Today in class we watched a movie on the Scopes Trial. Why do you think that The History Channel picked this as one of the 10 Days that changed America? How do you think this has changed America? And what affect does it have on us today?
Josh St.
Below is a link to a site on the Scopes Trial from the University of Missouri at Kansas City: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scopes/scopes.htm
You may have also seen this picture in some of the readings or pictures of the Scopes trial. Here's a quote from T.T. Martin's book, Hell and the High School: "The Germans who poisoned the wells and springs of northern France and Belgium and fed little children poisoned candy were angels compared to the teachers, paid by our taxes, who feed our children's minds with the deadly, soul-destroying poison of Evolution....Evolution and the teaching of Evolution in tax-supported schools is the greatest curse that ever fell upon this earth."
A Court TV website dedicated to the Scopes Trial: http://www.courttv.com/archive/greatesttrials/scopes/
A CNN.com archive of a July 2000 article revisiting the trial on its 75th anniversary. Very detailed with related articles and links at the bottom of the page. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/LAW/07/13/scopes.monkey.trial/
Even more stuff on evolution or creation: http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801 The Grand Canyon National Park is not allowed to speculate on how old the canyon is b/c it might violate the sacred concept of creation. In fact, at the NPS gift store there, they began selling a book in 2003 called Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail which essentially gives a biblical timeframe for the formation of the Grand Canyon (Noah's flood caused it) instead of geolgical forces.
2 comments:
I think that this was chosen as one of the days that changed America, because it finally allowed America to move forward and allow the freedom of learning. I think that this trial was unexpected, and showed the bias of the judge towards the defendant. Had the Judge allowed all of the scientists to come in and talk to the jury, he would have created an equal opportunity between science and religion, but because he didn’t allow any scientists, he actually showed the world how unfair this trial was. Through the arguments of Clarence Darrow, a way was found to actually connect to people a further idea of the trial. He had made an elephant out of a fly, by creating a did or didn’t trial into a should or shouldn’t trial. I think that the main reason that this trial had an affect on America is because to Americans, it showed that the trial was about more than they saw, it was about freedom of speech, and separation of church and state. This trial basically allows us to learn freely, whatever we want, whether it follows the bible or not.
Anna S.
I think the history channel picked this as one of the top ten days that changed America because this was a very controversal topic to talk about, and once John Scopes taught this in his classroom, it changed the way our government saw the teaching of evolution. Back when the government forbid the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution, it was very unexpected that a teacher would ever think about teaching evolution to his students. So when he did teach this, the government found this very alarming.
I think this has changed America because since the trial, we are now able to have the freedom of speech and have the ability to talk and learn about whatever we want without haveing it be illegal. Even though Scopes was found giulty and had to pay a fine, he opened the path for being able to learn true facts. even though it was not ethical in the bible.
Today we are now able to learn about Darwin and his theory of evolution. We don't have to agree with what he believed, but we still have to learn about all the different views and facts about evolution. So I think since John Scopes' trial, we are now able to learn about whatever we want and voice our own opinions about the topic.
Lauren T.
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