The
Scopes Trial, formally known as
The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the
Scopes Monkey Trial, was a famous American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher,
John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's
Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human
evolution in any state-funded school.
[1] The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of
Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,345 in 2014), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side.
William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate, argued for the prosecution, while
Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney, spoke for Scopes. The trial publicized the
Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy, which set
Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion,
[2] against
Fundamentalists, who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on whether modern science regarding the
creation–evolution controversy should be taught in schools.
You should know better since you are so old....
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