Scopes Monkey Trial

[frogmarch]

This is an excellent documentary about the Scopes Trial of 1925.

from Wiki:

The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was a famous American legal case in 1925 in which a high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
...
The trial is perhaps best known today for serving as the inspiration for the play, Inherit the Wind, and the movie of the same title.

[longship]

1. And Scopes lost! nt

[Warpy]

2. And the drumbeat from the idiots goes on and on

with semiliterate but glib preachers all over the country who have completely misunderstood evolution teaching their misunderstanding to congregations who mistakenly think glibness is synonymous with intelligence.

[frogmarch]

3. Despite his firm stance against evolution,

I have a lot of respect for William Jennings Bryan. He was a staunch Democrat and fought hard for unions and the working class, and he championed women’s rights. It’s a shame his fundamentalist Christian beliefs made him look foolish in the Scopes Trial – well, I guess to everyone but his fellow fundies.