The Scopes Trial took place in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925. The trial was soon known as the "monkey trial" as John Scopes was brought to court for teaching evolution in the public classroom. In reality he was a football coach and math teacher, but he had substituted in a biology class for a short time. He did not know very much of evolution or necessarily believe in it himself, but was following the current curriculum. However, several citizens from Dayton were hoping to set up a trial that would bring publicity to their small town. Scopes was the best candidate for a good controversy, the argument between Christianity and evolution in education.
The Dayton citizens certainly got the publicity that they wanted. The well known attorney, Clarence Darrow, came in the defense of Scopes. William Jennings Bryan, the attorney who had ran three times for the presidency, came for the prosecution. Seemingly countless numbers of reporters came to report on the trial and updates were heard on the radio. Publicity reached all the way to Europe and Australia.
The trial turned out to be more for show rather for an actual offence. Scopes was not kept as a prisoner or treated any differently. He did not even have to give an account for his actions during the trial as he did not know very much about evolution and was not actually guilty of teaching evolution in his classes. He was more of a vessel for a "show trial" than a true criminal.
Inherit The Wind was a movie based on the trial, but it brought a very different perspective to the story. The creators of the movie were obviously atheists as the evolutionists were shown as the sensible people and the Christians were shown as silly men and women who only knew how to sing songs and read out of the Bible. William Jennings Bryan, known as Harrison Brady in the movie, is portrayed as a man who only knows the Bible, and yet he does not really understand the Bible. He will accept anything as long as it says it in the Bible, but he does not dig deeper into ideas to understand why it says it in the Bible. He has no desire to read The Origin of Species and knows nothing about it, and yet he is proclaiming that it is wrong and should not be taught. He seems to not really know what he believes in, so he is afraid to think and look into other ideas because he might lead himself astray. Darrow on the other hand, known as Henry Drummond in the movie, is intelligent, knowing both sides of the story and valuing the capacity to think.
The pastor of the local church is portrayed as scaring people into the faith by sending all unbelievers to the lake of fire. He also does not seem to know what to do and always has to turn to God for help, portraying the idea that Christianity cripples a human being. The end of the movie does take an interesting turn as Drummond holds the Bible and The Origin of Species together and seems to be blending the two together. The viewer is left with the feeling that Christians are a hypocritical organization of people that do not even know what they believe in, but the thinking of Darwin and Christianity could combine to produce truth.
The movie and the actual event have many differences as they had different agendas. The movie had the purpose of representing Christianity as a foolish religion that ruins a human being. The real trial, on the other hand, had the purpose of bringing publicity and fame to a small town and have an American trial broadcasted around the world. I would have to say that both achieved their goals.
For pictures from the actual trial click here.
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