THINKER'S ALMANAC - July 21

Subject:  Epistemology - The Scope’s Trial and The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Event:  Verdict in the Scope’s Trial, 1925

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means. -Clarence Darrow

Sixty-six years after the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1859), the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a law called the Butler Act, banning the teaching of evolution in schools in March 1925.

Looking to test the Butler Act, the American Civil Liberties Union began looking for teachers who might be willing to challenge the law. Hearing about the ACLU’s search, a group of town leaders in Dayton, Tennessee became interested, not because they were truly concerned about the law; instead, they were motivated for monetary reasons.  If they could bring the high-level court case to Dayton, it might just create the kind of publicity that would stimulate the town's economy.  The Dayton group’s leaders recruited John Scopes, a football coach and substitute science teacher, to carry out the plan.  After being charged, Scopes was indicted by a grand jury. 

                                                            Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

When the trial began on July 10, 1925, the Rhea County Courthouse was loaded to standing-room-only capacity with nearly 1,000 onlookers.  Adding to the drama of the proceedings, Scopes was represented by Clarence Darrow, one of the nation’s best-known lawyers.  The prosecution had its own celebrity, William Jennings Bryan, a famous lawyer, orator, and politician, who had run three times as the Democratic nominee for the office of President of the United States.  

A climactic moment of the trial came on its tenth day.  Because of the summer heat, the trial was moved outdoors, and the defense decided to raise the heat even more by calling William Jennings Bryan to testify as a biblical expert (1).

Challenging Bryan’s literal interpretation of the Bible, Darrow interrogated him concerning specific Old Testament accounts, such as Jonah being swallowed by a whale, Noah and the flood, and Adam being tempted in the Garden of Eden.  Bryan insisted that he accepted the biblical accounts as true but eventually conceded that a literal interpretation should not always be made.  For example, when asked if the biblical account of the six days of creation from Genesis was a description of six 24-hour days, Bryan responded, saying,  "My impression is that they were periods” (2).

The confrontation between Darrow and Bryan was more spectacle than substance.  The next day Judge Raulston had Bryan’s examination by Darrow stricken from the record since it had little to do with the central question of the trail, which was whether or not Scopes break the Tennessee law.

In the end, Darrow requested the jury return a guilty verdict, which would allow the case to be appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court.  After deliberating for nine minutes, the jury announced its guilty verdict on this day in 1925.  As a penalty, Judge Raulston fined Scopes $100.

Less than a week after the trial, William Jennings Bryan died in his sleep.

In 1967, 42 years after the Scopes Trial, Tennessee repealed the Butler Act.

The clash between religion and science in public schools resurfaced in the 21st century when the Kansas State Board of Education ruled in 2005 that schools could present “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution.  

In response, Bobby Henderson, a physics graduate of Oregon State University, published a satirical open letter to the Kansas State Board of Education demanding equal time for his belief in Pastafarianism, the belief in a creator called the Flying Spaghetti Monster:

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

. . . .  I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (Pastafarianism), and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence. (3)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How do the Scope's Trial and the Flying Spaghetti Monster both relate to epistemology? 

Challenge - Express Your Ire with Satire:  Write a satirical open letter of your own to a person, place, or thing that you think deserves criticism.  The challenge here is to cloak your satire in irony.  Instead of directly criticizing, you must mock your subject through hyperbole and sarcasm.

The following are just a few examples of possible recipients:

Open Letter to Multiple Choice Tests

Open Letter to Procrastination

Open Letter to Homework

Open Letter to Your Hometown

Open Letter to Your Textbook

Open Letter to Daylight Saving Time

Open Letter to Your High School Cafeteria

Sources:

1-Adams, Noah. Timeline: Remembering the Scopes Monkey Trial.  NPR.org  JULY 5, 2005

2-Linder, Douglas O.  State v. John Scopes ("The Monkey Trial")

3-Henderson, Bobby.  Open Letter to the Kansas School Board. Spaghettimonster.org 2006.