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EVLOUTION
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One of the greatest trials in American history began in the quiet town of Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. Perhaps that was part of the reason that caused ‘the trial of the century’; the town was too quiet for some citizens of Dayton. The timing was right, the subject was controversial, and the actors were incredible. With these essential ingredients, a sensational trial, complete with first ever live media coverage, street entertainers, and great orators, the recipe was set for a trial that brought temporary fame to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Legendary criminal defense lawyer Clarence Darrow was pitted against famous Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan in a riveting courtroom drama that polarized the nation. This historic trial focuses Americans' attention on freedom of speech, separation of church and state and due process and brings to the surface issues that are still passionately debated today. What erupted here in the hot summer of 1925, and the many cases that followed as a result, have stirred up strong emotions of the American public. Many different verdicts have been rendered, but the question of whether evolution or creationism should be taught in the classroom and how has yet to be entirely answered by neither the American public nor the American judicial system. Both sides have sought protection from the courts; however it is extremely hard for the courts to solve this because neither side will accept an unfavorable ruling as a final judgment. Until the American public can come to an overall agreement, the fate of evolution and creationism in the classroom hangs in the balance. The history of evolution goes back much farther than the days of Charles Darwin. One could argue that this heated controversy began around 310 B.C. when philosopher Aristotle proposed that “each life form has its own static position that reflects its degree of perfection on a ladder of nature.” This view was again promoted around A.D. 350 when St. Augustine declared that “nothing is to be accepted save on the authority of the Scripture, since that authority is greater than all the power of the human mind.” The first opposition seemed to arise in 1543 when Nicolaus Copernicus described a heliocentric model of the solar system in his book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres). The famed Galileo was called before the Vatican‘s Holy Office in 1636 and called a heretic because he believed in the heliocentric solar system. He spent the last six years of his life under house arrest (instead of being put to death) after recanting his thoughts. In 1701 a British naturalist named John Ray wrote his book entitled Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. In his book he said that all living and nonliving things were “created by God at first, and by Him conserved to this Day in the same State and Condition in which they were first made.” Ray believed that organisms had always been the same, lived in the same places, and done the same things as when they were first created. To oppose this idea, in 1795, Scottish farmer and geologist James Hutton published his Theory of Earth, which became the basis for modern geology. In his book he claims that the features that the Earth has have been produced by natural forces like wind and water over long periods of time. As confirmed above, numerous views and ideas concerning some sort of idea involving evolution and creationism came about in the many years before Darwin. However, it is the specific notation of human beings evolving in the books entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection and The Decent of Man that ignites a whirlwind of debate between evolutionists and anti-evolutionists (coined “creationists” by Darwin) that persists long after the death of Darwin. In 1859 The Origin of Species was published and in 1871 The Decent of Man was published. As America emerged from World War I, a collective nostalgia swept the country for the relative simplicity and "normalcy" of prewar society . In rural areas, particularly in the South and Midwest, Americans turned to their faith for comfort and stability, and fundamentalist religion soared in popularity. Fundamentalists, who believed in a literal interpretation of the Bible, locked into Darwin and the theory of evolution as "the most present threat to the truth they were sure they alone possessed" (1). With evolution as the enemy, they set out to eradicate it from their society, beginning with the education system. Three-time presidential hopeful and Democrat, William Jennings Bryan, began to speak out against the theory of evolution and it’s negative impact upon society. Nevertheless, in 1916 The National Education Association endorsed the teaching of evolution in high school biology classes. In response, less than a year later calls began to circle around Kentucky to ban the teaching on evolution in public schools. The most famous anti-evolution law was narrowly passed into Tennessee legislation in January of 1925. John W. Butler wrote the bill (called the Butler Bill) which prohibited the teaching of evolution by a teacher in any pubic school or university. The ironic thing about the passed bill is that Governor Austin Peay, who signed the bill into law, never believed that the bill would actually be enforced. He would be proven wrong within a matter of weeks. In a small drugstore in Dayton, Dr. George Rappleyea gathered with a few of his friends and read the newspaper. There, recognizing a large ad placed in the newspaper by the ACLU (American Civil Liberities Union) requesting a Tennessee teacher to challenge the law so the ACLU could test the Butler Bill in court. In an attempt to revive Dayton’s struggling economy, he called his friend John Scopes, a teacher, to meet with them. He agreed to break this law. No one in the room could have grasped the maginitude of the history they were creating. Before the trial would be all over, John Scopes and his misdemeanor charge would be forgotten and the test for the guarantee of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech and the establishment of religion, the Fourteenth Amendment’s condition for personal liberty, along with academic freedom would be put into the limelight. In the days before the trial was set to begin, the usually uneventful streets of Dayton were submerged with vendors, apes and monkeys, midgets, money-based promotions, circus performers, and interested spectators. The town of Dayton basked in the glow of their newfound and temporary fame.
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Paper Information
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Title: EVLOUTION
Words: 5415
Rating: None
Pages: 21.7
submitted by: lacey14
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