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Scopes Trial In American History

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“The Scopes Trial is one of the best known in American history events because it symbolizes the conflict between science and theology, faith and reason, individual liberty and majority rule,” (Mintz and McNeil par 1). The decade of the 1920’s was an era of rebellion, prosperity, and social changes. One major event that shocked the country through its discordance between urban enlightenment and rural protestantism was called “The Scopes Trial”, which involved the teachings of evolution. Before the trial took place, an act known as “The Butler Act” established that public schools prohibited the teachings of evolution to students. This act was passed in early 1925 by the Tennessee General Assembly for the reason being that students shouldn’t …show more content…

This duel against evolution and the laws of Christianity seems like it would finalize what is to be taught in society as Bryan claimed (Mintz and McNeil par 2). On July 10th, crowds were building up in the courtroom and radio listeners were all ears on the trial, meaning that this trial was the main event to pay attention to. Throughout the trial, Bryan and Darrow made many arguments, which the crowd cheered for, for aggressing Creationism and approving the theory of Darwinism. Later on, Bryan stood on the witness stand and claimed that if the creation of men existed, it would’ve lasted for millions of years instead of just a week, like how the Bible said so (Mintz and McNeil par 5). Although he opposed Creationism, he also opposed some factors of Darwinism, such as the infamous “survival of the fittest” quote and the claim that only 5 races were to exist, as Darwin wrongly predicted. Because of the false accusations from Darwin’s theory in some aspects, Bryan was discouraged of the lack of scientific evidence to prove evolution and Scopes was later on, proven guilty (Mintz and McNeil par 8). However, the judge determined and finalized Scope’s fine to be only $100 ("Scopes Monkey Trial." par 8). Later in 1967, the Supreme Court disapproved Tennessee 's law of not teaching evolution for the violation of the Constitution’s prohibition against the establishment of religion (Mintz and McNeil par

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