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God vs. Evolution in U.S. Public Schools - William Jennings Bryan in 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial
Cal State ^ | 1925 | William Jennings Bryan

Posted on 02/18/2018 12:17:33 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose

Religion is not hostile to learning; Christianity has been the greatest patron learning has ever had. But Christians know that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" now just as it has been in the past, and they therefore oppose the teaching of guesses that encourage godlessness among the students.

Do bad doctrines corrupt the morals of students? We have a case, Mr. Darrow, one of the most distinguished criminal lawyers in our land, was engaged about a year ago in defending two rich men's sons who were on trial for as dastardly a murder as was ever committed. The older one, "Babe" Leopold, was a brilliant student, 19 years old. He was an evolutionist and an atheist. He was also a follower of Nietzsche, whose books he had devoured and whose philosophy he had adopted. Mr. Darrow made a plea for him, based upon the influence that Nietzsche's philosophy had exerted upon the boy's mind.

Christians desire that their children shall be taught all the sciences, but they do not want them to lose sight of the Rock of Ages while they study the age of the rocks; neither do they desire them to become so absorbed in measuring the distance between the stars that they will forget Him who holds the stars in His hand.

It is for the jury to determine whether this attack upon the Christian religion shall be permitted in the public schools of Tennessee by teachers employed by the State and paid out of the public treasury. This case is no longer local: the defendant ceases to play an important part. The case has assumed the proportions of a battle royal between unbelief that attempts to speak through so-called science and the defenders of the Christian faith.

(Excerpt) Read more at 5.csudh.edu ...


TOPICS: Education; History; Religion; Science
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; 2ndamendment; constitution; conventionofstates; creationism; education; evolution; guncontrol; schoolshootings
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A Brief Reply by Clarence Darrow

"Loeb knew nothing of evolution or Nietzsche. It is probable he never heard of either. Leopold did, it is true, and had read Nietzsche. But because Leopold had read Nietzsche, does that prove that this philosophy or education was responsible for the act of two crazy boys?

Background

1919 - George W. Hunter publishes Civic Biology, a textbook designed for high school biology students. The book contains a section on evolution. The book will be adopted by Tennessee and assigned as reading in the classroom of John Scopes.

1922 - William Jennings Bryan, William B. Riley, John R. Straton, T. T. Martin (and other religious leaders) began a campaign for legislation that will ban the teaching of evolution in public schools.

January 21, 1925 - John Washington Butler introduces a bill in the Tennessee House of Representatives to ban the teaching of evolution in the public schools. The bill will later become the Butler Act, and will be the basis for the prosecution of John Scopes.

April 21, 1925 - Scopes discusses with his biology students the section on evolution in Hunter's Civic Biology, according to the later testimony of Superintendent Walter White. (A student, in his testimony, puts the date as "about the middle of April." The original indictment identifies the date of his teaching evolution as "the 24th day of April.")

May 3, 1925 - The ACLU discusses the Tennessee anti-evolution act at a board meeting in New York. The board decides to issue a press announcement that it stood willing to support any teacher that challenged the law's constitutionality.

Early June, 1925 - John Scopes and his first attorney, John R. Neal, travel to New York to meet with ACLU officials about the upcoming trial. Scopes states his preference for being represented by Clarence Darrow and Dudley Field Malone. The ACLU reluctantly agrees to Scopes's choice of lawyers.

July 7, 1925 - William Jennings Bryan arrives in Dayton by train from Florida. That evening, the Progressive Club of Dayton holds a banquet in his honor at the Hotel Aqua. Sitting with Bryan at the main table is John Scopes. At the banquet, Bryan declares, "If evolution wins, Christianity goes!"

1 posted on 02/18/2018 12:17:33 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
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To: GoldenState_Rose
The John T. Scopes Trial--Vernon Dalhart (1925)

Oh the folks in Tennessee are as faithful as can be,
And they know the Bible teaches what is right.
They believe in God above and his great undying love,
And they know they are protected by his might.

Refrain:
You may find the new belief, it will only bring you grief,
For a house that's built on sand is sure to fall.
And wherever you will turn, there's a lesson you will learn:
That the old religion's better, after all.

Then to Dayton came a man with his new ideas so grand,
And he said, "we came from monkeys long ago."
But in teaching his belief, Mr. Scopes found only grief,
For they would not let their old religion go.

Refrain

Then the folks throughout the land saw his house was built on sand,
And they said, "we will not listen anymore."
So they told him he was wrong and it was not very long
that he found that he was barred from every door.

Oh you must not doubt the word that is written by the Lord,
For if you do, your house will surely fall.
And Mr. Scopes will learn that wherever he may turn,
The old religion's better, after all.

Refrain

2 posted on 02/18/2018 12:43:22 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: CHRISTIAN DIARIST; Yaelle

Bring God back to our school curriculum *Ping*


3 posted on 02/18/2018 12:48:28 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
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To: GoldenState_Rose

“But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.”
[Matthew 10:33]


4 posted on 02/18/2018 1:02:53 PM PST by blackpacific
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To: GoldenState_Rose
My favorite tidbit from the Scopes trial, aside from the movie "Inherit the Wind," was when Darrow made some remark disparaging the court proceedings, and the judge harrumphed, "The court hopes the defense is not impugning the honor of this court."

And Darrow replied, "His honor is entitled to hope."

As for Leopold and Loeb ...



Leopold and Loeb, a 1920s 'Crime of the Century', featured Clarence Darrow and the introduction of 'mental illness' as a defense instead of insanity.  The two murdering defendants were from wealthy families and killed a boy on a  lark.  They both went to prison, where one was killed, and the other got out after 33 years incarceration.  A Columbo episode looks to have been based on this case. FReeper moehoward points out that Alfred Hitchcock's The Rope was similarly based"

5 posted on 02/18/2018 1:06:12 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: Fiji Hill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP6mt20jWIg


6 posted on 02/18/2018 1:08:34 PM PST by 353FMG
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To: GoldenState_Rose

There is also the witty live reporting from the trial by H.L. Mencken:

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1077


7 posted on 02/18/2018 1:17:15 PM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: Fiji Hill

In front of several thousand spectators in the open air, Darrow changed his tactics and as his sole witness called Bryan in an attempt to discredit his literal interpretation of the Bible. In a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements to the amusement of the crowd. On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been preparing for weeks.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/monkey-trial-begins


8 posted on 02/18/2018 1:22:09 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: sparklite2

The most interesting facts about Loeb and Leopold is not that they were very young and very rich. Instead they were remarkable success stories in the world of advanced prestigious education. As Paul Sann put it, “They were Phi Beta Kappa all the way” setting records for early graduations.

Yet their education left them moral degenerates. That was Bryan’s point. Their brilliant minds bereft of God and patriotism left them pitiful figures awaiting the judgement of an Earthly court.


9 posted on 02/18/2018 4:39:18 PM PST by Monterrosa-24 (...even more American than a Russian AK-47 and a French bikini.)
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To: blackpacific

They purport to be so big on choice than let parents have choice as to where they send their own children to school, Godless, evolutionary schools, or believing schools. The proof shall be in the pudding.

Schools which teach evolution, and block the basic Judeo/Christian belief in God from being taught, or even being acknowledged, by definition are promoting atheism. Atheism is the belief that there isn’t God. By forcing God out of the schools, it leaves a blank where God should be. That blank is the absence of God, which is the very definition of atheism. It leaves children with the false belief, derived from their personal experience in school, where they are led to believe and trust that they are being taught and led on the paths of truth, that God, The I Am who is the very essence of existence, doesn’t exist.


10 posted on 09/30/2018 5:00:45 PM PDT by Bellflower (Who dares believe Jesus? He says absolutely amazing things, which few dare conside. r.)
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To: Bellflower

Amen brother.

Evolution was a hoax perpetuated on the scientific class. It succeeded because the scientists were not well versed in the humanities, they were not skilled in picking apart invalid syllogisms and weak arguments.

But it is also Luciferian insofar as it denies the Agent Cause of the Universe, which we know to be God, and purports to place chaos in the His place. The Lord of the Flies is the source of this hoax.


11 posted on 10/01/2018 9:14:57 PM PDT by blackpacific
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To: GoldenState_Rose

Parochial schools are religious based schools. Teaching religion is their business.
The federal Department of Education, which took the reins away from the individual states, and their particular syllabi, oversees the secular instruction of the pupils, to federal government standards, sans religion, as per the 1st Amendment.

IF, my tax dollars are being argued to teach Christianity, and that alone, as some form of “religious training” in the federal schools, then I desire to see Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism, as well, while excluding Judaism (parochial school exists), mohammedanism, a political theocracy in direct opposition to the U. S. Constitution. It’s all or none.


12 posted on 05/24/2020 5:20:23 PM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: blackpacific

“Hoax” is the operative word. Belief in evolution is required but irrational.


13 posted on 05/05/2021 6:17:25 PM PDT by alstewartfan (The dawn is turning away The ghost of Charlotte Corday. Al Stewart)
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To: Terry L Smith

That is the problem with false religions, they assume the same rights as true religion, and consequently sow much confusion about who God is and why we belong to Him.

The public education system in this country was founded because the free-masons feared that the Catholic school system was in due time going to make most of the citizens Catholic.


14 posted on 05/06/2021 6:20:16 AM PDT by blackpacific ( )
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To: blackpacific

There are over TWO THOUSAND DIFFERENT BELIEF SYSTEMS, so they all think they are the one.


15 posted on 05/06/2021 7:05:11 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: blackpacific

Evolution is a scientific fact.
The argument of science versus religion can be traced back to such men as Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus.

The bible is not, and never has been a science textbook.

Y’all believe what you wish.
Don’t call me wrong to believe what I wish.


16 posted on 05/06/2021 10:19:00 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: Terry L Smith

Evolution is a belief system. It substitutes chaos in place of agent cause. You have to really really believe that entropy can decrease on its own without any spiritual assistance, contrary to everything we observe in nature as entropy is always increasing.

You also have to be really really bad at math as random beneficial mutations are on the order of 1/(2^2^K) in probability, which on any laptop with a reasonable amount of memory and CPU runs out of numbers large enough at k=11, which is only 11 beneficial mutations.

And you will have to render an account to the King of kings.


17 posted on 05/06/2021 3:08:41 PM PDT by blackpacific ( )
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To: Terry L Smith

The existence of counterfeit religions does not negate the existence of true religion. In fact, if you think about it, a counterfeit implies that there is a real McCoy.

In the realm of natural theology, defined as the study of God through the light of natural reason, very few have arrived at sound conclusions other than Aristotle and his teacher Plato. Unfortunately most students of higher learning never get the opportunity to study the “Metaphysics” where Aristotle contemplates the attributes of God. It is truly a remarkable text.


18 posted on 05/06/2021 3:41:41 PM PDT by blackpacific ( )
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To: blackpacific

To your last sentence: “sez you”.

I will not blindly accept anyone’s interpretation of the Xian faith. You can copy from the book, write it in your own words, even add a few ‘you better’s’.

I left the Pentecostal nuthouse, disposed of the printed material in the Mississippi River, and washed my shoes of the dust of the place.

I will exercise my spitituality in the frame Thomas Jefferson stated, ‘between him and his god, alone’.


19 posted on 05/06/2021 6:05:53 PM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: Terry L Smith

I don’t think anyone is asking you to accept interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures with “blind” faith.

Here is the Apostle John speaking about creation by the Word:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.” John 1:1-3

And here the Word Himself speaking regarding evolution:

“Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. [33] But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” Matt 10:31-33

The fact that you might have belonged to a counterfeit “christian” religion is no argument against true religion.


20 posted on 05/10/2021 8:49:38 AM PDT by blackpacific ( )
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