The '''Scopes Trial''', which took place in [[Tennessee]] in 1925, was a test widely publicized trial that challenged the legality of a state which prohibited law prohibiting [[public schools school]]s from teaching the theory that man had somehow evolved from more primitive life forms. The willing defendant, John Scopes, was duly convictedof violating the law, although this was later overturned but won on a technicalityon appeal. This case illustrated the problem of [[fake news]], as [[atheist]] reporter [[H.L. Mencken]] distorted what happened at the trial and thereby misled the world about it. A review of the transcript reveals that [[William Jennings Bryan]] got the better of Darrow, and yet Mencken reported the opposite in an extreme manner. Indeed, Darrow himself gave up and asked the jury to find his client John Scopes guilty, so that Darrow could renege on his promise to take the witness stand himself in exchange for cross-examining Bryan. Uncommondescent.com declared: "It is a little known fact that [[William Jennings Bryan]] agreed to be interrogated by [[Clarence Darrow]] only if Bryan could in turn interrogate Darrow views of [[evolution]]. Darrow agreed, but then right after interrogating Bryan directed the judge to find Scopes guilty, thereby closing the evidence and thus preventing Bryan from interrogating Darrow"."<ref>http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/the-vise-strategy-squeezing-the-truth-out-of-darwinists/</ref> Generally speaking, [[Atheism and Debate|leading evolutionists generally no longer debate creation scientists]] as the evolutionists tend to lose the debates.<ref>http://www.icr.org/article/811/</ref>
The trial gained notoriety after it was dramatized for both stage (1955) and screen (1960). Titled ''[[Inherit the Wind]]'', both dramatizations distorted the facts of the case and were promoted to harm [[Christianity]].<ref>"'Inherit the Wind' relentlessly distorts what happened in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925."[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_226_1.html]</ref><ref>As recently as April 17, 2007, the ''Village Voice'' endorsed a new Broadway rendition of ''Inherit the Wind'' as "a dramatization of the 1925 [Scopes] trial."[http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html]</ref> The highlight of the trial was when [[Clarence Darrow]] agreed to testify as a witness if [[William Jennings Bryan]] would also testify. First Bryan testified before a huge crowd, but when Darrow's turn came he instead reneged on his deal and ended the trial by asking the jury to find his client guilty, which ended the trial.