Buncha Monkeys

"... that it shall be unlawful for 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 a lower order of animals." -Butler Act, 1925 (Tennessee).

This is the law passed in Tennessee in which teacher John Scopes was put in prison for. His case, often referred to as the "Scopes Monkey Trial", was taken to court, defended by Clarence Darrow, and prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan. The problem was, however, that John Scopes never violated this law by teaching evolution from a textbook in his biology class, and therefore it was unfair for him to be put in jail, and unnecessary for the trial to have happened at all.

The two lawyers were well known in the time. Bryan was a three time Democratic candidate for President, but he never succeeded to be elected. He prided himself in being a leader of a Fundamentalist movement that was working to ban Darwin's theory from the classrooms. In the state of Tennessee's eyes, he was the perfect man for the prosecution. Clarence Darrow was nearly opposite of his widely acclaimed opponent. He was well known as a brilliant man, but many worried that his agnostic beliefs would give the prosecution a reason to believe he was biased against the charges against Scopes (Linder, An Introduction).

Bryan used the Bible in many of his cross examinations of Scopes' students and in his other statements. But when Darrow brought his first witnesses, seven scientists in the fields such zoology, in hopes that they would explain how evolution didn't necessarily go against Christian teachings, the prosecution objected, and it was sustained. So Darrow then called his opponent, Bryan, to the stand, as an expert on the Bible, since his experts on evolution were not allowed to testify, and proceeded to ask him a series of questions, quoting from both the Holy Book and Darwin's Origin of Species. Many newspapers such as the New York Times described to their readers how Bryan stumbled over his words multiple times because of the rapid interview and hard points delivered by Darrow. Unfortunately for the defense, the counsel decided to erase all of this interview, ruling that it was not relevant to the trial (Linder, An Introduction).

The verdict was passed on July 21, and John Scopes was found guilty as charged, and fined $100, which with the current inflation rate would translate to $1141.88 (Friedman, Inflation). Upon hearing the jury's decision, Scopes has this to say; "Your honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom--that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom. I think the fine is unjust" (Scopes, World's). But ironically, there is evidence in the Bible to suggest that Scopes did not oppose this law at all.

The Butler Act clearly states that any theory that denies the story of the Bible is to be outlawed from being taught in the classroom. But the jury and the prosecution obviously didn't know what evolution was about, and if they had, evidence from their very own Bible would have supported it. Take the story of The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-19) for example. In this, it is described how the Lord gave each of three men his talents; one was given five, one was given two, and one was given a single talent. One traded his five talents and gained five more. Another traded his two and gained two more. But the last one buried his one talent and so did not gain anything. The two who traded and gained more talents were commended by the Lord and given land to prosper on. But the man who did not gain another talent was stripped of the original and given to the man with ten talents. "For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away." (Matthew 25:29)(God, Holy). Now take into consideration one of the main points of evolution, survival of the fittest. This phrase means "The idea that species adapt and change by natural selection with the best suited mutations becoming dominant" (Martin, The Phrase). Does this idea not go hand in hand with the story "The Parable of the Talents"? The men who gained more talents (mutations) prospered (survived), while the man who did not build off of his talents (did not mutate/adapt) did not. In just that one story, it seems that evolution does in fact compliment the Bible.

Another idea in the theory of evolution is that of population genetics, such that :generation-to-generation change in the frequencies of alleles within a population that shares a common gene pool" . (Definition: alleles-any of the alternative forms of a gene that may occur at a given locus) (Definition: locus- the place where something is situated or occurs)(Merriam-Webster). More simply, it is how certain genes are passed down, and the more dominant ones tend to continue passing down, while others fail. In the story of Jacob's agreement with Laban (Genesis 30: 25-43)(Till, Gen), Jacob's father-in-law, Laban, agrees to let Jacob tend to his flock and allow Jacob to have all the striped, spotted, and speckled goats. But Laban puts all such goats in his sons' care, three days away from the place where Jacob is tending the other goats, who were all white, therefore hoping to ensure that Jacob gets no goats out of the exchange. But Jacob puts rods that are speckled, spotted, and striped near the watering troughs where the white goats would mate. And so they bore kids that were speckled, spotted, and striped. (God, Holy). This story goes along nicely with the idea of population genetics, as it is believed that "visual stimuli can have prenatal effects on the offspring of breeding animals",(Till, Gen) thus explaining how Jacob went about his little scheme. Once again, it is proved that evolution is not denying the stories of the Bible, it only elaborates and explains the things we have read about for ages in our Holy Book.

The Scopes Monkey Trial was widely publicized at the time, drawing audiences from all over the country into the trial. And although John Scopes was found guilty, many Americans remained on his side. The Butler Act was repealed in Tennessee in 1967, 42 years too late to help Scopes' case. But even without it being invalidated, John Scopes should never have been arrested, as it has been proved with the evidence that the theory of evolution actually supports the divine creation theory in many ways, because he never taught a theory denying the teachings of the Holy Bible.