History of the Scopes Trial
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history 1789 to present
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published 22/10/2007
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SummaryIn 1925, one of the most famous trials in American history took place. The question being debated was evolution, and a young teacher by the name of John Scopes was on trial for teaching it to his students. After an enormous amount of publicity, the famous William Jennings Bryan decided to prosecute the case, and Clarence Darrow took the defense for John Scopes. The controversy was deeply rooted and tensions ran high in the small, religious town of Hillsboro. The trial epitomized the war between rationalism and religion because it placed the question of faith vs. science at its center. Those who followed a rational ideology were unable to reconcile the ideas of evolution and with biblical teachings, and people who have believed in creationism all their lives were angered by the ungodliness of Darwin’s theory. The Scopes Trial put the truth regarding the origin of man on trial, and after the famous case, evolution was never viewed in the same light.
Table of Contents
- Bryan and Darrow symbolize the clusters of values and intellectual viewpoints that existed during the 1920?s.
- For this reason, it can be argued that the Scopes Trial was an expression of the freethinking mind, and therefore, the freedom to think and teach in this fashion should not be inhibited in any way.
- This trial had many negative impacts on fundamentalist religion, but it did not seem to shake the faith of people who believed strongly.
- In the movie 'Inherit the Wind,' Bryan was portrayed in exactly this way.
- Drummond puts a strong emphasis on individual freedom, the freedom to think, and the freedom to teach that which his scientifically valid.
- Iannone further writes that the townspeople were not as ignorant and unwilling to accept progress as the movie made them out to be.
- Because it did not promote academic freedom, it was deemed unnecessary to allow such a law.
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