The year 1925 seems so recent (my Dad was born in 1927) but it was 100 years ago today, 21st July, that John Thomas Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution and fined £100. What?! I hear you say, but yes, after a trial lasting 11 days, this man was accused of violating the Butler Act in America. The Butler Act was a state law in Tennessee that outlawed the teaching of human evolution in public schools.
Following on from Darwin’s book The Origin of the Species published in 1859, more and more people came to believe the theory and concluded that the creation as recorded in the book of Genesis in the Bible should not be interpreted literally. This upset many Christian groups and John Washington Butler, a Tennessee State Representative, was fed up with hearing of children coming home from school saying that they no longer believed in God, and lobbied the state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws.
On appeal, the state Supreme Court acquitted Scopes on a technicality, but the publicity ruined him and he left teaching.
Oh yes – the Butler Act itself was not repealed until 1967….
Following on from Darwin’s book The Origin of the Species published in 1859, more and more people came to believe the theory and concluded that the creation as recorded in the book of Genesis in the Bible should not be interpreted literally. This upset many Christian groups and John Washington Butler, a Tennessee State Representative, was fed up with hearing of children coming home from school saying that they no longer believed in God, and lobbied the state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws.
On appeal, the state Supreme Court acquitted Scopes on a technicality, but the publicity ruined him and he left teaching.
Oh yes – the Butler Act itself was not repealed until 1967….
