Evolution and the Law: “A Death Struggle Between Two Civilizations”
I. The Trial of the Century
The 1925 State v. Scopes[1] evolution-creation trial in Dayton, Tennessee, has been called “the world’s most famous court trial,” [2] and it was a trial that certainly did arrest the world’s attention. As William Jennings Bryan, the special prosecutor in the trial, noted, “We are told that more words have been sent across the ocean by cable to Europe and Australia about this trial than has been sent by cable in regard to anything else happening in the United States.” [3] Indeed, few other trials have produced such crowded courtrooms and worldwide media attention or have resulted in as many full-length movies and reenactments of its proceedings as has this trial.
Bryan believed that the trial had “stirred the world” because “this cause . . . goes deep. It is because it extends wide, and because it reaches into the future beyond the power of man to see. Here has been fought out a little case of little consequence as a case, but the world is interested because it raises an issue.” [4] Award-winning historian Henry Steele Commager described how that “issue” became a sensationalized spectacle:…..
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This entry was posted in Evolution, History and tagged atheism, Clarence Darrow, Dayton, evolution, fundamentalism, Henry Steele Commager, John Scopes, Justice Holmes, Monkey Trial, Scopes Trial, teaching of evolution, Tennessee, WallBuilders, William Jennings Bryan. Bookmark the permalink.
2 Responses to Evolution and the Law: “A Death Struggle Between Two Civilizations”
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So according to this story, people are still under the belief that the world was created about 5000 years ago, and all of the carbon dating, and fossils, etc., are fake?
And schools are told not to teach the fact that we are all part of Gods evolving plan that He put in motion hundreds of millions of years ago?
I am saddened by the lack of common sense and good judgment being shown here. I love God and His creations…but I have common sense and scientific understanding as well.
Larry – From your last 2 comments, it appears that you do not understand the young-earth creationist view at all or have not ready very much about it. First and foremost, we believe the Word of God OVER the word of man. God’s Word says that He created everything about 6000 years ago. We do not believe that carbon dating or fossils are fake. A large part of the fossil record is a testimony to God’s judgment on the earth about 4500 years ago in the event that we call Noah’s Flood.
As for carbon dating and other radioisotope dating methods, they are based on a number of assumptions that are currently under question by a group of very well qualified and esteemed scientists. One of the major assumptions in carbon 14 dating is that the rate of radioactive carbon 14 production and decay has ALWAYS remained constant. Yet there is mounting were drastically altered at the time of the Flood.
In addition, you say that carbon 14 cannot lie? Please go to http://creation.com/radiometric-dating-questions-and-answers and read some of the articles that show how inaccurate C14 and other dating methods can be when dating items of known age.
Here is something to cosider. If God just set everything in motion after He created it millions of years ago, then you have to accept that death and disease and suffereing were all part of that creation that was set in place. Then on Day 6 of Creation when God declares that EVERYTHING if VERY good, that death and disease are also very good. If death is very good, then how can you explain the many biblical references to it being a penalty for sin? More importantly, then why did Jesus Christ have to die on the Cross for the atonement of OUR sins? Any death before man, completley and utterly undermines the entire Gospel message of Jesus, birth, life, teachings, crucifixion and resurrection. Christianity completely collapses if there was death before sin.