The History

John T. Scopes, the schoolteacher who became the center of the furor in 1925 was not a political activist. He was not even a science teacher.

John Thomas Scopes.

Scopes was born in 1900 on a farm in Paducah, Kentucky where he was reared before moving to Danville, Illinois as a teenager. In 1917 he moved to Salem, Illinois where he was a member of the class of 1919 at Salem High School. He attended the University of Illinois for a short time before leaving for health reasons. He earned a degree at the University of Kentucky in 1924, with a major in law and a minor in geology. Scopes moved to Dayton where he took a job as the Rhea County High School's football coach and occasionally filled in as substitute teacher when regular members of the staff were off work. Scopes's involvement in the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial came about after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it would finance a test case challenging the constitutionality of the Butler Act if they could find a Tennessee teacher willing to act as a defendant. A band of businessmen in Dayton, Tennessee, led by engineer and geologist George Rappleyea, saw this as an opportunity to get publicity for their town and approached Scopes. Rappleyea pointed out that while the Butler Act prohibited the teaching of human evolution, the state required teachers to use the assigned textbook, Hunter's Civic Biology (1914), which included a chapter on evolution. Rappleyea argued that teachers were essentially required to break the law. When asked about the test case, Scopes was initially reluctant to get involved, but after some discussion he told the group gathered in Robinson's Drugstore, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial."

This year’s 28th annual Scopes Festival in Dayton, TN (July 15-17) will be taking a closer look at John Scopes. His grand-nieces will be there to share history and photographs.

Another special guest will be Susan Epperson, whose challenge of an Arkansas law prohibiting teaching evolution in public schools was decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1968. Mrs. Epperson taught biology at Little Rock Central High School and challenged the constitutionality of the law after a biology textbook containing a chapter on evolution was adopted for the 1965-66 school year. In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that the Arkansas law, which had been modeled after Tennessee’ Butler Act, violated the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause and was therefore unconstitutional. Courts have since held that teaching creation science is unconstitutional in a number of cases.

PBS’ “American Experience” produced a documentary called “Monkey Trial” in 2002. (full transcript)

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The town of Dayton became the center of a media circus, and was mocked in

Evolution in Tennessee

cartoons of the time.

The first panel, labeled "Five Months Ago," shows a scruffy mountain man labeled "Dayton" asleep against the trunk of a mighty oak. The second panel, labeled "Today," shows the same man as a giant, all spruced up in a new suit and hat, speaking into an enormous microphone, saying "This is the life!" He is surrounded by photographers and reporters. The mighty oak has been reduced to a tiny tree.

Popular music also spread word of the trial and addressed the issues.

The Scopes trial challenged the fundamental beliefs of some Americans, who responded with outrage -- and humor. Some wrote songs defending their religious convictions, championing William Jennings Bryan, and mocking the idea that humans could have descended from apes.

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Monkey Out of Me

Here is a stand On the origins of man Some can trace a name To the family tree But for me, I'm content With the blessed Bible plan And you can't make a monkey out of me. Chorus: You can't make a monkey out of me. (Oh, no.) You can't make a monkey out of me. (No, no.) I am human through and through. All my aunts and uncles too. And you can't make a monkey out of me.

Can't Make a Monkey of Me

We're in a revolution just over evolution. The battle of ages is on. Some scientists have claimed We're human just by name,

That monkeys and men are the same. But Darwin's theory doesn't sound good to me. I might have monkey manners But with him I can't agree. You can't make a monkey of me. You can't make a monkey of me. There's not a monkey in my family tree. I've searched on each branch from Adam to me.

I am inclined to believe

The story of Adam and Eve. There's no chimpanzee In my pedigree. And you can't make a monkey of me.

William Jennings Bryan, was quoted:

“All the ills from which America suffers can be traced to the teaching of evolution”

Bryan, known as “"The Great Commoner” ran for President three times, and lost.

He was one of the most admired orators of his time, and generations later we still study his “ Cross of Gold ” speech. Though he advocated for populist positions, opposed big banks and was a pacifist, his anti-evolution position bordered on the fanatical

By 1920, Bryan identified evolution as “the most paralyzing influence with which civilization has had to contend during the last century.” The next year, he stepped to prominence on the issue when he published a full-fledged attack on evolution in a pamphlet, “The Menace of Darwinism.” In his pamphlet, distributed throughout the country, Bryan warned, “Under the pretense of teaching science, instructors who draw their salaries from the public treasury are undermining the religious faith of students by substituting belief in Darwinism for belief in the Bible.” He argued that persons “who worship brute ancestors” should “build their own colleges and employ their own teachers” rather than use the public schools to preach their “godless doctrine.” For Bryan, opposition to the teaching of evolution sprung almost as much from his deep-seated majoritarian instincts as from his worries about the “consummately dangerous” theory. The Great Commoner’s increasingly fevered attacks on evolution seemed to strike a chord, especially in the South where fundamentalism and democratic values predominated. Bryan expressed satisfaction with his support, and complaint about Darwinists, in a letter to a friend: “In this controversy, I have a larger majority on my side than in any previous controversy, and I have more intolerant opponents than I have ever had in politics.”

Several decades after the trial it became the basis for the play and film “Inherit the Wind”

Inherit the Wind is a 1960 Hollywood film adaptation of the 1955 play of the same name, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, directed by Stanley Kramer.It stars Spencer Tracy as lawyer Henry Drummond and Fredric March as his friend and rival Matthew Harrison Brady, also featuring Gene Kelly, Dick York, Harry Morgan, Donna Anderson, Claude Akins, Noah Beery, Jr., Florence Eldridge, and Jimmy Boyd. The script was adapted by Nedrick Young (originally as Nathan E. Douglas) and Harold Jacob Smith. Stanley Kramer was commended for bringing in writer Nedrick Young, as the latter was blacklisted. Inherit the Wind is a parable that fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial as a means to discuss McCarthyism. Written in response to the chilling effect of the McCarthy era investigations on intellectual discourse, the play (and film) are critical of creationism.

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Transcript of Spencer Tracy’s speech as “ Henry Drummond”, the Clarence Darrow role. From imbd

Judge: [after Drummond asks the judge for permission to withdraw form the case] Colonel Drummond, what reasons can you possibly have? Henry Drummond: [Indicates the crowd] Well, there are two hundred of them. [Crowd reacts angrily] Henry Drummond: And if that's not enough there's one more. I think my client has already been found guilty. Matthew Harrison Brady: [Rises] Is Mr. Drummond saying that this expression of an honest emotion will in any way influence the court's impartial administration of the law? Henry Drummond: I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy, you can only punish. And I warn you, that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys every one it touches. Its upholders as well as its defiers. Judge: Colonel Drummond... Henry Drummond: Can't you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we'll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind! Judge: I hope counsel does not mean to imply that this court is bigoted. Henry Drummond: Well, your honor has the right to hope. Judge: I have the right to do more than that. Henry Drummond: You have the power to do more than that. [the Judge holds Drummond in contempt of court]

Here are Darrow’s words from day two of the trial:

Darrow - If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the minds of men. If you can do one you can do the other. Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding. Always it is feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers,tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lectures, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After while, your honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind.

There are days when I watch the news in horror, seeing Republicans making that attempt to hurl us backwards, and even more horrified by those who embrace the nightmare, ready and willing to vote for them. Our votes will be the key, the firewall to hold back the madness. We should also support groups like The National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Their mission:

NCSE defends the integrity of science education against ideological interference. We work with teachers, parents, scientists, and concerned citizens at the local, state, and national levels to ensure that topics including evolution and climate change are taught accurately, honestly, and confidently.

NCSE has listed ten major court cases about evolution and creationism

The last one listed is:

10.On December 20, 2005, in Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover, U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III ordered the Dover Area School Board to refrain from maintaining an Intelligent Design Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District. The ID policy included a statement in the science curriculum that "students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's Theory and other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design." Teachers were also required to announce to their biology classes that "Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view. The reference book Of Pandas and People is available for students to see if they would like to explore this view in an effort to gain an understanding of what Intelligent Design actually involves. As is true with any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind". In his 139-page ruling, Judge Jones wrote it was "abundantly clear that the Board's ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause". Furthermore, Judge Jones ruled that "ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents". In reference to whether Intelligent Design is science Judge Jones wrote ID "is not science and cannot be adjudged a valid, accepted scientific theory as it has failed to publish in peer-reviewed journals, engage in research and testing, and gain acceptance in the scientific community". This was the first challenge to the constitutionality of teaching "intelligent design" in the public school science classroom. (Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al., Case No. 04cv2688)

That case became the subject of this Nova production.

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In this two-hour special, NOVA captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in one of the latest battles over teaching evolution in public schools. Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants, including expert scientists and Dover parents, teachers, and town officials, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" follows the celebrated federal case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District. This program was coproduced with Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Productions, Inc. In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students suggesting that there is an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution called intelligent design–the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and therefore must have been designed by an intelligent agent. The teachers refused to comply. Later, parents opposed to intelligent design filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. "There was a blow-up like you couldn't believe," Bill Buckingham, head of the school board's curriculum committee, tells NOVA. Buckingham helped formulate the intelligent-design policy when he noticed that the biology textbook chosen by teachers for classroom use was, in his words, "laced with Darwinism." ... U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III ultimately decided for the plaintiffs, writing in his decision that intelligent design "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." As part of his decision, Judge Jones ordered the Dover school board to pay legal fees and damages, which were eventually set at $1 million. The BBC also produced a documentary on this subject.

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A War on Science

Throughout the 20th century Christian groups resisted the theory of evolution. Many US states did not teach it until 1968 when the Supreme Court ruled that banning the teaching of evolution contravened the first amendment of the constitution of America, the separation of church and state. It was however still legal to teach religion as part of science class until the Edwards vs. Aguillard case in 1987, where mentioning a theory called 'creation science' in biology lessons was also deemed unconstitutional. This left evolution as the only theory of biological origin that science teachers were allowed to teach. In 2005, the school board of Dover, a small farming community in western Pennsylvania, became the first in America to adopt the theory of intelligent design. The move divided the community and the small town became the centre of national attention. The school board voted to teach the ninth grade biology class that there are gaps and problems with the theory of evolution and to present intelligent design as an alternative. Dover science teacher Bryan Rehm and his wife Christy believed that this new policy was not only anti-science, but religious and therefore unconstitutional. By promoting religion it was a violation of the law passed in 1987. The Rehms and nine other parents and teachers filed a law suit against the school board. Neighbour was pitted against neighbour in the first legal challenge to intelligent design. After 40 days of trial, Judge John E Jones III ruled against the school board, stating: "We have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." Evolution supporters heralded this victory as the damning blow to the intelligent design movement. However, as history shows, law suits have little effect on the support for creationism in a country where over 50% of citizens believe that God created humans in their present form, the way the bible describes it.*

Back in February, on Darwin Day, PEW published “5 facts about the evolution debate.” What stood out for me was this:

A quarter of U.S. adults (25%) say evolution was guided by a supreme being. The same survey found that 34% of Americans reject evolution entirely, saying humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

They have examined the role played by religion, race, ethnicity and education on how evolution is viewed by the public. PEW also posted data on party affiliation and belief in evolution in 2014 — and noted some puzzling information about Republicans:

Significantly fewer Republicans believe in evolution than did so four years ago, setting them apart from Democrats and independents, according to a recent Pew Research Center study.

The most recent polling from Gallup on this issue is from 2014:

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than four in 10 Americans continue to believe that God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago, a view that has changed little over the past three decades. Half of Americans believe humans evolved, with the majority of these saying God guided the evolutionary process. However, the percentage who say God was not involved is rising. This latest update is from Gallup's Values and Beliefs survey conducted May 8-11. Gallup first asked the three-part question about human origins in 1982. The percentage of the U.S. population choosing the creationist perspective as closest to their own view has fluctuated in a narrow range between 40% and 47% since the question's inception. There is little indication of a sustained downward trend in the proportion of the U.S. population who hold a creationist view of human origins. At the same time, the percentage of Americans who adhere to a strict secularist viewpoint -- that humans evolved over time, with God having no part in this process -- has doubled since 1999.

Since I teach comparative religion/mythology as a cultural anthropologist, and am also a practitioner of a persecuted spiritual tradition, I have no issue with people who belong to a particular faith/spiritual community, or with those who are agnostic or atheist. I am not here to bash or promote any culture.

What is at issue, imho, is the current political manipulation of adherents by right-wing politicians and groups who want to meddle with curricula and deny science. Groups like Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE) in Kansas have recently (thankfully) lost court battles.

A Kansas-based creationist group has lost a legal challenge to science education standards in public schools. Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE) filed suit against the Kansas Board of Education in 2013 to block implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards because, COPE asserted, they encouraged schools to promote atheism to children.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this argument on Monday. According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, the court ruled that COPE did not have standing to challenge the standards. The group has not yet indicated if it will appeal that ruling. It’s a second blow for COPE. In 2014, a district court judge tossed its original complaint, finding that their claims had no merit – with good reason. COPE’s claims are nothing if not novel. In its original suit, the group complained that the standards, which have been adopted by 26 states, encourage teachers to take children “into the religious sphere by leading them to ask ultimate religious questions like what is the cause and nature of life and the universe – ‘where do we come from?’” Continued COPE, “The purpose of the indoctrination is to establish the religious Worldview, not to deliver to an age appropriate audience an objective and religiously neutral origins science education that seeks to inform.” COPE also seems to believe that because the standards teach students that evolution is fact – something, by the way, that mainstream scientists do not doubt – Kansas schoolchildren will be subtly manipulated into rejecting their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I’d like to thank organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State— where this article was posted—for continuing the battle to keep creationism out of the classroom.

The ACLU took on the initial test case, and over 90 years later is still defending the teaching of evolution.

In addition to the serious harm caused to science education, the use of public schools to advance religious ideology infringes on the constitutional rights of every student to be free from government-imposed religious indoctrination. As long as the pro-creationist and anti-science crusaders seek to subvert the First Amendment by injecting their religious viewpoint into our public school curricula, the ACLU will relentlessly push back.

Let’s push forward together!