jesus Christare at last awakenedto the insidiousattacks many of the events associated with the trial, which whichhave been made, under cover of a scientifichypothesis, it described as "a world-watched, nation-wide upon the authorityof the Bible by unbelieversof every drama"that was "the bitterestlegal battle ever waged grade and class ... [Darrow] is the finished product of evolution- the most perfectthat has yet developedin the in the United States."'lAs Scopes helped visitors leave UnitedStates. He embodiesall that is cruel,heartless, and Dayton, legislator-tumed-corespondent John Butler destructivein evolution. (who had written the anti-evolutionstatute for which Scopes was convicted) reported that (de Camp 1968): And in a harsh anti-evolutionarysermon, Ben McKen- zie (the oldest of the prosecution lawyers) pro- 'During and after the trial, activists on both sides of the contro- claimed that: versy tried to exploit the public's interest in the issues. On the front page below the article accompanyingthe headline was an ad titled "Out of the Valley of the Forgotten"that announced a "new book on evolution of the human race." Inside the paper Randy Moore is Professorof Biology in the College of Arts& was "a call to arms" for "all men and boys ... who are not now Sciences, Universityof Louisville,Louisville, KY 40292; e-mail: attending any Sunday school ... to meet and [learn] more of [email protected]. God's word." 568 THEAMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 60, NO. 8, OCTOBER1998 The modern-dayevolutionist is an atheist,and if he is not $50,000 to lecture about evolution from a Vaudeville an atheisthe is an agnostic. stage; see Scopes 1989).As Scopes said 39 years after People everywhere began trying to decide who the trial (Tompkins 1965; Scopes & Presley 1967): "won" the trial (Scopes & Presley 1967). An Okla- Leastof all did I want to makea quickdollar out of my homa newspaper proclaimed that (Ginger 1958): experience;I had too much respectfor the issues involved in the trial ... I knew that none of these offers . .. could Mr. Bryan came out more than victorious.He made a give me two things I wanted above all else: peace and monkeyout of the defensecounsel and left themgasping. emotionalstability ... I couldnot live happilyin a spotlight. Others declared Bryan a hero, claiming that he had Within a year after the trial, Scopes was again sur- saved the children of Tennessee from the teaching rounded by anonymity; he would never again be of evolution (see discussion in Larson1997). However, significantlyinvolved in the issues that stormed about many disagreed; for example, The New York Times him during the summer of 1925 (Tompkins 1965). described William Jennings Bryan's performance as However, Scopes' trial would continue to influence "absurdly pathetic," and others declared that "Dar- the evolution/ creationism controversy. row's manhandlingof Bryanhad a shatteringimpact" (Ginger 1958). The Arkansas Gazette reported that: Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/60/8/568/48684/4450553.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 Bryan'sResponse to Darrow For the state of Tennessee,the Scopes trial has been a moral disaster. It will plague the citizen of Tennessee Darrow's questioning of Bryan at the Scopes trial whereverhe may go. was based on the assurance that Bryan would have H.L. Mencken (1925) wrote that: the same opportunity to question Darrow, Malone and Hays. However, local officials told Judge Raul- On theone side was bigotry,ignorance, hatred, superstition, ston that they could not guarantee Darrow's safety every sort of blacknessthat the human mind is capable of. On the other side was sense. And sense achieveda (Bryan 1925). This, combined with Darrow's request great victory. that Scopes be convicted (to provide the basis for an appeal to higher court),resulted in Judge Raulston As both sides claimed victory, editors of newspapers changing the course of the trial:he expunged Bryan's suchas TheNew YorkTimes, The New YorkEvening Post testimony from the trial's record and canceled the and Chicago Tribune predicted that the creationism/ plan for Bryan to question Darrow. The abrupt end evolution controversy would continue unabated of the trial (i.e., before Bryan could question Darrow) (Ended at last, 1925; As expected, Bryan wins, 1925; deprived Bryan of making his much-anticipatedclos- Dayton's "amazing" trial, 1925). They were all right. ing remarks to the court. Journalists and others at After the trial, the Rhea County School Board the trial were so interested in Bryan's remarks that offered to renew Scopes' contract for a year if he Bryan promised to prepare them for publication. would adhere "to the spirit of the evolution law" On the Thursday after the trial, Bryan suggested (Ginger 1958). Scopes rejectedthe offer and left town that his supportersestablish a college for young men to ponder his future.2Soon thereafterhe accepted a on one of the hills surroundingDayton. Bryan-who scholarship (offered by scientists and reporters who had greatly disappointed many fundamentaliststhree attended the trial) to attend graduate school at the days earlier when he took the witness chair as a University of Chicago in September of 1925, and "Bible expert" (Moore 1998a)4-pledged $50,000 for spent the rest of his life as a geologist who only the college and committed himself to raise the rest occasionally spoke in public about his trial (e.g., at of the money necessary to establish the college. For the 1960 world premiereof Inherit the Wind in Dayton, most of that Thursday, Bryan evaluated sites for the where he was given a parade and a key to the city; college that he had proposed.5Two days later, Bryan see Cornelius 1991).3In doing so, Scopes passed up spoke at the county fair in Winchester,TN, thereby many lucrative offers to cash in on his fame (e.g., fulfilling a promise to Attorney GeneralTom Stewart a New York agent offered Scopes $2,000 per week (who later became a U.S. Senator).When he returned to appear in Tarzan movies, and another offered him denounced Scopes as "the devil," and Scopes noted that teachers 2Not surprisingly,Scopes' successor (Raleigh Reece, a reporter were still required to sign a pledge that they would not teach from Nashville) was a strictfundamentalist (de Camp 1968;Ginger evolution (Scopes & Presley 1967). In 1972, Dayton hosted the 1958). George Rappleyea, who kept in touch with Scopes after world-premiereof The Darwin Adventure, a British-madefilm about the trial,noted with great amusementthat when Scopes' successor Charles Darwin's voyage aboard the H.M.S. Beagle. Francis W. missed the first week of classes in the Fall of 1925, his substitute Darwin (CharlesDarwin's great-grandson)was a special guest at was Darius Darwin (Scopes 1989). that premiere (Mercer1978; Cornelius 1991). 3Scopes' application for a fellowship was rejected because of 4Accordingto one writer, "As a man and a legend, Bryan was Scopes' godlessness (de Camp 1968). When Scopes returned to destroyed by his testimony that day." Jerry Falwell noted that Dayton for the premiereof Inheritthe Wind,"Scopes Sodas" were Bryan "lost the respect of Fundamentalistswhen he subscribed again priced at 15 cents, just as they were during the trial (Scopes to the idea of periods of time for creation rather than twenty- 1989; for more about Inherit the Wind, see Moore 1998a and four-hour days" (Falwell 1981). referencestherein). During Scopes'visit to Dayton, a local preacher 5Mostof the initial meeting to plan the university was devoted CREATIONISMIN THEU.S., PART11 569 to Chattanooga,Bryan visited a doctor, who warned Thepublic holds you personallyresponsible for endingthe him of diabetes and a heart condition, and recom- life of WilliamJennings Bryan. Mark my word,you are next. God will not permit[you] to live. mended that he rest for a few days. In Chattanooga, Bryanalso correctedproofs of his 15,000-wordspeech, Not surprisingly, anti-evolutionists made Bryan a which he hoped would ensure support for an anti- martyr. Fundamentalistscompared Bryan to Christ, evolution amendment to the U.S. Constitution,6and and Scopes' defense team to King Herod, Pontius maybe even lead to the formation of a new political Pilate, and other biblical villains (see discussion in party that would revive his faded hopes for the de Camp 1968).Governor Peay proclaimedthat Bryan presidency.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Scopes Trial, Antievolutionism, and the Last Crusade of William Jennings Bryan
    University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2012 Six Days of Twenty-Four Hours: the Scopes Trial, Antievolutionism, and the Last Crusade of William Jennings Bryan Kari Lynn Edwards Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Edwards, Kari Lynn, "Six Days of Twenty-Four Hours: the Scopes Trial, Antievolutionism, and the Last Crusade of William Jennings Bryan" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 96. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/96 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SIX DAYS OF TWENTY-FOUR HOURS: THE SCOPES TRIAL, ANTIEVOLUTIONISM, AND THE LAST CRUSADE OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Southern Studies The University of Mississippi by KARI EDWARDS May 2012 Copyright Kari Edwards 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT The academic study of the Scopes Trial has always been approached from a traditional legal interpretation. This project seeks to reframe the conventional arguments surrounding the trial, treating it instead as a significant religious event, one which not only altered the course of Christian Fundamentalism and the Creationist movement, but also perpetuated Southern religious stereotypes through the intense, and largely negative, nationwide publicity it attracted. Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan's crucial role is also redefined, with his denial of a strictly literal interpretation of Genesis during the trial serving as the impetus for the shift toward ultra- conservatism and young-earth Creationism within the movement after 1925.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes Edwards V. Aguillard: Creation Science and Evolution
    Notes Edwards v. Aguillard: Creation Science and Evolution - The Fall of Balanced Treatment Acts in the Public Schools "It took God only six days to create the universe - it's gonna take the court two weeks to decide if it should be taught."' I. INTRODUCTION Since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859,2 religious fundamentalists have waged war against the book's evolu- tionary teachings.' Recognizing that the courts will not allow the teaching of evolution to be suppressed,4 fundamentalists no longer 1. Statement by an anonymous observer at the Arkansas creation-evolution trial. D. NELKIN, THE CREATION CONTROVERSY - SCIENCE OR SCRIPTURE IN THE SCHOOLS 137 (1982). 2. The theory of evolution credited to Darwin (1809-1882) is that all forms of advanced life inhabiting the earth originated as lower forms of life, which ascended to their current status in a natural selection. Note, The Constitutional Issues Surrounding the Science-Religion Conflict in Public Schools: The Anti-Evolution Controversy, 10 PEPPERDINE L. REV. 461, 463 (1983). 3. "In 1925, fundamentalists and evolutionists first clashed in court at the crimi- nal trial of John Scopes. Scopes, a Tennessee schoolteacher, was convicted of violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution." Levit, Creationism, Evolution and the First Amendment: The Limits of ConstitutionallyPermissible Scientific Inquiry, 14 J.L. & EDUC. 211, 211 (1985). The law was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105, 289 S.W. 363 (1927). 4. Forty years after the Scopes trial, the United States Supreme Court held that the prohibition of the teaching of evolution violated the first amendment.
    [Show full text]
  • “Scopes Wasn't the First”: Nebraska's 1924 Anti-Evolution Trial
    “Scopes Wasn’t the First”: Nebraska’s 1924 Anti-Evolution Trial (Article begins on page 2 below.) This article is copyrighted by History Nebraska (formerly the Nebraska State Historical Society). You may download it for your personal use. For permission to re-use materials, or for photo ordering information, see: https://history.nebraska.gov/publications/re-use-nshs-materials Learn more about Nebraska History (and search articles) here: https://history.nebraska.gov/publications/nebraska-history-magazine History Nebraska members receive four issues of Nebraska History annually: https://history.nebraska.gov/get-involved/membership Full Citation: Adam Shapiro, “‘Scopes Wasn’t the First’: Nebraska’s 1924 Anti-Evolution Trial,” Nebraska History 94 (2013): 110-119 Article Summary: “Darwin and Genesis fought out a battle in District Judge Broady’s court in Lincoln,” reported the Fremont Tribune on October 22, 1924, “and . Genesis lost and Darwin won.” Nebraska had its own anti- evolution trial nearly seven months before the famous Scopes trial opened in Tennessee. But how did the Nebraska case remain obscure while the Tennessee case became a national sensation? Cataloging Information: Names: John Scopes, Charles Darwin, William Jennings Bryan, Charles W. Bryan, David S Domer, William A Klink, Charles William Taylor, Frank R Beers, Herbert Spencer, Charles Hodge Place Names: Dayton, Tennessee; Rising City, Butler County, Nebraska Keywords: evolution, Midland College, slander, Genesis, eugenics, (physical) disability, Four Minute Men, Siman Act,
    [Show full text]
  • The Scopes Trial: Who Decides What Gets Taught in the Classroom?
    CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION SPRING 2006B I L L O F R I G H T S I N A C VOLUTME 2I2 O NUMBN ER 2 The Scopes Trial: Who Decides What Gets Taught in the Classroom? One of the most famous trials in American history took place in a small town in Tennessee in 1925. On trial was a high-school teacher, John Scopes. The charge against him: teaching evolution. n July 10, 1925, hundreds of reporters gathered in Dayton, Tennessee. They were covering the trial of JOohn Scopes, a 24-year-old science teacher and part-time football coach. Scopes had been arrested for violating a Tennessee law that made it unlawful “to teach any theory that denies the Story of Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animal.” The Scopes trial riveted Attorney Clarence Darrow (standing on the right) questions the witness William national attention and is one of the most famous trials of Jennings Bryan in the Scopes trial. The judge had moved the trial outdoors the century. because he was afraid the floor might collapse. (Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7091, image #2005-26202) Evolution Versus Religion In 1859 in Great Britain, Charles Darwin published On the War I. The outcome of the war caused widespread disillusion - Origin of the Species . In his book, Darwin laid out evidence ment, and many were concerned about a perceived collapse in that living things had evolved from common ances - public morals. Fundamentalists shared a belief in biblical lit - W tors through a mechanism he called “natural selec - eralism.
    [Show full text]
  • Young-Earth Creationism, Creation Science, and the Evangelical Denial of Climate Change
    religions Article Revisiting the Scopes Trial: Young-Earth Creationism, Creation Science, and the Evangelical Denial of Climate Change K. L. Marshall New College, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH1 2LX, UK; [email protected] Abstract: In the century since the Scopes Trial, one of the most influential dogmas to shape American evangelicalism has been that of young-earth creationism. This article explains why, with its arm of “creation science,” young-earth creationism is a significant factor in evangelicals’ widespread denial of anthropogenic climate change. Young-earth creationism has become closely intertwined with doctrines such as the Bible’s divine authority and the Imago Dei, as well as with social issues such as abortion and euthanasia. Addressing this aspect of the environmental crisis among evangelicals will require a re-orientation of biblical authority so as to approach social issues through a hermeneutic that is able to acknowledge the reality and imminent threat of climate change. Citation: Marshall, K. L. 2021. Revisiting the Scopes Trial: Keywords: evangelicalism; creation science; young-earth creationism; climate change; Answers in Young-Earth Creationism, Creation Genesis; biblical literalism; biblical authority; Noahic flood; dispensational theology; fundamentalism Science, and the Evangelical Denial of Climate Change. Religions 12: 133. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020133 1. Introduction Academic Editors: Randall Balmer The 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial is often referenced as a metonymy for American and Edward Blum Protestantism’s fundamentalist-modernist controversy that erupted in the years following World War I. William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer and politician who argued in favor of Received: 25 January 2021 biblical creationism1—in keeping with his literal understanding of the narratives in Genesis Accepted: 12 February 2021 Published: 20 February 2021 1 and Genesis 2—was vindicated when the judge ruled that high school biology teacher John Scopes had indeed broken the law by teaching Darwinian evolution in a public school.
    [Show full text]
  • Scopes Trial
    Scopes Trial Lesson plans for primary sources at the Tennessee State Library & Archives Author: Kristy Sproles, Sullivan Central High School Grade Level: High School Date Created: May 2015, standards updated 2019 Visit www.tn.gov/tsla/educationoutreach for additional lesson plans. Introduction: Without a doubt, the question, “where do humans come from?” was asked long before Charles Darwin published Origin of Species in 1859. Yet throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty- first century, the debate amongst members of the scientific and religious communities has continued to be a divisive and widely debated topic. The Scopes “Monkey” Trial is perhaps one of the critical events of this controversy and one of the landmark legal decisions of the twentieth century. Guiding Questions: Who were the major figures of the Scopes Trial? What were the main arguments on both sides of the Scopes Trial? What was the outcome and the legacy of the Scopes Trial? Learning Objectives: The students will write a letter to the editor of the Chattanooga Daily Times based on the article, Plan Assault on State Law on Evolution. The students will make predictions on the outcome of the ACLU wanting to test the anti-evolution legislation in Tennessee in 1925. The students will research and create mock interviews of participants in the Scopes Trial to be per- formed in front of the class. The students will tell the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial through the use of primary sources. The students will be assessed through an essay test consisting of the three guiding questions directly linked to the Tennessee standard US.38.
    [Show full text]
  • Inherit the Myth: How William Jennings Bryan's Struggle with Social Darwinism and Legal Formalism Demythologize the Scopes Monkey Trial
    Campbell University School of Law Scholarly Repository @ Campbell University School of Law Scholarly Works Faculty Scholarship 2004 Inherit the Myth: How William Jennings Bryan's Struggle with Social Darwinism and Legal Formalism Demythologize the Scopes Monkey Trial Kevin P. Lee Campbell University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.campbell.edu/fac_sw Recommended Citation Kevin P. Lee, Inherit the Myth: How William Jennings Bryan's Struggle with Social Darwinism and Legal Formalism Demythologize the Scopes Monkey Trial, 33 Cap. U. L. Rev. 347 (2004). Available at: https://scholarship.law.campbell.edu/fac_sw/41 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Scholarly Repository @ Campbell University School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarly Works by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Repository @ Campbell University School of Law. INHERIT THE MYTH: HOW WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN'S STRUGGLE WITH SOCIAL DARWINISM AND LEGAL FORMALISM DEMYTHOLOGIZE THE SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL KEVIN P. LEE* The trial of John T. Scopes is an important milestone in the history of American legal thought. Known in the vernacular as the "Scopes Monkey Trial," the case took place in Dayton, Tennessee in the summer of 1925.1 It concerned a substitute high school biology teacher who was arrested and convicted for teaching evolutionary theory in violation of a Tennessee anti- evolution act.2 At the time, the trial was the most public confrontation between religious fundamentalism and modem science. By 1955, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee had written a play about the trial called Inherit the Wind,3 and film treatments of that play followed.4 These fictionalized accounts helped to create a mythic view of the case in popular culture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Scopes Trial
    Evolutionary Anthropology 16:126–131 (2007) CROTCHETS & QUIDDITIES The Scopes Trial ‘‘People, this is no circus. There are no monkeys up here. This is a lawsuit, let us have order.’’ Court Officer Rice KENNETH M. WEISS In 1925, the Dayton businessmen Would he be willing to stand trial to were not happy. Nothing ever hap- test the law? He agreed, though he pened in their sleepy town of less than couldn’t remember whether he had 2 2,000 souls. They wondered what actually taught the evolution sections they could do to get a little action or of Hunter (Fig. 2). They put ‘‘the Pro- maybe even a little notoriety, and the fessor’’ on trial for this offense, which money that came with it. Earlier in the carried a fine of between $100 and year, the state legislature had passed a $500. new law called the Butler Act; the To make the most of the occasion, townsmen seized an opportunity to they brought in a celebrity prosecutor turn the law into manna from heaven. who had been a leader in the struggle of The Butler Act, passed by the Ten- religion against evolution, the former nessee legislature, stated ‘‘That it shall Presidential candidate and Secretary of be unlawful for any teacher in any of State, William Jennings Bryan (Fig. 3). the Universities, Normals and all other That would ensure a conviction and public schools of the State which are would attract national media attention supported in whole or in part by the as well. In defending Scopes, the Ameri- public school funds of the State, to can Civil Liberties Union brought in a teach any theory that denies the story celebrity of their own, Clarence Darrow of the Divine Creation of man as (Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • MSS 419 SCOPES, John Thomas, 1900-1970
    Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® MSS Finding Aids Manuscripts 7-19-2012 Scopes, John Thomas, 1900-1970 (MSS 419) Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_mss_fin_aid Part of the Evolution Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Folklife Archives, Manuscripts &, "Scopes, John Thomas, 1900-1970 (MSS 419)" (2012). MSS Finding Aids. Paper 2174. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_mss_fin_aid/2174 This Finding Aid is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in MSS Finding Aids by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Special Collections Library Department of Library Special Collections Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 42101-1092 Descriptive Inventory MSS 419 SCOPES, John Thomas, 1900-1970 ½ box. 8 folders. 75 items. 1925-1982. Originals. SC2012.109.1 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE John Thomas Scopes was born on 3 August 1900 in Paducah, Kentucky. After graduation from high school in Salem, Illinois, he earned a law degree from the University of Kentucky in 1924. Scopes moved to Dayton, Tennessee and took a position coaching football at Rhea County High School. Having also filled in as a substitute biology teacher, Scopes agreed to stand as the defendant in a test case challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Butler Act, a 1925 law that prohibited the teaching of evolution. The defense team acting for Scopes included Clarence Darrow, the prominent attorney and civil libertarian, and Dudley Field Malone, an attorney and activist who made his primary living from divorce cases.
    [Show full text]
  • Science Vs. Religion
    VOLUME TEN NUMBER 2 High Court Revisits Church-State Debate by Barbara Sheehan More than 200 years since the Bill of Rights was ratified in America, our society and our courts continue to debate the intent of the First Amendment and the boundaries that exist between church and state. This can be seen in two recently decided U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning public displays of the Ten Commandments — which interestingly rendered opposite rulings on whether such displays are permissible under the U.S. Constitution. Church-state issues also came into play in East Brunswick last fall when a head football WINTER2006 coach resigned after he Lawsuits Delve into Science vs. Religion by Phyllis Raybin Emert developed from non-human single cells as the result of natural processes, which randomly happened over Since the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s The billions of years. New species were formed, according Origin of Species, there has been an ongoing debate to Darwin’s theory, by passing on characteristics that reportedly was asked to stop about the origins of life on earth. That debate pits were the result of natural selection, or survival of the leading his team in pre-game prayers. supporters of Darwin’s theory of evolution against fittest. Weaker species failed to survive and only the While that case was resolved out of religious creationists who believe the creation stories strong traits continued and ultimately evolved into court — and in fact the coach later as told in the Bible. human beings. returned to his position — it The argument has raged since the Scopes Monkey Creationists believe the Bible story of Genesis, which nonetheless brought to the forefront Trial in 1925 and has heated up in recent years with is that God created the earth in six days, about 6,000 the tension that exists when debating several lawsuits that seek to have intelligent design, to 10,000 years ago.
    [Show full text]
  • Epperson V. Arkansas, 393 US 97
    EPPERSON v. ARKANSAS. Syllabus. EPPERSON ET AL. V. ARKANSAS. APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF ARKANSAS. No. 7. Argued October 16, 1968.-Decided November 12, 1968. Appellant Epperson, an Arkansas public school teacher, brought this action for declaratory and injunctive relief challenging the constitutionality of Arkansas' "anti-evolution" statute. That statute makes it unlawful for a teacher in any state-supported school or university to teach or to use a textbook that teaches "that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animals." The State Chancery Court held the statute an abridg- ment of free speech violating the First and Fourteenth Amend- ments. The State Supreme Court, expressing no opinion as to whether the statute prohibits "explanation" of the theory or only teaching that the theory is true, reversed the Chancery Court. In a two-sentence opinion it sustained the statute as within the State's power to specify the public school curriculum. Held: The statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which embraces the First Amendment's prohibition of state laws respecting an estab- lishment of religion. Pp. 102-109. (a) The Court does not decide whether the statute is uncon- stitutionally vague, since, whether it is construed to prohibit explaining the Darwinian theory or teaching that it is true, the law conflicts with the Establishment Clause. Pp. 102-103. (b) The sole reason for the Arkansas law is that a particular religious group considers the evolution theory to conflict with the account of the origin of man set forth in the Book of Genesis. Pp. 103, 107-109. (c) The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.
    [Show full text]
  • Extremism and Evolution: Mencken on the Scopes Trial
    H. L. Mencken. A Religious Orgy in Tennessee: A Reporter's Account of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Introduction by Art Winslow. Hoboken: Melville House Publishing, 2006. xxii + 206 pp. $19.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-933633-17-6. Reviewed by Adam Laats Published on H-Education (June, 2011) Commissioned by Jonathan Anuik (University of Alberta) When the famous journalist H. L. (Henry Lippmann, the most famous name in Jazz Age Louis) Mencken alighted from his train in the American journalism. He did not come to Dayton small town of Dayton, Tennessee, in July 1925, he with an eye to evenhanded reporting. Rather, he expected to fnd a squalid backwater. Instead, he hoped to use his fame and talent to assist in the discovered “a country town full of charm and decapitation of the viper of Protestant fundamen‐ even beauty” (p. 29). His assessment of the town talism. To a great extent, he succeeded. The image did not dull his caustic pen as he reported on the of both the Scopes trial and of fundamentalism, in events of the Scopes trial. The town, Mencken re‐ both academic historiography and popular cul‐ ported, was plagued by its population of “yokels,” ture, remained mired for decades in the partisan “hillbillies,” and “the lower orders,” and “igno‐ stereotype Mencken described. rant,” “dishonest,” “cowardly,” “ignoble,” and “im‐ Due to his lasting influence, this new collec‐ mortal vermin” (pp. 11-13, 45, 62). Mencken had tion of Mencken’s Scopes trial reporting is a wel‐ reluctantly abandoned the civilized environs of come addition. It collects seventeen short pieces, Baltimore to report frsthand on the latest “Trial fifteen from the Baltimore Evening Sun, one that of the Century.” At issue in the Scopes trial was a appeared in The Nation, and one from the Menck‐ recent Tennessee law that had prohibited the en-founded American Mercury.
    [Show full text]