History #1

Many of the larger issues of the Scopes trial are still important today. The debate of secular versus theological learning is a long one that has raged for many years. Also, the idea of the literal interpretation of the bible has been fought over constantly by both secular and non-secular groups from both sides since long before the New World was rediscovered. These are important issues simply because of the amount of people who believe in them. As a character in a Kevin Smith movie once said “Beliefs are tricky. People will kill for a belief”. The theological society at the time of the Scopes trial was frightened of opposing view points. During this time, the tent revival was in its salad day and one the most popular sermon types was of the “hellfire and damnation” variety. One of the most widely held beliefs that came out of these revivals was that children would go to hell if they died before or in-between baptisms. So, one of the greatest fears for parents was that their young Johnny would lead astray but errant beliefs. Theology has been at war with the humanistic secular thought since the end of the middle ages, but the secular circles hadn’t, until the early nineteen hundreds, come up with a satisfactory explanation to the question of “why we were here”. Then Darwin wrote “The origin of species” and the idea of the creation as told in the bible was challenged. This causes conflict.

The problem with the larger ideas in the scopes trial is that there shouldn’t even be larger issues. John Scopes broke the law, plain and simple. The trial was about if the law itself was fair or not, which has nothing to do with anything. Though, now that I think of it, sooner or later, the theologians and secularist would have probably found some other place and time to clash, so it was better that it happened in a rural area of Tennessee then in a highly populated area where riots would have been more prevalent.