Allem, Warren. Davidson, Donald. The Tennessee. New York: Rinehart, The Great Monkey Trial. Garden City: Doubleday, Fenwick W. Fecher, Charles A. Mencken: A Study of His Thought. New York: Knopf, Ginger, Ray.
Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. New York: New American Library. Gorman, Laurel, and Kate Staiger. An American Frontier. Grebstein, Sheldon Norman, ed. Monkey Trial: the State of Tennessee vs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Harris, Robert C.
Telephone interviews. Larson, Edward J. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, Lawrence, Jerome, and Robert E. Inherit the Wind. New York: Bantam Books, Lawrence W. Mencken, H. Prejudices: Fifth Series. Olasky, Marvin N. Norman, Oklahoma, 6 Aug. Robinson, F. Why Dayton? Chattanooga: Andrews Printery, Russell, C. Philadelphia: Westminster, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Smith, Willard H. Lawrence: Coronado Press, Dayton, Tenn. Before his death in , Richard M.
In addition he lectured to varied groups and served as a consultant for numerous books, articles, museum exhibits, and radio and television programs in the U. Broyles and published by the Rhea County Historical and Genealogical Society Dayton, , and it is reprinted with permission.
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Coed sports include cheerleading, fishing, martial. Introduction By far the most celebrated court case in Rhea County and perhaps in all of Tennessee history was the case of the State of Tennessee vs.
Day Five In number of days but not in dramatic and legal high points, the trial was at the fifth-day halfway mark on Thursday, July 16, when the Reverend Dr. Day Seven Monday, July 20, the seventh day of the trial, began hot and was to get hotter both in weather conditions and word confrontations. II of the same publication, he says: "When I was collecting facts for the 'Origin' my belief in what is called a personal God was as firm as that of Dr.
Pusey himself. This was Darwin as a young man, before he came under the influence of the doctrine that man came from a lower order of animals. The change wrought in his religious views will be found in a letter written to a German youth in and printed on Page of vol. The letter begins, "I am much engaged, an old man, and but of health, and I cannot spare time to answer your questions fully -- nor indeed can they be answered. Science has nothing to do with Christ, except in so far as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence.
As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities. Note that "science has nothing to do with Christ, except in so far as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting evidence. To make this interpretation of his words the only possible one, he adds "for myself, I do not believe that there ever has been any revelation," in rejecting the Bible as a revelation from God, he rejects the Bible's conception of God, and he rejects also the supernatural Christ of whom the Bible, and the Bible alone, tells.
And, it will be observed, he refuses to express any opinion as to a future life. What His Hypothesis Did for Darwin. Now let us follow with his son's exposition of his father's views as they are given in extracts from a biography written in Here is Darwin's language as quoted by his son. Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several of the officers who thought themselves orthodox for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality.
When thus reflecting, I felt compelled to look for a first cause, having an intelligent mind in some degrees analogous to man: and I deserved to be called an atheist. This conclusion was strong in my mind, about the time, as far as I can remember when I wrote the 'Origin of Species': it is since that time that it has very gradually, with many fluctuations, become weaker.
But then arises the doubt, Can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from a mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?
The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic. Darwin's Transition to Agnostic. When Darwin entered upon his scientific career he was "quite orthodox and quoted the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point or morality:" Even when he wrote the "Origin of Species" the thought of "a first cause, having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to man" was strong in his mind.
It was after that time that "very gradually, with many fluctuations," his belief in God became weaker. He traces this decline for us and concludes by telling us that he cannot pretend to throw the least light on such abstruse problems - the religious problems above referred to. Then comes the flat statement that he "must be content to remain an agnostic"; and to make clear what he means by the word agnostic. Here we have the effect of ', evolution upon its most distinguished exponent; it led him from an orthodox Christian, believing every word of the Bible and in a-personal God, down and down and down to helpless and hopeless agnosticism.
But there is one sentence upon which I reserved comment - it throws light upon this downward pathway. Here is the explanation: He drags man down to the brute level, and then, judging man by brute standards, he questions whether man's mind can be trusted to deal with "God and immortality"! How can any teacher tell his students that evolution does not tend to destroy his religious faith?
How can an honest teacher conceal from his students the effect of evolution upon Darwin himself? And is it not stranger still that preachers who advocate evolution never speak of Darwin's loss of faith, due to his belief in evolution? The parents of Tennessee have reason enough to fear the effect of evolution upon the minds of their children.
Belief in evolution cannot bring to those who hold such a belief any compensation for the loss of faith in God, trust in the Bible, and belief in the supernatural character of Christ.
It is belief in evolution that has caused so many scientists and so many Christians to reject the miracles of the Bible, and then give up, one after another, every vital truth of Christianity. They finally cease to pray and sunder the tie that binds them to their Heavenly Father.
A miracle should not be a stumbling block to any one. It raises but three questions:. First: Could God perform a miracle?
Yes, the God who created the universe can do anything he wants to with it. He can temporarily suspend any law that he has made or he may employ higher laws that we do not understand. Second: Would God perform a miracle? To answer that question in the negative one would have to know more about God's plans and purposes than a finite mind can know, and yet some are so wedded to evolution that they deny that God would perform a miracle because a miracle is inconsistent with evolution.
If we believe that God can perform a miracle and might desire to do so, we are prepared to consider with open mind the third question, namely - did God perform the miracles recorded in the Bible? The same evidence that establishes the authority of the Bible establishes the truth of the record of miracles performed. Now let me read to the honorable court and to you, gentlemen of the jury, one of the most pathetic confessions that has come to my notice.
George John Romanes, a distinguished biologist, sometimes called the successor of Darwin, was prominent enough to be given extended space in both the "Encyclopedia Britannica" and the "Encyclopedia Americana. For twenty-five years he could not pray. Soon after he became an agnostic, he wrote a book entitled, "A Candid Explanation of Theism, publishing it under an assumed name, "Physicus.
Do these evolutionists stop to think of the crime they commit when they take faith out of the hearts of men and women and lead them out into a starless night? What pleasure can they find in robbing a human being of "the hallowed glory of that creed" and in substituting "the lonely mystery of existence? If any one has been led to complain of the severity of the punishment that hangs over the defendant, let him compare this crime, with its mild punishment, with the crimes for which a greater punishment is prescribed.
What is the taking of a few dollars from one. In day or night in comparison with the crime of leading one away from God and away from Christ?
Shakespeare regards the robbing one of his good name as much more grave than the stealing of his purse. But we have a higher authority than Shakespeare to invoke in this connection. He who spake as never man spake thus describes the crimes that are committed against the young: "It is impossible but that offenses will come; but woe unto him through whom they come.
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Christ did not overdraw the picture. Who is able to set a price upon the life of a child - a child into whom a mother has poured her life and for whom a father has labored? What may a noble life mean to the child itself, to the parents and to the world? And it must be remembered that we can measure the effect on only that part of life which is spent on earth; we have no way of calculating the effect on that infinite circle of life of which existence here is but a small arc.
The soul is immortal and religion deals with the soul; the logical effect of the evolutionary hypothesis is to undermine religion and thus affect the soul. I recently received a list of questions that were to be discussed in a prominent Eastern school for women. The second question in the list read "'is religion an obsolescent function that should be allowed to atrophy quietly without arousing the passionate prejudice of outworn superstition?
But I have some more evidence of the effect of evolution upon the life of those who accept it and try to harmonize their thought with it. James H. Leuba, a professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, published a few years ago a book entitled "Belief in God and Immortality. He used a volume entitled "American Men of Science," which he says included the names of "practically every American who may properly be called a scientist.
He selected one thousand names as representative of the fifty-five hundred and addressed them personally. Most of them, he said, were teachers in schools of higher learning. The names were kept confidential. Upon the answers received, he asserts that over half of them doubt or deny the existence of a personal God and a personal immortality, and he asserts that unbelief increases in proportion to prominence, the percentage of unbelief being greatest among the most prominent.
Among biologists, believers in a personal God numbered less than 31 per cent, while believers in a personal immortality numbered only 37 per cent. He also questioned the students in nine colleges of high rank and from 1, answers received, 97 per cent of which were from students between 18 and 20, he found that unbelief increased from 18 percent. In the freshman class up to 40 to 45 per cent among the men who graduated. On page of this book we read: "The students' statistics show that young people enter college possessed of the beliefs still accepted, more or less perfunctorily, in the average home of the land, and gradually abandon the cardinal Christian beliefs.
The people of Tennessee have been patient enough; they acted none too soon. How can they expect to protect society, and even the Church, from the deadening influence of agnosticism and atheism if they permit the teachers employed by taxation to poison the minds of the youth with this destructive doctrine?
And remember that the law has not heretofore required the writing of the word "poison" on poisonous doctrines. The bodies of our people are so valuable that druggists and physicians must be careful to properly label all poisons.
Why not be as careful to protect the spiritual life of our people from the poisons that kill the soul? There is a test that is sometimes used to ascertain whether one suspected of mental infirmity is really insane.
He is put into a tank of water and told to dip the tank dry while a stream of water flows into the tank. If he has not sense enough to turn off the water, he is adjudged insane.
Can parents justify themselves if, knowing the effect of belief in evolution, they permit irreligious teachers to inject skepticism and infidelity in the minds of their children? Do bad doctrines corrupt the morals of students? We have a case in point, Mr. Darrow, one of the most distinguished criminal lawyers in our land, was engaged about a year ago in defending two rich men's sons who were on trial for as dastardly a murder as was ever committed.
The older one, "Babe" Leopold, was a brilliant student, 19 years old. He was an evolutionist and an atheist. He was also a follower of Nietzsche, whose books he had devoured and whose philosophy he had adopted. Darrow made a plea for him, based upon the influence that Nietzsche's philosophy had exerted upon the boy's mind. Here are extracts from his speech:. He grew up in this way; he became enamored by the philosophy of Nietzsche. Your Honor, I have read if almost everything that Nietzsche ever wrote.
A man of wonderful intellect; the most original philosopher of the last century. A man who made a deeper imprint in philosophy than any other man within a hundred years, whether right or wrong. More boooks have been written about him than probably all the rest of the philosophers in a hundred years.
More college professors have talked about him. In a way, he has reached more people, and still he has been a philosopher of what we might call the intellectual cult. He wrote on the will to power. It is not how this would affect you. It is not how it would affect me. The question is, how it would affect the impressionable. Here is What Neitzsche Says: 'Why so soft, oh, my brethren? Why so soft, so unresisting and yielding? Why is there so much disavowal and abnegation in your heart? Why is there so little fate in your looks?
For all creators are hard, and it must seem blessedness unto you to press your hand upon millieniums and upon wax. This new table, oh, my brethren, I put over you; become hard. To be obsessed by moral consideration presupposes a very low grade of intellect.
We should substitute for morality the will to our own end, and consequently to the means to accomplish that. A great man, a man whom nature has built up and invented in a grand style, is colder, harder, less cautious and more free from the fear of public opinion. He does not possess the virtues which are compatible with respectability, with being respected, nor any of those things which are counted among the virtues of the herd.
There is not any university in the world where the professor is not familiar with Nietzsche, not one. Some read it as I do and take it as a theory, a dream, a vision, mixed with good and bad, but not in any way related to human life. Some take it seriously. Is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche's philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? And there is no question in this case but what that is true. Then who is to blame? Your Honor, it is hardly fair to hang a year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university.
It does not meet my ideas of justice and fairness to visit upon his head the philosophy that has been taught by university men for twenty-five years. In fairness to Mr. Darrow, I think I ought to quote two more paragraphs. After this bold attempt to excuse the student on the ground that he was transformed from a well-meaning youth into a murderer by the philosophy of an atheist, and on the further ground that this philosophy was in the libraries of all the colleges and discussed by the professors - some adopting the philosophy and some rejecting it - on these two grounds he denies that the boy should be held responsible for the taking of human life.
He charges that the scholars in the universities were more responsible than the boy, and that the universities were more responsible than the boy, because they furnished such books to the students, and then he proceeds, to exonerate the universities and the scholars, leaving nobody responsible.
Here is Mr. Darrow's language:. Even for the sake of saving the lives of my clients, I do not want to be dishonest and tell the Court something that I do not honestly think in this case. I do not think that the universities are to blame.
I do not think they should be held responsible. I do think, however, that they are too large, and that they should keep a closer watch, if possible, upon the individual. It Is the duty of the university, as I conceive it, to be the greatest storehouse of the wisdom of the ages, and to have its students come there and learn and choose.
I have no doubt but what it has meant the death of many, but that we cannot help. Believes this to be a "Damnable Philosophy. This is a damnable philosophy, and yet it is the flower that blooms on the stalk of evolution.
Darrow thinks the universities are in duty bound to feed out this poisonous stuff. I am sure, your Honor, and gentlemen of the jury, that you agree with me when I protest against the adoption of any such a philosophy in the State of Tennessee. He lost the moderator's election to Charles F.
Wishart, president of the College of Wooster, where evolutionary theory was taught. The assembly adopted a more moderate approach to evolution that year. Bryan died on July 26 , five days after the end of the trial--a defeated man to some, to others an unbowed champion of common people everywhere.
The Scopes Trial did not settle the debate between Fundamentalists and Modernists. Ninety years later, that theological and cultural dispute continues. You can read more blog posts about fundamentalism on our site. Skip to main content. Services Collections History Online. June 12, American History , Fundamentalism. Via Wikipedia. Colorized by PHS, July marks the 90 th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, one of the most famous court cases in American history.
Defending substitute high school teacher John Thomas Scopes was Clarence Darrow, one of the celebrity lawyers of the day. Billed as a grand showdown between religion and science, the trial would play out in a rural Tennessee courthouse amid sweltering summer heat.
From Shall Christianity Remain Christian? Pace, Born into a freethinking family of English physicians in , Charles Darwin suffered from a host of conditions Darwin was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln. Both Darwin and Lincoln were born on February 12, , but in much different settings. Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between and The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with German Oscar Wilde was a playwright, novelist, poet and celebrity in late nineteenth century London.
His flamboyant dress, cutting wit and eccentric lifestyle often put him at odds with the social norms of Victorian England. Wilde, a homosexual, was put on trial for gross indecency in The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of , after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft.
As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a During the Tulsa Race Massacre, which occurred over 18 hours from May 31 to June 1, , a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly Black Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event remains one of the worst incidents of racial violence in Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Butler Act The theory of evolution, as presented by Charles Darwin and others, was a controversial concept in many quarters, even into the 20th century.
Clarence Darrow Author H. Recommended for you. How the Union Defended Washington, D. During the Civil War. Daniel Webster. Chicago Seven Trial. A Tour of Old Hollywood. Remembering the Scopes Trial John T.
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