Scopes Monkey Trial Essay

1815 Words4 Pages

The Scopes Monkey Trial (otherwise known as the Scopes Trial, Monkey Trial, and the Scopes Evolution Trial [www.historynet.com]), was the trial of The State Of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes on the basis that John Scopes had defied the Butler Act. The Butler Act, which was passed on March 13, 1925, was “an act prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all universities, normals, and public schools in Tennessee...” (www.tennessee.gov).

This trial, held on July 10, 1925, was the people’s way of fighting the Butler Act. The idea of purposely defying the Butler Act in order to put it on trial originally came from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (www.historynet.com). The ACLU had been searching, via newspaper ads, for a teacher to volunteer to go on trial when some of the townspeople of Dayton, Tennessee came together and convinced John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, to do it (www.historynet.com). According to www.npr.org, the Scopes Trial was deviously planned not only to put the Butler Act on trial, but it was also done in hopes that the trial would bring publicity and money in order to help revive the economy of their small town and get a glimpse of the economic boom happening around them (www.npr.org, www.cbsnews.com).

When looking at the book, Inherit The Wind by …show more content…

According to the Agenzia Fides, there were over 50,000 Christians in prison camps in North Korea as of 2011 (http://www.fides.org). Though this situation is very different than the Scopes Trial was, in a way it is still the same. Both are denying people religious freedom whether the punishment may be a $100 fine or life as a slave. In Inherit The Wind, many of the townspeople and outsiders believed that it was right to only teach that God is the Creator of the world, and in North Korea, it is likely that the government believes that they are doing what is right for their people by locking up

Open Document