William Jennings Bryan is an important character because everything he believed and supported went against science and he stuck to the word of the bible whenever he could. This is very important to know because of the case of The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. This teacher violated the law of not being able to teach evolution to the children of Tennessee and he was caught and brought to trial. William Jennings Bryan was the prosecutor and was trying to put this teacher in jail and for once and for all end the debate of evolution in society and especially in children schools. One day the court room got so hot that they had to move the proceedings to outside.
The trial begins and the defense attorney Clarence Darrow is a liberal Christian arguing that science cannot be forgotten about and disregarded in religion. The judge never seemed in favor of the defense and might have had personal bias towards Bryan and their arguments. Anyways the 3 time presidential candidate Bryan went through the trial and then one day was called to the stand to testify on behalf of being a bible expert. Darrow grilled him and eventually got him to contradict himself on radio and in front of a bunch of people and made him look stupid. Even that victory for Darrow was not enough for him to come close to the case but he did his job as best he could and managed to keep the theory of evolution in the public.
image : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial#/media/File:Tennessee_v._John_T._Scopes_Trial-_Outdoor_proceedings_on_July_20,_1925,_showing_William_Jennings_Bryan_and_Clarence_Darrow._(2_of_4_photos)_(2898243103)_crop.jpg
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
Christian--your post was a very informative explanation of the Scopes Trial and the institutionalized fundamentalism of the 1920s. Building off your discussion of the rivalry between evolution and creationism, the battle is still happening today, albeit in a more passive-aggressive fashion. New bills such as a bill passed by the South Dakota State Senate do not ban evolution outright, but they allow teachers to choose to teach alternative theories. Instead of attacking evolution head-on, this legislation uses the so-called freedom of choice to belittle the concept.
ReplyDeletehttp://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/316487-new-wave-of-anti-evolution-bills-hit-states
Christian, I think that your post on the anti-evolution league and the Scope trial was very interesting. The way that the trial went was particularly interesting. While Scopes initially lost the trial, his lawyer saw it as a way to make a precedent out of this by appealing to the higher courts. However, he was ultimately unable to do this since the verdict was reversed because of a technicality in the case. So, he was not able to set a precedent on where to draw the line between religion and science. However, from my research, this issue was eventually resolved. In 1968, the US Supreme Court got rid of another law similar to this one, this time in Arkansas. It was said to be in violation of the 1st amendment. So, while the Scopes case might have died out quietly, it still influenced future cases that did have an impact by setting a precedent.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/monkey-trial-begins