The Scopes Monkey Trial - Part 1

-- The Scopes Monkey Trial #Destination1925 --

This is Part 1 of a three part series.  The first two are from my article on the Scopes Trial from Origins Research associated with Access Research Network:

https://arn.org/

Part 3 will contain my current thoughts on the topic.  ARN was one of the pioneer proponents of Intelligent Design #ID

 

“The Scopes Trial and After,” Origins Research (later Origins & Design), Vol. 2, No. 2, Sep-Oct 1979, pp. 5,6.

 

The well publicized Scopes trial was a highly significant event in the creation-evolution controversy. This trial occurred in Dayton, Tennessee in the overheated summer of 1925. The clash between prosecutor William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow is remembered, but the fact that the purpose of the trial was to determine whether or not Scopes taught evolution is often forgotten. 

William Jennings Bryan, a Presbyterian, was the leading spokesman for fundamentalism. After 1920 he turned from politics to fight evolution. Bryan felt that the teaching of evolution in public schools would make students lose faith in God. One survey taken in Bryan's time indicated that 15% of the students were unbelievers before college, but the percentage rose to 40% after graduation.[1]  Bryan attributed this to Darwin's theory, which was widely taught in colleges and universities.  He contended that instruction in evolution should not take place in public schools for the reason that most of the public were not evolutionists.  According to Bryan, "The hand that writes the paycheck rules the school."[2]  During 1922, In His Image was published containing Bryan's criticism of evolution. He possessed several honorary degrees, but he wasn't knowledgeable in science. Reason was inferior to faith by Bryan's standards. He put his faith into action when he offered $100 to anyone who would admit he was descended from apes and a university professor took advantage of the challenge.  Bryan was a 65 year old man with poor health at the time of the Scopes trial.  Another weakness of Bryan in opposing Darrow was that he had not tried a case in 25 years.  Clarence Darrow, a famous criminal lawyer, was chief counsel for the defense.  

In contrast to Bryan, Darrow was an agnostic and didn't believe the Bible, although he had read it.  He donated his services to Scopes because he wanted to debate Bryan.

 

-- The Butler Act --

The Tennessee law that Scopes was accused of breaking was the Butler Act. Nearly half of the states had such an anti-evolution bill introduced to their legislatures.  Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Mississippi passed these bills into law. John Washington Butler was the legislator who introduced the bill to prohibit the teaching of evolution in schools. Butler's interest in this issue started when he heard of a woman in his neighborhood and went to a university and as a result she became an evolutionist.  

In March of 1925 the Butler Act was signed into law. The bill passed partly due to the legislators' fear of being known as Bible haters. The act forbade the teaching of "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" in public school.[3]  Governor Austin Peay predicted that "Probably the bill will never be applied" as he signed the Butler Act.[4]

 

-- ACLU Test Case --

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) considered the Butler Act to be a prohibition of scientific teaching in schools; therefore, it was willing to finance the defense in a test case.  In May of 1925 inside Frank Robinson's drugstore, George Rappleyea, a Dayton businessman, suggested to Walter White, Superintendent of Rhea county schools, where Dayton was the county seat, that there should be a test case for the Butler Act.  They decided that the defendant ought to be John Thomas Scopes and had him brought to the drugstore for questioning.  

Scopes declared that he taught biology as a substitute teacher, that the text explained evolution, and that evolution needs to be presented in a biology class.  They told Scopes about the anti-evolution law in addition to the part they wanted him to play in the test case.  Scopes freely volunteered to become involved.  In the course of July 10-21, 1925 at the Rhea county courthouse in Dayton the Scopes trial proceeded.  The trial attracted preachers, revivalists, religious orators, propagandists, salesmen and extravagant publicity.

Dayton store owner J.R. Darwin had unique signs on the front of his building: "DARWIN IS RIGHT inside" and "GIVE US A FAIR TRIAL."[5]  Bryan invited Alfred W. McCann, author of God or Gorilla?, to come testify, but he refused because he condemned the Butler Act's restrictive nature.  Bryan also attempted to contact George M. Price, creationist and Flood geologist, but he was out of reach in England.

 

-- The Trial Begins --

On Monday the 13th, Darrow showed how the law contradicted religious liberty by favoring Genesis.  The next day, Attorney General A.T. Stewart of the prosecution noted that the reason for the trial was not to debate religion and science, but rather to determine if a teacher taught a theory prohibited by law.  

On Wednesday, the defense claimed that Scopes was accused of two acts; teaching an idea that denied the Genesis account of man's origin and teaching that man is descended from lower animals.  The defense pointed to the statistic that millions believe both the Bible and evolution.  Some of Scope's students then testified that he taught evolution.  The following day a debate took place to decide if scientists and theologians could testify.  During Friday's session Judge John Raulston ruled that there was only one crime described in the Butler Act, not two.  The two parts of the act simply explained each other; therefore, experts were not needed to interpret the law.  

On the evening of Sunday the 19th Kirtley Mather, a geologist and defense witness, acted out the role of Bryan as Darrow asked questions trying to point out faults in the Bible.  On Monday the judge allowed defense attorney Arthur Hays to read written statements of experts.  In one statement Nebraska Man was presented as a "missing link."  Bryan protested the evidence since it was based on a single tooth.  A later discovery revealed that it was an extinct pig's tooth.  According to the testimony of Kirtley Mather, "There are in fact no missing links in the record which connects man with other members of the Order Primates."[6]  Although [some would claim] that was an absurd statement, he couldn't be accused of perjury because he was giving his opinion.

 

-- Darrow Questions Bryan --

At this point, weather and safety conditions required the trial to move outside. After more statements were read, the defense called Bryan to witness as a student of the Bible.  It could be argued that a lawyer on one side calling an opposing lawyer to witness was not legal; nevertheless, the judge permitted it considering that Bryan had no objections.  At the climax of the trial there were about two thousand spectators.  

Darrow asked Bryan questions about Jonah and the whale, Joshua's long day, the Flood, early civilizations, comparative religion, the Tower of Babel, philology, the earth's age, Adam's rib, Cain's wife, the days of creation, and the tempting serpent.  Bryan confessed his lack of knowledge on most of the questions.  He said the wrong thing by asserting, "I don't think about things I don't think about."  Darrow asked, "Do you think about things you do think about?" Bryan replied, "Well, sometimes."[7]  Attorney General Stewart objected several times, but the judge let the interrogation continue.  When Bryan said he thought highly of geologist George M. Price, Darrow described Price as a pretender.  After admitting his ignorance for yet another time, Bryan rose to his feet to proclaim, "The only purpose Mr. Darrow has is to slur at the Bible."  In reply Darrow said, "I am examining you on your fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes."[8]  They shook their fists at each other. A little more confusion could have caused a riot; consequently, court was adjourned.  A crowd followed Darrow as he left the scene, but Bryan was mostly ignored.  According to a defense statement, Darrow wanted to prove that Genesis couldn't be taken literally by a reasonable man and that Bryan was ignorant in matters of science as well as theology.  Bryan had hoped in vain for a chance to question Darrow.  On Tuesday the jury, which had been barred from the expert testimony, was brought into the courtroom and found Scopes guilty.  Judge Raulston imposed a $100 fine.  Afterwards the case was dismissed in a higher court since the judge imposed the fine instead of the jury.

 

-- Media Response --

The press presented a dim view of Bryan.  As Robert Linder states, "Research indicates that the majority of those who reported the Scopes trial went out of their way to cast Bryan in the role of an ignorant fanatic and bigot."[9]  

In the editorials of the New York Times Bryan was called "prodigiously ignorant" and a man with "a poorly furnished brain-room."[10]  H.L. Mencken of the Baltimore Sun said "Nobody gives a damn about that yap schoolteacher.  The thing to do is make a fool out of Bryan."[11]  Bryan was misquoted in many reports.  The New York Times claimed that Bryan said he would put the Bible in the Constitution and urge passage of an anti-evolution amendment if he lost in Dayton.  What he actually said was that he would carry the fight to the people if he lost.  A correction appeared days later.  Bryan died on July 26, 1925 partly because of the strain during the trial.  As Mencken proclaimed, "we killed the son of a bitch."[12]

 

REFERENCES

1) L. Sprague de Camp, The Great Monkey Trial (Doubleday, Garden City, New York: 1968), p.41.

2) Richard Hofstader, Anti-Intellectualism in American

Life (Alfred Knopf, New York: 1974), p.129.

3) Fredrick L. Allen, Only Yesterday (Harper and Row, New York: 1964), p. 167. 4) John A. Garraty, The American Nation (Harper and Row, New York: 1966), p. 687.

5) Fredrick L. Allen, I Remember Distinctly (Harper and Brothers, New York: 1947), p.93.

6) Quoted by Bolton Davidheiser, “The Scopes Trial,” in A Symposium on Creation III, Donald Patten ed. (Baker Book House; Grand Rapids, Mich.: 1971), p.108.

7) deCamp, p.390.

8) deCamp, p.409.

9) Robert D. Linder, “Fifty Years After Scopes: Lessons to Learn, A Heritage to Reclaim,” Christianity Today, July 18, 1975, p.8.

10) Linder.

11) Jonathan Daniels, The Time Between the Wars (Doubleday, Garden City, New York: 1966), p.141.

12) Daniels, p.142.

 

my site: https://totalyouth.us

 

#Scopes_Monkey_Trial #Destination1925 #ScopesTrial #Origins_Research #Origins #Genesis #Mk10_6 #Access_Research_Network #Goleta #Santa_Barbara #UCSB #arn #Intelligent_Design #ID #Phillip_Johnson #Darwin_on_Trial #evo #Crevo #Destiny ↑ #Origins&Design #ScopeZ  #controversy #YoungEarth #Young_Earth_Science #YES #trial #Dayton  #Tennessee #Year1925 #WilliamJenningsBryan #WJB #Clarence_Darrow #History #His_Story ╬

Crevo – James Montgomery Boice

The host of the Bible Study Hour, James Montgomery Boice (d. 2000), produced a fascinating video series on Creation or Evolution?  Boice had one of the greatest radio preacher voices of all time.  Those who

don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.  This video series helps us understand why so many Christians tolerate progressive creation (God created over long ages).  Boice takes a strong stance against theistic evolution.  The Gap Theory is also discussed.

One wonders if Boice read Starlight and Time by Russell Humphreys which uses relativity to deal with the light travel issue (if stars are billions of light years away, how can Earth be young?).  Humphreys’ book came out in 1994.

Most traditional creationists place creation around 4000 BC (Ussher was close).  Boice says that creationists claim the world is between 12K to 20K years old.   

Boice brings up the topic of fossil order as a challenge to Flood Geology, specifically plant fossils.  The vertical arrangement of plant fossils does not necessarily teach us the story of evolution.  As Robert Spicer explains,

Both fluid and biological sorting of potential plant megafossils during transport and deposition processes produce a pattern that has previously been overlooked. ... Vertical differences in species composition need not necessarily reflect temporal changes in vegetation. [1]

The two-dimensional nature of plant materials (leaves, some seeds etc.), changes in density (e.g. waterlogging), fragmentation and bacterial decay are issues that models of depositional sorting must consider.  This is very consistent with a Global Flood.

Henry Morris provides 64 biblical reasons for the global nature of the Flood and 36 scientific, historical and cultural arguments. [2]  Boice, though not holding to all the tenets of Flood Geology, held that much geologic data “must be explained by a flood of worldwide dimensions.” [3]  He also said that, “a flood of that duration [377 days] is not a local flood!” [4]  Boice wrote a whole chapter on Flood Traditions and concluded that, “Hundreds of flood stories abound throughout the world in various cultures and are therefore evidence not merely of the historicity of the flood but of its universal extent.” [5]  John Byl rightly states, “… since animals were originally vegetarian, there was no animal death before Adam’s fall.  Thus all animal fossils must post-date Adam’s fall.”  Once one accepts a Global Flood, such as ID leader William Dembski, Young Earth Science (YES) is not far behind. 

We heard Dr. Boice in Oklahoma City just a few blocks away and a few days before the bombing of the Federal Building.  Boice’s legacy includes his influential work with Bible Study Fellowship.

Notes:

1)  "The Importance of Depostional Sorting to the Biostratigraphy of Plant Megafossils" by Robert Spicer in Biostratigraphy of Fossil Plants ed. by David Dilcher and Thomas Taylor (Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, Stroudsburg, PA, 1980), pp. 171, 181, emphasis added.

2)  The Genesis Record by Henry Morris, (Baker Book House, 1976, Grand Rapids, MI), pp. 199-205, pp. 683-686. 

3)  Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Vol. 1) by James M. Boice, (Baker Books, 1998, Grand Rapids, MI), p. 366. 

4)  Ibid., p. 349, emphasis in original. 

5)  Ibid., pp. 354, 355.  

James Hutton and the Lost Preface

              *** UPDATE ***

Be sure to catch our latest video.  We tackle a potpourri of topics:  Thunder & C-14, Tree Rings & Ammonites,  Norman Macbeth (Darwin Retried), OMNI magazine & censorship ... #Rubio #NormanMacbeth #Darwin #AltMed #TreeRings

James Hutton, the Father of Deep Time, wrote a preface to his Theory of the Earth (1788 and 1795) that was not published until 1975!  Although Hutton was a Deist and rejected Genesis, he held that man has been on this planet for only thousands of years‼ [1]   So, in one sense, Hutton supported Young Earth Science (YES). 

Hutton’s title for the preface is “Memorial justifying the present Theory of the Earth from the suspicion of impiety.”  Hutton understood that his innovations contradict Moses.

Hutton begins his preface as follows:

It belongs to religion to teach, that God made all things with creative power; that perfect wisdom had then presided in the election of ends & means, and that nothing is done without the most benevolent intention. But it belongs not to religion to give a history of nature, or to inform mankind of those things which actually are; it belongs not to religion, to teach that natural order of events, which man, in his science, may be able to unfold, and, in the wise system of intellect, find means to ascertain. The object of revelation and that of natural philosophy being thus perfectly different, it must be absurd to suppose that these can truly interfere; as this may only happen in supposing them not strictly adhering to their respective subjects and one or other of them as not being just. [2]

Notice how this is similar to Stephen Jay Gould’s NOMA position (Nonoverlapping Magisteria).

Hutton shows genuine candor in his preface:

… which of those two contradictory doctrines [“science v. religion”] should be of the highest authority, or command belief: the one is supposed to be divine revelation, the other to be the produce of natural philosophy. Such a question will not appear strange to a person who is truly pious, who acknowledges that all faculties are given him from above, that the laws of nature are true & steady as their author, and that man, made after the image of God, has been ordained to read the wisdom of his author in his works.

lt may perhaps he alledged, that as, from the fallibility of human reasoning, a physical disquisition may he erroneous, revelation, proceeding from a source which cannot err, should not only be reverenced as sacred, but must be received without dispute, and stand unaffected by every authority which is precarious.… it is not here meant either to impeach the authenticity of revelation, or to defend the fallibility of philosophic reasoning; these two things, as sources of human information, can only be compared properly when each, in its kind, is considered as perfect. [3]

Science is “perfect?”  Hutton capitalizes God, but not Author (hmm …). Science is based on fallible human reasoning.

Hutton gives this shocking admission:

It must be evident that if there be in the author of nature truth and in the author of men benevolence, the word of God, whether revealed by the common faculties of man, or given to human understanding in a preternatural [outside of nature] manner, must be always one.  Consequently it were impious to suppose that either one or other of those two different means of information had superior authority or that the proper result of each had not an equal right to be believed. [4]

Is Mother Nature the 67^th book of the Bible??  Where have I heard that before?

Hutton goes on,

The christian religion is founded upon what is contained in the ancient Jewish writings; and in those writings we find something which seems to have the appearance of natural history. But that this is not truly so, or, at least, that such a part of natural history has no concern whatever with the present theory of the earth, will appear from the following considerations. The mosaic history of the creation, in giving a most succinct account of the order in which things were made, contains no chronological description of the beginning of things, or such as might apply to our measure of time, which is by days & years. This will appear by considering, that the sun, by which we measure our time, was not formed until the fourth distinguished period of the creation; and that it would be unreasonable, or no less than absurd, to suppose the term Day, by which each of those periods is expressed, in this Jewish history, means any thing besides an indefinite period, or means any more than to signify that God made all things in a certain order. [5]

Hutton does not capitalize Christian or Mosaic.  Genesis clearly does give a natural history.  About sixteen centuries after Creation Week this globe was destroyed by a worldwide catastrophe (Gen. 9:11).  The Genesis days are real days (Ex. 20:11).

Hutton claimed that his theory, “… does not in any respect interfere with chronology of the Old Testament.” [6]  Genesis chapters 5 and 11 provide an accurate chronology that validates Young Earth Science (YES).

The Great Lisbon Earthquake (1755) occurred in Hutton’s time.  The earthquake and the associated tsunami almost destroyed Lisbon and the surrounding regions.  Seismologists estimate a magnitude 8.5 to 9 for this quake.  Despite such events, Hutton veered away from catastrophism.  Catastrophism is now in a Renaissance.  Writing in Megaflooding on Earth and Mars (Cambridge Univ. Press), Victor Baker states,

After centuries of geological controversy it is now well established that the last major deglaciation of planet Earth involved huge fluxes of water from the wasting continental ice sheets, and that much of this water was delivered as floods of immense magnitude and relatively short duration. [7]

Hutton held to fixity of kinds.  This biological stasis leads one to hold to a worldwide cataclysm. [3]   Biological essentialism => Catastrophism => Young Earth Science (YES).

“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (Jn. 3:12).

Graphics credit:  Francis Schaeffer Hall.

Notes:

1) “James Hutton on Religion and Geology:  the Unpublished Preface to his Theory of the Earth (1788)” by Dennis Dean, Annals of Science 32 (1975): 187-193, p. 191.
2) Ibid., p. 189.
3) Ibid.
4) Ibid., p. 190.
5) Ibid.
6) Ibid.
7) Megaflooding on Earth and Mars ed. by Devon Burr, Paul Carling and Victor Baker (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009), p. 1
8) “Huttonian Biology and Geologic Upheaval” by Jay Hall, Creation Research Society Quarterly (1984), 21:76-78.

What Does the Finch Say?

Dog goes woof, Dino goes RAWR!
Bird goes tweet, platypus is meek.
Cow goes moo. Ape goes eek and Kinds are kind.
Ducks say quack and fish don’t really have legs.
But there's one sound that so few know …
WHAT DOES THE FINCH SAY?

Ga-Ga-Ga-Galapagos   

Ga-Ga-Ga-Galapagos   
WHAT THE FINCH SAY?

Dar-Dar-Dar-Dar-Dar-Win?

Dar-Dar-Dar-Dar-Dar-LOST!
WHAT THE FINCH SAY?

Large Ground, Small Tree, Warbler Woe

Large Ground, Small Tree, Warbler Woe
WHAT THE FINCH SAY?

Big black eyes, pointy beak, eat cactus and love insects.

Finches live, reproduce, all their kids are finches still.
Finches now; finches then, the finch kind is no disguise.

The secret of the finch, ancient mystery.

Somewhere deep in time, Darwin’s Doubt is hiding.
When finches come to town, we can surely know.
Day Five saw finches first – it’s no mystery.

What does the finch say?

Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens."  So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."  So the evening and the morning were the fifth day [Day Five] (Gen. 1:20-23).

Adam's Blog [stardate 177,234.007] – Call it Theodicy

Some renegade dinos killed ½ of the children on a learning expedition near Huqinect last month.  Why did this calamity happen?  I AM THE PROBLEM!  Original Sin is real.  The Fall brought the Curse [Ge 3].  

 

All my progeny, from the Top Invariant [N Pole] to the Bottom Invariant [S Pole], know that I disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit, the mangro.  The punishment affected not only Eva [Eve] and me, but also the animals, the plants, this fabulous planet and even the stars [Ge 3:14-19, Job 15:15].  After we left Paradise, the bad weather came.  Now I sulk in my anxious sleep.

Since I’ve become a mercenary against myself, there is such a thing as NeckRot.  I called it that because it will rot your neck.  Let me express my feelings with a poem: 

Call it Theodicy

I used to think all is well

Just ask me – I’ll surely tell
In Paradise, yet we fell
Now we’ve gone our own way
Tarnished my soul for a wish
Betrayed my God for fake bliss
I wasn’t looking for this
Now we’ve gone our own way

Oh, why did I chew?

I was so crazy
It’s such a bummer
My Theodicy

Why did the Curse ruin my life?

He acted so bad
We acted so bad
I acted so bad

*******

 

Did I hide my sin the way Adam did, or conceal my guilt behind closed doors … If I’ve ever raped the earth for my own profit or dispossessed its rightful owners, then curse it with thistles instead of wheat, curse it with weeds instead of barley … (Job 31:33, 39, 40, Msg).

Perfectly Clear Podcast – Hailey’s Paradox

Today’s podcast reviews Hailey’s Paradox by Arnold Simon.  One of the characters in the story points to hox genes (homeobox) as helping Darwin.  But hox genes are no savior for evolution.  Simon fails to realize that science itself is based on a Biblical foundation.

Here are some items referenced in the review:

Explicit Gospel
Faith, Form and Time (Kurt Wise studied w/ SJ Gould)
Raymond Damadian (MRI)
Creationist Rick Smalley – Nobel Prize

Jonas Brothers support 2013 National School Choice Week
Darwin’s Dilemma (Cambrian Explosion)
Evolution – Fossil Challenge (Gish)
Darwin’s Enigma (5 Natural History Museums)
Unshackled Apologetics
Mere Apologetics - McGrath
Faith has Its Reasons - Boa
Persuaded by the Evidence – Sharp & Bergman
Modern Science in the Bible (Hobrink)
Coming to Grips with Genesis
Thousands not Billions (book & video)
Regret the Error and Wrong (don’t trust the experts or the NYT)
Biblical Chronology and Y6K (6,000 years)
Earth’s Rotation Speed
Crevo (creation-evolution) survey
A Beautiful Mind (John Nash, Nobel Laureate)