Today marks the anniversary of the Scopes vs. State of Tennessee (aka the Scopes Monkey Trial, decided July 21st, 1925). John Scopes, a school teacher and part-time football coach, faced jailing for allegedly teaching evolution to school children. God forbid! (literally). The ACLU already had designs on taking down the ludicrous piece of legislation that forbade such "heresy" and poor John wound up in the middle, and despite being convicted, came out a hero (although he claimed he skipped that chapter).
Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow taking apart William Jennings Bryan must have been quite a spectacle to behold as they argued about everything from apes to Adam and Eve. In hindsight, the argument seems so ridiculous -- teaching a creation myth in a science class? However, 83 years later, the debate rages on. It's easy to see how, in a world where people still think the first woman came from a man's rib, that Global Warming is ignored.
[Darrow and Bryan]
What was obvious to students of science was verboten by God. Sometimes its hard to imagine that Creationists have the same shocked expression on their faces as those persuaded by science do when presented with the opposing viewpoint. "You think we descended from lesser species?" Preposterous!
That disconnect -- between faith and science -- is almost impossible to reconcile because the core of each sides understanding is rooted in an entirely different plane. There is no algorithm to prove or disprove the existence of God (despite what some philosophers have proffered to the contrary.) Each side is making its argument in an entirely different language.
So while I have an enormous amount of appreciation and gratitude towards my parents for not being religious nutballs, the people I would call "religious nutballs" give thanks to God that their parents were NOT godless heretics.
Illustration from Albertus Seba's "The Cabinet of Natural Curiosities."
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