Hist Intl Today - The Scopes Trial

[onager]

History International channel: 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America - Scopes: The Battle For America's Soul

Jebus, that must be the longest TV-show title EVAH...

Anyway, this show has been aired before, but it was new to me and may be new to some of you as well. In my Pacific time zone, it shows twice today, morning and evening.

Excellent account of the cultural, religious and scientific events that intersected in Dayton, Tenn. during July 1925.

Among the experts interviewed - the delightful Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of Doubt. A book that proved disbelief has a history as long, rich and varied as religious belief.

I'm not an expert, but I've read a lot about the trial and learned some new things from this show.

Example: the law that convicted John Scopes served as a template for banning evolution across America. By 1930, five years after the trial, about 70% of American school districts had one way or another banned the teaching of evolution.

The punch line: evolution only came back to the schools after 1957, when the Gawdless Russkis put Sputnik into orbit. That event showed that the USA suffered a "science gap" and and shocked our government into promoting science. Including evolution.

[InvisibleTouch]

1. It's been made into several good movies, too.

An important bit of history.

As a totally pointless aside, I know someone who knew someone who knew both of the lawyers in the Scopes trial, so that puts me, what, 3 degrees away from them?

[SharonAnn]

3. I live 50 miles from Dayton, TN (Home of the Scopes trial). and things haven't changed much

This is still an area full of fundamentalists who don't want evolution taught in schools, want their religion in the schools and all the government departments, fight for the 10 commandments on the walls in public building, etc.

Also, they're really big on all the "end times" stuff.

[onager]

4. Howdy! Have you ever been to the Scopes re-enactment?

That's in the show I mentioned. They filmed part of the re-enactment, which occurs every July on the Dayton courthouse lawn, using local people as the cast.

The...uh...actor (and I'm being very generous) playing William Jennings Bryan said: "It's easy for me to play Bryan, because I agree with everything he said."

BTW, I grew up not far away from you, in Upstate South Carolina. Up there where the state lines of SC, NC, Georgia and Tennessee meet. Which was great for the local bootleggers and is still handy for the meth cookers, I guess.

Understand the mindset you mentioned completely. Every time I visit my relatives back there, I practically have to super-glue my jaws shut. One of my cousins opens almost every conversation with: "WAH! They won't let us pray in school." I used to point out that what she really wanted was the freedom to browbeat everybody else in school with her Fundie Xianity, but I've gradually learned to just STFU. And remind myself that I will soon be back in Los Angeles...

[cleanhippie]

5. It IS important.

I could not agree more.

[thaddeus_flowe]

2. great post

is it just me or are we missing lawyers like clarence darrow these days?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow

[struggle4progress]

6. Here's Darrow's cross of Bryan:

http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/Darrow.html

[cleanhippie]

7. The obfuscation, deflection and circular logic seems so familiar.

I guess we know where that argumentative style comes from. Just goes to show, some things never change and Bryant is proof of that.