Follow, Don't Lead.
The Scopes trial, or "The Monkey Trial," demonstrates the unfairness of the .
American legal system. It was the summer of 1925, in the small town of Dayton, .
Tennessee, where John Scopes was prosecuted for illegally teaching his students the .
theory of evolution. The trial involved more than a man versus a state, but rather one set .
of ideas persecuting those who thought otherwise.
The majority of American society, including those who were in power, had deep .
rooted religious beliefs. The traditionalists were spread throughout the court system as .
well, construing the bible in their rulings when they saw fit. They tried to keep new ideas .
from being spread to the masses out of fear of change. .
Society was in a revolutionary state. People began to think themselves as free .
from societies grip, as opposed to the idea of socially acceptable behaviors. Americans .
talked of Freudian theories, and refused to accept alcohol prohibition. The older .
traditionalists feared this new wave of free thinkers and were determined to pummel .
these people into the depths of the earth. Unfortunately for them, the new modernists .
wouldn't simply fade away.
In 1859, Charles Darwin published "Origin of Species," a book that challenged the .
old ideas of divine intervention and the six days, as stated in the book of.
Genesis. These new ideas of natural selection and evolution were presented to a that .
wasn't ready to accept contradictory ideas. Traditional thinkers saw this book as a major .
threat to society. A complete contradiction to their beliefs was unacceptable and men such .
as Richard Owen who attempted to stricken the new ideas from being read. In a meeting .
of the British Association for the advancement of science, BishopWilberforce attacked .
the Darwinian thinkers such as Thomas Huxley. The Bishop gave a fierce rebuttal to the .
idea that man evolved from an ape, or even a single celled organism.
