Evolutionary theory versus the creation theory
Introduction
The pious and most Christians have always felt threatened by the contemporary world, this is due to a belief that we are all the decedents of the first people, who were created by a supreme being in his likeness. Religions derive their doctrines from scriptures, for example, the Bible that tells of the creation story and how Christians should handle themselves, including parables, teachings, and life lessons.
The start of the 20th century saw the coming up of revolutionists and scholars like Darwin who devoted his work to explaining the origin of species.
Darwin came up with the evolution theory that, say that human being originated from a natural selection from the environment and adaptation rather than from a supreme being. In his book ‘the origin of species of 1859.
he said that living organisms evolve or change over time due to a change in behavioral or heritable physical traits. Darwin supported his work with studies from different animal anatomical structures and concludes that those with the most desirable characteristics thrive, and pass the good characteristics to their offspring while the weak die or are devoured by predators. The theory can simply be called survival for the fittest in am man eat man society.
Why did the teaching of evolutionary theory create such a stir in the 1920s?
Darwinism arrived in the world from the late 1890s to 1930s a period that was occupied by a series of world events and occurrences in both the religious and contemporary sectors. That period marked the growth of the protestant church which despite the many schisms retained some similar faiths. With time they split into the evangelical or theologically conservative and the modernists or the theological liberal protestants. the theory of evolution was the major cause of schism among the protestants. Biology classes all over the nation taught Darwinian ideas to students. The conflict between religion and evolution was stiff at those times and was the language of most protestants was in defense of religion. a popular preacher, Billy Sunday claimed on a revival meeting in 1995 at Memphis that he believed that he was just as the God Almighty made him. The anti-evolution crusade was however later propelled by William Jennings Bryan, a politician who had sought the presidency three times.
Was the evolutionary theory really likely to undermine morality and civilization?
does not lead to nihilism, the belief that life is meaningless. Darwin’s Origin of species 1859 states that we originated from ape-like creatures and are distantly related to single-celled organisms that inhabited the oceans millions of years ago. This is proven in the anatomical resemblance of the limbs, the forehead and other organs to apes. Excavation and archeological study of early societies show they also had organized systems that were mostly attributed to by the climate, diet, size. Human civilization was therefore not centered on religion, otherwise, religion was the outcome of people’s integration and way of putting people together.
How did modernists reconcile Darwinism and religion?
Modernists like William Jennings Bryan, a politician who had sought the presidency three times in vain and a devout protestant believed that teaching Darwinian ideas in the nation’s classrooms would poison the student’s minds. He argued that teaching centrally theories like that of evolution would cut off the people’s belief in religion and the depiction of the bible as ‘a collection of myths’ this would turn the people from a righteous and loving nation into a savage one that cares only for its kind.
Those who supported the teaching of the theory of evolution to students were not supporters of selective breeding or eugenics, they were rather advocates of exposing students to new scientific ideas. Others like the members of the American Civil Liberties Union saw teaching as a matter of freedom of speech and am issue of separating religion from governance.
Others like Clarence Darrow a famed lawyer saw the conflict as a result of a complex relationship between backwardness and religious superstition. Darrow saw religion as a community divider and an enemy of social progress.
Early philosophers like Marx and Rangel’s, Henry Maine, Max Weber, and Karl Mannheim expanded the moral understanding and social improvement. From conclusive results, it was drawn that the morals and legal codes are based on once status, nationality, ethnicity, sex, occupation, title, or position in the society or set code of conduct.
The works of Stocking, the new paradigm of the social sciences, (Stocking 1968,220), inspired by Franz Boaz an anthropologist who rejected histories teleological conception, and rather said that civilized nations must rule over weak in the species or absorb them.
What were the main issues in the Scopes trial?
The state of Tennessee v. John Thomas scope case commonly known as the Scopes Monkey Trial in newspaper headlines was a case filed against the accused, a high school teacher who was charged with violating an Act in the State of Tennessee that prohibited the teaching and learning of evolution in public schools. The case was staged and stands as one of the greatest as the proceedings were covered by journalists from all over the country. The aim of the trial was to bring focus to the rather miniature town of Dayton Tennessee.
The trial attracted the attention of top orators like Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan as opposing counsel. The aim of the play was to challenge the bill and to bring to light the legitimacy of Darwinian theory.
What was achieved in Darrow’s examination of Bryan?
On the seventh day of the trial, Darrow examined Bryan in a confrontation that lasted for nearly two hours, without a conclusion or surrender. Judge Roulston’s ruled out the examination as irrelevant to the case and had it removed from the record. The result was Bryan was denied the chance to reciprocate the examination to Darrow, the defense counsel. Bryan later sent 9 questions to the media in view of bringing out the ‘religious attitude’ in Darrow’s. The questions featured in the newspapers the next day with Darrow’s short answers that characterized the agnostic creed of ‘I don’t know’ that Darrow answered Bryan’s questions.
After denial of the final attempt by the defense to present evidence, Darrow asked for a trial by the jury who rendered scope guilty.
Scopes’ testimony was never heard as there did not exist any proof of him teaching evolution, he later admitted that he was not sure whether he had taught Darwinian theories, the defense was also against him testifying.
Why was scope convicted?
A trial that took 8 days took the jury only 9 minutes to deliver their verdict, on July 21st John Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100.
The verdict was however overturned on a technical basis; however, it served its role of drawing public attention on Dayton. The trial attracted the attention of reporters from all over the state to cover renowned lawyers in a game of words.
What has been the legacy of the Scopes Trial extending through the 20th and into the 21st Centuries?
Both parties were claimed to win the case after the trial, the act that barred the teaching of evolution in public schools the Butler Act was upheld, and the movement against Darwinism continued. A few months later Mississippi passed a similar law. 22 other states tried to no avail to make similar efforts but they failed. In the 21st century, the debate continues over religion or evolution. A case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that was charged with teaching evolution alongside intelligent design. The court ruled in favor of evolution terming intelligent design as pseudoscience.
Conclusion
The battle between religion and science has been challenged by many all who do not find conclusive results to convince each other to leave their belief and join their own. Religious people still cling to the bible for answers based on theories and uncalculated legends that existed once in human civilization. Scientists, on the other hand, try to bring out the facts behind everything, Darwin explains that the world did not start from a spin as a wonderful world, in reality, everything we know is learned from the stone age generation to modern man who has incorporated past knowledge systems and passed them from generation to generation in the species.
references
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. By Charles Darwin, M.A.,Fellow Of The Royal, Geological, Linnaean, Etc., Societies;Author Of ‘Journal Of Researches During H.M.S. Beagle’s Voyage Round The World.’
