“Monkey” Trial Science
In the John Scopes “monkey trial” in Dayton Tennessee in 1925 a substantial
amout of “scientific” evidence for evolution was submitted. John Scopes had
conspired with Clarence Darrow (a prominent Humanist lawyer) and the ACLU
to “show up Christainity” by having Scopes prosecuted under a Tennessee law
that prohibited the teaching of Evolution. Speaking for the Creation side
at the trial, William Jennings Bryan would offer a very poor response to the
evolution evidence. Today, let's look at the “compelling”, “convincing” and
“certain” evidence for evolution offered in 1925. That evidence was: ape to
man evolution “proved” by Nebraska man, Piltdown man, Neanderthal man and
Java man, embryonic recapitulation (phylogony recapitulaes ontogony) as proposed
by Haeckel, 180 vestigal organs and the so called “Horse series”. Today, in
1997, no credible scientist would cite any of these proofs of evolution. All
of them have been rejected. Science changes as we make new discoveries. Since
evolution is an idea that deals with the past it can never be proved and people
who claim it can be are being, at best, dishonest or intentionally liars.
There was also a large amount of geologic evidence presented at the Scopes
Trial that used the uniform principle (see our question about the Tetons
to address uniforitarianism).
Resources that relate to this months fact are:
Scopes:
Creation on Trial (book and tape combination)
World's
Most Famous Court Trial (Book with the transcript of the actual trial)
and the Video
The
Monkey Trial: The Scopes Trial and the Decline of the Church
Questions?
Email me.
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