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4. Darwin versus Genesis
- University of Illinois Press
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STORY 4 Darwin versus Genesis Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968) By the 1920s, Charles Darwin’s “theory” of evolution was broadly accepted in biology as an explanation of the development of species by random variation and natural selection based on scientific evidence.It had never been accepted by the many Christians who believed in the literal truth of the Bible and, specifically, the Genesis story.As evolution was meeting with increasing support, it was also meeting stiffer religious resistance from the creationists. William Jennings Bryan, famed orator, thrice candidate for president of the United States, and former secretary of state, was a fundamentalist and creationist. More specifically, he believed that the teaching of evolution in public schools throughout the country was corrupting the nation’s youth, jeopardizing their moral development by removing God from the creation of life. Whether Darwin’s theory was based on science or not didn’t matter. It was not the place of the scientific elites to dictate what should be taught in public schools. This was the essence of the campaign he led against the teaching of evolution in public schools. Bryan’s campaign met with considerable success. During the 1920s, more than twenty states considered antievolution laws.Tennessee was one of them. In 1924, and at Bryan’s urging, Tennessee enacted the Butler Act, named for its principal proponent, John Washington Butler. The act prohibited “any teacher in any of the Universities,Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach 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 05.st4.80-102_Bezanson 4/12/06 12:20 PM Page 80 a lower order of animals.” The penalty for violating the act was a fine of from $100 to $500. In signing the act into law on March 21, 1925, Governor Austin Peay described the act as “a distinct protest against an irreligious tendency to exalt so-called science,and deny the Bible in some schools and quarters. . . .”1 John Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was recruited by the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge the act. Scopes agreed and, after teaching evolution to his class from one of the main biology texts, was charged with violating the act. William Jennings Bryan then volunteered to help the state of Tennessee in prosecuting Scopes, an offer that was eagerly accepted. The ACLU, in turn, accepted the pro bono (free) services of Clarence Darrow, perhaps the most famous defense lawyer in American history , to defend Scopes.2 The Scopes trial, also dubbed the Monkey trial, attracted national attention , pitting the greatest orator against the greatest lawyer in one of the most public and dramatic issues of the day. The judge allowed the trial to descend into a struggle between the Biblical version of creation against Darwin’s theory , between faith and science. It was, according to one historian, “a case of fundamentalism versus Modernism,theological truth versus scientific truth, literal versus liberal interpretation of the Bible, Genesis versus Darwin. . . .”3 From the beginning, the trial was to be but a predicate for an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the antievolution law as violative of the First Amendment religion guarantees. At the end of the trial, Darrow asked the jury to convict his client in order to allow an appeal. They did—in nine minutes. To get to the Supreme Court, Scopes had first to appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which was expected promptly to sustain the constitutionality of the Butler Act and affirm Scopes’s conviction. But fate dealt Darrow and the ACLU a different hand. The Tennessee Supreme Court concluded that the act was constitutional, but it reversed Scopes’s conviction on a technicality , thus making any further appeal of the case to the United States Supreme Court impossible. William Jennings Bryan died shortly after the Scopes trial,and with his death the fervor of the antievolution crusade also died.Other states would still enact antievolution laws, including Arkansas in 1928, but it would not be until forty Story 4. Darwin versus Genesis 81 1. Ray Ginger, Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes 7 (1958). 2. Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America...