The '''Scopes Trial''', sometimes known as the "Scopes monkey trial," which took place in [[Tennessee]] in 1925. It , was engineered as a challenge to widely publicized trial that challenged the legality of a state's Butler Act 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 was , John T. Scopes (1900- 1970), a teacher who had volunteered for the challenge. Scopes was convictedof violating the law, and the conviction was soon overturned but won on a technicality and never appealed. The trial was one of the most watched epsiodes in the history of American religious and American education. It was seen as a confrontation between modern science and [[Fundamentalism]] in its belief in the inerrancy of the Bibleon appeal.
The dramatic highlight This case illustrated the problem of [[fake news]], as the [[atheist]], bigoted reporter [[H.L. Mencken]] distorted what happened at the trial was when famed defense lawyer and misled the world about it. A review of the transcript reveals that [[William Jennings Bryan]] got the better of [[Clarence Darrow]] called procesution lawyer , 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 the cowardly 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]] top testify agreed to be interrogated by [[Clarence Darrow]] only if Bryan could in turn interrogate Darrow's views of [[evolution]]. Darrow agreed, but then right after interrogating Bryan, [Darrow] 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 an expert on the Bibleevolutionists tend to lose the debates.<ref>https://www.icr.org/article/811/</ref> The trial gained notoriety after it was dramatized in a grossly false manner for both stage (1955) and screen (1960), bizarrely entitled ''[[Inherit the Wind]]''. Both of these false dramatizations were promoted to try to smear [[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> In the real trial Bryan made a fool of Darrow, not vice-versa, as demonstrated by the publicly available transcript that includes notations of laughter by the gallery, as quoted below.<ref>https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111scopes. html</ref>
== Publicity Motivation ==
The impetus for the Scopes trial began in a meeting among town leaders at a drugstore in Dayton, Tennessee, in response to a newspaper advertisement placed by the American Civil Liberties Union ([[ACLU]]) offering to provide legal services to anyone willing to be prosecuted under the Butler Act.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}, {{hnb|Linder|2002}}. See also {{hnb|Coulter|2006}}</ref> Town leaders agreed that a trial would provide publicity to the town,<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}</ref> whose population had dwindled to 1,800.<ref>{{hnb|Linder|2002}}</ref> The town leaders found a willing defendant in John Scopes, a gym teacher and football coach who also substituted (sometimes as a biology teacher), though Scopes could not recall ever teaching evolution.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}. See also {{hnb|Coulter|2006}}</ref> John Scopes told the town leaders, "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."
[[Fundamentalism|Fundamentalists ]] took up the challenge, led by theologian [[William Bell Riley]], who signed up Bryan to assist the local county prosecutor. The national media rushed to Dayton.
== Grand Jury ==
Racing other Tennessee towns, Judge John T. Raulston accelerated the convening of the grand jury and "...all but instructed the grand jury to indict Scopes, despite the meager evidence against him and the widely reported stories questioning whether the willing defendant had ever taught evolution in the classroom."<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=108}}</ref> He was indicted on May 25, after three students testified against Scopes at the Grand Jury, at Scopes' behest.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=89, 107}}</ref>
== The Trial ==
Darrow brought the Scopes case in the hopes of winning a public relations and legal victory. Historians agree that the publicity typically believe in evolution and declare victory went to for Darrow, but the prosecution won a legal victory in fact Darrow and the trial when Scopes was convictedACLU lost the case badly and Tennessee continued to limit the teaching of evolution in [[public schools]] for roughly another 50 years.
The [[ACLU]] challenged a Tennessee statute, the Butler Act, that imposed a fine for teaching in government schools that man descended from more primitive life forms. The statute did not prohibit teaching most aspects of [[evolution]]. The textbook at issue in the case suggested indirectly (through a tree-like diagram) that man descended from lower life forms.
:Darrow--Or ever thought of it?
:Bryan--I have been too busy on thinks things that I thought were of more importance than that.
A later exchange ended, once again, with the audience laughing:
== Aftermath ==
Bryan, a 65-year-old diabetic lacking in modern treatments, died peacefully in his sleep during his afternoon nap after church five days after the conclusion of the Scopes trial.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=199}}</ref> Bryan's victory in the Scopes trial was a fitting end to a principled, illustrious career.<ref> http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/bryan.html</ref> Scopes never had to pay the fine - the judge had set the amount but Tennessee law at the time prohibited judges from setting fines over $50.
The law challenged by the [[ACLU]] in the Scopes Trial remained in effect for over 50 more years. In 1967, Tennessee repealed the Butler Act, and in 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in ''Epperson v. Arkansas'', 393 U.S. 97, that such bans on teaching are unconstitutional if they are primarily religious in intent.
The movie portrayed the character based on Bryan as a complete buffoon. Bryan's death was also portrayed as happening in the courthouse, when in fact he was an elderly man suffering from diabetes who died peacefully in his sleep.
American history books usually describe this case as a major defeat for Fundamentalists. <ref>The trial "marked a decisive setback for fundamentalism," says ''The Enduring Vision, Fifth Edition,'' Chapter 23: The 1920s: Coping with Change, Paul S. Boyer, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Carleton College; et al. (a commonly used American history textbook for Advanced Placement US History classes).</ref>In fact, the successful defense of the law enabled Tennessee to keep the racist evolutionary textbook out of its schools, to avoid teaching the falsehoods of evolution (such as the [[Piltdown Man]] featured in the trial textbook) to schoolchildren, and to permit the State (which still rejects a state income tax) to grow in [[conservatism]] to this day. Liberals [[Al Gore]], [[John Kerry]] and [[Barack Obama]] all failed to carry the state in recent presidential elections.
==References==
* Moran, Jeffrey P. "The Scopes Trial and Southern Fundamentalism in Black and White: Race, Region, and Religion." ''Journal of Southern History''. Volume: 70. Issue: 1. 2004. pp 95+. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5005987461 online edition]
* Smout, Kary Doyle. ''The Creation/Evolution Controversy: A Battle for Cultural Power.'' (1998). 210 pp.
*{{Harvard reference
| Surname = Coulter
| Given = Ann
| Year = 2006
| Title = Godless: The Church of Liberalism
| Publisher = Crown Forum.
| ID = ISBN 978-1400054206
}}
*{{Harvard reference
| Surname = Larson
| Given = Edward J.
| Authorlink = Edward John Larson
| Year = 2006
| Title = Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial And America's Continuing Debate over Science And Religion
| Publisher = Basic Books
| ID = ISBN 978-0465075102
}}
*{{Harvard reference
| Surname = Linder
| Given = Douglas
| Year = 2002
| Title = The Scopes Trial: An Introduction
| Publisher = University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
| URL = http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm
}} Retrieved on 05-11-2007
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