The Scopes Monkey Trial (otherwise known as the Scopes Trial, Monkey Trial, and the Scopes Evolution Trial [www.historynet.com]), was the trial of The State Of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes on the basis that John Scopes had defied the Butler Act. The Butler Act, which was passed on March 13, 1925, was “an act prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all universities, normals, and public schools in Tennessee...” (www.tennessee.gov).
This trial, held on July 10, 1925, was the people’s way of fighting the Butler Act. The idea of purposely defying the Butler Act in order to put it on trial originally came from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (www.historynet.com). The ACLU had been searching, via newspaper ads, for a teacher to volunteer to go on trial when some of the townspeople of Dayton, Tennessee came together and convinced John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, to do it (www.historynet.com). According to www.npr.org, the Scopes Trial was deviously planned not only to put the Butler Act on trial, but it was also done in hopes that the trial would bring publicity and money in order to help revive the economy of their small town and get a glimpse of the economic boom happening around them (www.npr.org, www.cbsnews.com).
When looking at the book, Inherit The Wind by
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Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, understanding the setting of the play is the key to discerning what people thought was ethical in that time period. The Roaring 20’s plays a major part on what the principles were believed to be of that time and Dayton, Tennessee is also of paramount importance to the story due to the way it shaped people’s beliefs. Basically, the setting of the play, Inherit The Wind, had a significant impact on the prevailing moral code as was described in the book. 1925 was a time for new ideas. It was in the middle of the Roaring 20’s in the United States and there was a massive economic boom in progress due to the shattering of the European economy that left the United States as the only major industrial nation in the world (www.shenet.org). The Roaring 20’s was also a time for challenging beliefs, which is exactly what happened in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. When reading the book, Inherit The Wind, one can get the idea that not only was there a showdown going on between science and the Bible, but the people had split into two completely different groups, modernists and traditionalists (www.law2.umkc.edu). In the case of Inherit The Wind, the town and state were the traditionalists, closing the doors to all new ideas, while evolution was the modernist, trying to throw these new ideas into the minds of everyone they passed. In the book and the movie of Inherit The Wind, Dayton, Tennessee is a very religious town (Inherit/play/movie). Everyone is expected to go to church on Sundays and on page 13 of Inherit The Wind, it says that they “hoist the banner above the heads of the crowd where it remains for the remainder of the action. The banner blares: ‘READ YOUR BIBLE’” (Inherit/play). In the movie, it also states that this banner is hanging on the courthouse so that everyone who walks into the building must pass under that banner. This is showing that the town is intent on making any outsiders that might have come to watch the trial pass under that sign and at the same time, read it. This was the townspeople’s way to show their beliefs to outsiders and make sure that any visitors that came to the town would know which side of the case the people were voting for and what they believe was the right and true thing. Though not only was Dayton like this, much of Tennessee was very religious in this time period. The Butler Act itself was proposed by a few Christians in Tennessee’s legislature who, in order to protect the Bible, wanted it taught in a way where children would learn to take every word in the Bible literally instead of figuratively (www.shmoop.com). The fact that this proposal was taken seriously, and was later passed, means that people even higher up in the government must have also believed that the Bible was the one and only truth. According to the Legal Information Institute, the Secretary of Labor must approve all state laws, including this one. However, before it even gets to him, it would have go through the governor of the state and most likely other people who worked under him as well (http://www.law.cornell.edu). From this, it is clear that there were many powerful people in the Tennessee State Government who had wished to enforce the Scriptures in the Bible. If a law that promotes a specific religion is able to get through that many levels of government and then passed, it is obvious that religion was a very important asset in that time period and specifically in Tennessee. If a teacher were to teach you that the Bible was the only true word in existence, it is most likely that you would believe them. According to John Hopkins School of Education, a teacher’s thinking shapes a child’s mind (http://education.jhu.edu/). If the teacher believes this and then teaches it to their students, it will most definitely change that child’s opinion of what is right and what is wrong in the world, especially if the child is still young. As was stated in a previous paragraph, the movie of Inherit The Wind clearly shows that Dayton, Tennessee is a very religious town (Inherit/play). One way the movie clearly shows that is through the songs the people sing. Whenever the movie switches to an outdoor scene, the song “Give Me That Old Time Religion”, which can be found on youtube, is almost always sung by the townspeople. One of the few times this song is not sung outside is when, after all of Colonel Drummond’s witnesses are excused and he tries to drop the case, the townspeople gather together to form a lynch mob that then gathers in front of Drummond’s hotel, holding signs with different phrases such as “Hang Brady Cates” and “Henry Drummond Shame” while at the same time singing, “We’ll hang Bert Cates to a dollar apple” and “We’ll hang Henry Drummond to a dollar apple tree” (Inherit/play). This part of the film can be found at approximately 1 hour and 24 minutes into the movie. These two clips mentioned above show how much religion means to the people of Dayton, Tennessee because, when they sing for Matthew Harrison Brady on page 18 in the book, who was a modern-day prophet to them, they sing that “If it is good enough for Brady, it is good for me”. This means that if the Bible is good enough for him, it is perfect for them. Though, when they sing of Henry Drummond, who they called “Satan’s Goliath” on page 29, they sing of hanging him on a dollar apple tree along with Bertram Cates. These people were so convinced that Brady was God’s right hand man and that anyone who didn’t believe in God (such as Drummond) was the devil. This is interesting due to the fact that in the Bible, Matthew 5:44 says,“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” yet this is almost the exact opposite of what people were doing in this so-called religious town. These people have been led astray by the beliefs of their town and have taken their beliefs to a whole new level. Instead of using the Bible as a guide to life, which also says that God gave his people the freedom to choose whether they want to follow Him or not (Romans 10:13), the people of Dayton (and Tennessee in general) wanted everyone to be taught the Bible whether they like it or not, while at the same time, it denied people the right to choose whether they believe that God created the world or another belief such as evolution or the Big Bang theory. The townspeople were so influenced by the country and town they were in, they began to deny the facts the Bible told them and instead, they started to believe what the country had begun to believe as well. The setting that an event takes place in is crucial for one to understand what exactly is going on, especially in a book or play. The setting of the book Inherit The Wind by Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence played a major role in what was believed to be ethical and moral in the time of the 1920’s. The Roaring 20’s greatly affected one’s beliefs due to the epic showdown happening between traditionalists and modernists. The movie of Inherit The Wind, shows how much the town and state, Dayton, Tennessee, changed how people believed during the trial and how unjust the Butler Act truly was. This plight is very similar to some situations in our modern-day life.
According to the Agenzia Fides, there were over 50,000 Christians in prison camps in North Korea as of 2011 (http://www.fides.org). Though this situation is very different than the Scopes Trial was, in a way it is still the same. Both are denying people religious freedom whether the punishment may be a $100 fine or life as a slave. In Inherit The Wind, many of the townspeople and outsiders believed that it was right to only teach that God is the Creator of the world, and in North Korea, it is likely that the government believes that they are doing what is right for their people by locking up
Christians. Though there are still problems with religious freedom, we can learn from what happened in the Scopes Trial and how it was represented in Inherit The Wind, in order to make this world a little bit brighter. One way to succeed in world-wide religious freedom is to create a law for every country that would negate any racism based on religion. Countries could diplomatically choose a few nations that would be in charge of upholding this law in a specific region and if there was any court case due to this law, it could be decided by a Supreme Court made up of representatives of each country. Though it is not often thought about, the setting greatly affects what the moral code is anywhere. Without knowing the place, people, or time period one is in, the moral code would be rendered useless. There would be no way of understanding why the principles are what they are. The setting of a place, story, or play has a major effect on what the moral code is and what it is viewed as, and Inherit The Wind, by Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence, is just one of a million examples of that.
He was a mysterious unknown figure in the shadows; a slithering serpent in the courtroom. The defense attorney for the Scopes Monkey Trial was a cunning man. Clarence Darrow had difficulty defending his client, John T. Scopes, against his opponent, William Jennings Bryan. To everyone’s surprise however, he proved that he could prevail, even if he was under pressure from the world around him. Though Scopes was found guilty under Darrow, he surprisingly only had to pay a fine of one hundred dollars.
The “Monkey Trial” in 1925 was one of the most famous clashes in history between the Bible and evolution. The concept of the play was based on the Scopes Trial, but characters, actions, and words were altered. During the trial, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow went to court to try John Scopes for illegally teaching evolution, causing major complications in Dayton, Tennessee. In the play Inherit the Wind, the character, Henry Drummond, parallels his real-life counterpart, Clarence Darrow, through ¬his appearance, beliefs, and actions.
Ever since human civilization came into existence, people have been putting rules in place to determine who is behaving according to social norms and moral values and who is not. Because the majority of Western societies have historically been democratic, it makes sense that the public have a say in the enforcement of said rules. It is for this reason that the trial became a popular means of deciding upon punishment for those perceived to have broken the law, while also allowing them an opportunity to testify against their charges. Socrates underwent this process in 399 BC on charges of impiety and corruption of the youth of Athens , as did Louis Riel in 1885 on charges of treason for leading a Métis rebellion . Although they lived during vastly
The stage was set in Dayton, Tennessee. The leading actor in this show was a twenty five-year-old science teacher named John T. Scopes. Scopes was under the direction of advancing America. The playbill read The Scopes “Monkey” Trial. In 1925 John T. Scopes was encouraged to challenge the Butler Law. This law had been passed by a small town in Dayton, Tennessee to prohibit teaching contra to those in the Bible. Teaching from an evolutionary text, Scopes broke the law and gained the attention of the National media. The concentration of the media on the Scopes Trial effectively presented the contrasting ideas of a religious town and an evolving country.
There were no trials for those who were accused. Everybody simply ignored this. This was simple and clear violation of the constitution and its amendments. This situation had lots of similarities with the Salem witch trials because in both cases none of those accused had a fair trial or a chance to get out of the situation they were in. In both situations most of the time the accused got hanged.
To begin with, The Butler Act made the Scopes trial all possible. To state it simply, The Butler Act prohibited public schools in Tennessee from teaching Evolution, or to falsify the Biblical story of Creationism.
If the trial were held today, the law would be held unconstitutional as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause in the First Amendment. The trial would thus have been decided on the motion to quash the indictment, and there would have been no witnesses and none of the entertainment that we got in 1925.
simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU, tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from all over to witness whether science or religion would win the day. Yet, below all the hype, the trial had a deeper meaning.
The 1920’s were a time of change. New ideas were becoming more readily experimented with and even accepted by large portions of the population. Some of these included jazz music and the fight against the alcoholic prohibition. The radical idea I will focus on in this paper, however, is Evolution. It is a theory that had been around for over half a century before the 20’s but had only more recently caught on in the US. It contradicted the Christian theory of Divine Creation as described in the Bible. This caused many religious fundamentalists to fight against it. They took their battle to the law books, and they were challenged by pro-evolution modernists in the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925.
John Thomas Scopes, a math teacher and football coach for Rhea County High School in Dayton, Tennessee, was pressured into taking the challenge by a friend, George Rappleyea, who saw the advertisement. With the school’s biology teacher out for the last two weeks of class, Scopes took over and began teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Soon after, he was arrested and charged with a violation of the Butler Act. Contrary to popular understanding, the worst punishment for this crime was a small fine.
The case started in Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school seven blocks from her house, but the principal of the school refused simply because the child was black. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help (All Deliberate Speed pg 23). The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. The NAACP was looking for a case like this because they figured if they could just expose what had really been going on in "separate but equal society" that the circumstances really were not separate but equal, bur really much more disadvantaged to the colored people, that everything would be changed. The NAACP was hoping that if they could just prove this to society that the case would uplift most of the separate but equal facilities. The hopes of this case were for much more than just the school system, the colored people wanted to get this case to the top to abolish separate but equal.
Fear begets hate and hate begets violence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the 1741 New York slave conspiracy trials. Much like the violence in the Salem Witch Trials, a set of natural circumstances coupled with the word of one or two people from a lower order of society caused hysteria and bloodshed. This case is flimsy by modern-day standards and is also very flimsy by the standards of the 1740s.
Do non-human primates have communication, language, both, or neither? By definition, communication is the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information (Snowdon). Communication is very closely related to social behavior since they are both referring to the ways animals interact with each other (Quiatt and Reynolds 1993). Conversely, language is defined as a system of communication using sounds or gestures that are put together in meaningful ways according to a set of rules (Haviland et al. 2010). Non-human primates and human primates are similar in many ways, and communication is no exception. They both have various types of communication senses and styles. Human primate communication senses consist of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. Non-human primates mainly understand the world through sight, but smell, taste, and hearing are important as well (Quiatt and Reynolds 1993). Human primates are capable of speaking a language, while non-human primates use different vocal calls to communicate. In essence, the difference is simple, human primates have language while non-human primates do not. Even though non-human primates do not have language, they do have communication.
Krauthammer, Charles. “Let's Have No More Monkey Trials” Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg 10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 39-41. Print.
In 1925, a teacher named John T Scopes was arrested for teaching the Theory of Evolution as this contradicted religion and their beliefs that God created the world.