Latest news with #ScopesTrial
Business Insider
20-05-2025
- General
- Business Insider
20 vintage photos show what life was like in America's small towns 100 years ago
Between the early 1900s and the 1940s, Oatman and nearby Gold Road were Arizona's biggest gold producers, and the town used to be a bustling center with over 10,000 the 2023 census, it had a population of just 102 the "lively ghost town" is defined by its streets of historic buildings, burros on the streets, and people wearing old-timey clothing and gunfighter costumes, as reported by Legends of America. The town was founded in 1881 and was named for O.H. Manning, a town of 1,500 is about 2 miles long and 2 miles wide, and its Main Street was paved in 1915, as reported by a community website. The town was established on land taken from the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, at the end of the 19th century, a general merchandise store with a post office was established nearby. The name of the town honors a postal employee, Wayne W. Cordell. In 1905, a prospector found gold, and within a year, its population had reached 4,000, Travel Nevada about 125 people reside in the town, and residents often refer to their community as a "living ghost town," per Nevada's state tourism agency. Though the town enjoyed decades of prosperity for the resources provided by Grasshopper Creek, by the 1930s, few residents the following decade, the local school had to close down due to a lack of students, effectively turning the once-prosperous town into a ghost town, per Legends of now-abandoned town where gold was first discovered in the state is now part of a state park where dilapidated buildings are preserved. In 1925, Dayton, Tennessee, became famous for the Scopes Trial. In 1925, a Dayton high school science teacher, John T. Scopes, was tried and found guilty for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in what became known as the Scopes Trial. Fleischmanns, New York, was a vacation town for those looking to escape the New York City heat. Farmers discovered they could make money from people leaving the city, and hotels and guest houses popped up throughout the the town houses around 205 people, according to 2023 census estimates. Provincetown, Massachusetts, began as a fishing and whaling community. In 1914, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum was founded by a group of prominent local artists. They worked with local businesses to create an art collection and educate the public in the arts. The town is known for being the 1620 landing site of the Mayflower. Lumber operations are pictured in Crossett, Arkansas, in the 1920s. The town was named after Edward S. Crossett, a lumber entrepreneur. Stillwater, Minnesota, was incorporated in 1854 and also began as a lumbering town. The town "had all the ingredients for a lumbering town," as reported by the Washington County Historical Society. The town features rivers connecting the small community to the pine forests of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and still waters that allowed for the raft assembly industry to flourish 2011, Forbes named it as one of America's prettiest towns. Holy City, California, was established by a cult leader and white supremacist, William E. Riker, in 1919. Holy City was created not as a religious oasis, as the name would indicate, but instead as "a commune and tourist trap created in the 1920s by a white-supremacist huckster," the San Francisco Chronicle Chronicle also reported that Holy City was reduced to "a few derelict buildings" after facing fire, neglect, and a new freeway that cut off the compound from major roads. Mercury News reported in 2016 that the town was purchased after a decade on the market by Robert and Trish Duggan, billionaire Scientologists. Historians estimate that the ancestors of Taos Pueblo people built their living structures, as well as pottery and ceremonial buildings, as far back as 1000 AD, according to Wrangell, Alaska, pictured below in the early to mid-1900s, was discovered by the Tlingit tribe. The Native Alaskan populations remained isolated until the early 1800s, per Wrangell's website. Lt. Dionysius Zarembo, a Russian-American ship commander, landed on present-day Wrangell in 1833. It is the only city in Alaska to be ruled by four nations and under three flags — Tlingit, Russia, England, and the United States — according to the town's website. South Pass City, Wyoming, was founded as a gold mining town. It was later abandoned.
Associated Press
20-05-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
Takeaways from AP's report on creationist beliefs 100 years after the Scopes trial
WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) — Some people thought the 1925 Scopes monkey trial marked a cultural defeat for biblical fundamentalism. But a century after what was dubbed the Trial of the Century, the issue is far from settled. Many American adults still embrace creationism — a belief in the literal truth of the Genesis account of the origins of the Earth and humanity. To be sure, Tennessee public schoolteacher John Scopes was convicted in 1925 for violating a state law against teaching human evolution. But it appeared to be a pyrrhic victory for creationists. That's because the star of the prosecution team — populist politician William Jennings Bryan — faltered when he took the stand as an expert witness. He struggled to defend the Bible's miraculous and mysterious stories. But creationist belief is resilient. Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked. That belief is most evident in a region of northern Kentucky that hosts a Creation Museum and a gargantuan replica of the biblical Noah's Ark. They draw a combined 1.5 million visits per year. This trend alarms science educators, who say the evidence for evolution is overwhelming and see creationism as part of an anti-science movement affecting responses to serious problems like climate change. An ark in Kentucky Ken Ham began speaking in support of creationism 50 years ago — halfway between the Scopes trial and today — as a young schoolteacher in Australia. He's expanded that work by founding Answers in Genesis, a vast enterprise that includes books, videos and homeschool curricula. The organization opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, in 2007. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden — life-forms that scientists say are actually separated by tens of millions of years. The museum features an array of exhibits, some of them added in recent years, that argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Most dramatically, Answers in Genesis opened the Ark Encounter theme park in nearby Williamstown, Kentucky, in 2016. Its main attraction is the massive ark replica — 'the biggest freestanding timber frame structure in the world,' says Ham. It's 510 feet (155 meters) long, or one and a half football fields in length; 85 feet (26 meters) wide and 51 feet (16 meters) high. Like the museum, the park includes numerous exhibits arguing for the plausibility of the ark — that Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives had the skill and means to sustain thousands of animals in their care. The park also includes theme-park attractions such as a zoo, zip lines and virtual-reality theater. Similar theaters are planned for tourist hubs Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri. 'The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true,' Ham says. 'That's why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.' Creationist beliefs Core beliefs of Christian creationism include: — God created the heavens and the Earth by fiat in six literal days, with humans as the crown of creation. — The Earth is just a few thousand years old. — Humans sinned, and that brought death and suffering into the world (and, ultimately, the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ). — God drowned almost all people and breathing animals in a global flood because of human wickedness. God spared Noah and his family, instructing him to build a large ark and bring aboard pairs of each animal kind to preserve them from extinction. — The flood explains geological phenomena such as the Grand Canyon. Science educators' concerns According to the vast, long-standing scientific consensus, the above biological and geological claims are absurd and completely lacking in evidence. The consensus is that the Earth is billions of years old; that humans and other life forms evolved from earlier forms over millions of years; and that mountains, canyons and other geological features are due to millions of years of tectonic upheaval and erosion. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found 98% of American scientists accept evolution. 'Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula,' says the Geological Society of America. Evolution is 'one of the most securely established of scientific facts,' says the National Academy of Sciences. The academy urges that public schools stick to the scientific consensus and that creationism is not a viable alternative. Creationists, it said, 'reverse the scientific process' by beginning with an inflexible conclusion, rather than building evidence toward a conclusion. Courts of law — and public opinion Creation and evolution may not be front-burner issues today, but the Scopes trial set a template for other culture-war battles over school books and gender policies. William Jennings Bryan's words from his era would sound familiar at a modern school board meeting: 'Teachers in public schools must teach what the taxpayers desire taught.' The Scopes case involved the 1925 conviction of schoolteacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee, for violating a state law against teaching in public schools 'any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.' Tennessee repealed that law in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion. The high court in 1987 overturned a Louisiana law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court ruling similarly forbade the Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania from presenting 'intelligent design,' as an alternative to evolution, saying it, too, was a religious teaching. Though distinct from young-Earth creationism, intelligent design argues that nature shows evidence of a designer. A 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 17% of U.S. adults agreed that humans have existed in their present form since 'the beginning of time.' A 2024 Gallup survey found that 37% agreed that 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.' The differences may be due to the phrasing of the question and the circumstances of the survey. Both surveys found that majorities of Americans believe humans evolved, and of that group, more believe God had a role in evolution than that it happened without divine intervention. Catholics and many Protestants and other religious groups accept all or parts of evolutionary theory. But many conservative evangelical denominations, schools and other institutions promote young-Earth creationist beliefs. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Takeaways from AP's report on creationist beliefs 100 years after the Scopes trial
Some people thought the 1925 Scopes monkey trial marked a cultural defeat for biblical fundamentalism. But a century after what was dubbed the Trial of the Century, the issue is far from settled. Many American adults still embrace creationism — a belief in the literal truth of the Genesis account of the origins of the Earth and humanity. To be sure, Tennessee public schoolteacher John Scopes was convicted in 1925 for violating a state law against teaching human evolution. But it appeared to be a pyrrhic victory for creationists. That's because the star of the prosecution team — populist politician William Jennings Bryan — faltered when he took the stand as an expert witness. He struggled to defend the Bible's miraculous and mysterious stories. But creationist belief is resilient. Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked. That belief is most evident in a region of northern Kentucky that hosts a Creation Museum and a gargantuan replica of the biblical Noah's Ark. They draw a combined 1.5 million visits per year. This trend alarms science educators, who say the evidence for evolution is overwhelming and see creationism as part of an anti-science movement affecting responses to serious problems like climate change. An ark in Kentucky Ken Ham began speaking in support of creationism 50 years ago — halfway between the Scopes trial and today — as a young schoolteacher in Australia. He's expanded that work by founding Answers in Genesis, a vast enterprise that includes books, videos and homeschool curricula. The organization opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, in 2007. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden — life-forms that scientists say are actually separated by tens of millions of years. The museum features an array of exhibits, some of them added in recent years, that argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Most dramatically, Answers in Genesis opened the Ark Encounter theme park in nearby Williamstown, Kentucky, in 2016. Its main attraction is the massive ark replica — 'the biggest freestanding timber frame structure in the world,' says Ham. It's 510 feet (155 meters) long, or one and a half football fields in length; 85 feet (26 meters) wide and 51 feet (16 meters) high. Like the museum, the park includes numerous exhibits arguing for the plausibility of the ark — that Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives had the skill and means to sustain thousands of animals in their care. The park also includes theme-park attractions such as a zoo, zip lines and virtual-reality theater. Similar theaters are planned for tourist hubs Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri. 'The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true," Ham says. "That's why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.' Creationist beliefs Core beliefs of Christian creationism include: — God created the heavens and the Earth by fiat in six literal days, with humans as the crown of creation. — The Earth is just a few thousand years old. — Humans sinned, and that brought death and suffering into the world (and, ultimately, the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ). — God drowned almost all people and breathing animals in a global flood because of human wickedness. God spared Noah and his family, instructing him to build a large ark and bring aboard pairs of each animal kind to preserve them from extinction. — The flood explains geological phenomena such as the Grand Canyon. Science educators' concerns According to the vast, long-standing scientific consensus, the above biological and geological claims are absurd and completely lacking in evidence. The consensus is that the Earth is billions of years old; that humans and other life forms evolved from earlier forms over millions of years; and that mountains, canyons and other geological features are due to millions of years of tectonic upheaval and erosion. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found 98% of American scientists accept evolution. 'Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula," says the Geological Society of America. Evolution is 'one of the most securely established of scientific facts,' says the National Academy of Sciences. The academy urges that public schools stick to the scientific consensus and that creationism is not a viable alternative. Creationists, it said, 'reverse the scientific process' by beginning with an inflexible conclusion, rather than building evidence toward a conclusion. Courts of law — and public opinion Creation and evolution may not be front-burner issues today, but the Scopes trial set a template for other culture-war battles over school books and gender policies. William Jennings Bryan's words from his era would sound familiar at a modern school board meeting: 'Teachers in public schools must teach what the taxpayers desire taught.' The Scopes case involved the 1925 conviction of schoolteacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee, for violating a state law against teaching in public schools 'any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.' Tennessee repealed that law in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion. The high court in 1987 overturned a Louisiana law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court ruling similarly forbade the Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania from presenting 'intelligent design,' as an alternative to evolution, saying it, too, was a religious teaching. Though distinct from young-Earth creationism, intelligent design argues that nature shows evidence of a designer. A 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 17% of U.S. adults agreed that humans have existed in their present form since 'the beginning of time.' A 2024 Gallup survey found that 37% agreed that 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.' The differences may be due to the phrasing of the question and the circumstances of the survey. Both surveys found that majorities of Americans believe humans evolved, and of that group, more believe God had a role in evolution than that it happened without divine intervention. Catholics and many Protestants and other religious groups accept all or parts of evolutionary theory. But many conservative evangelical denominations, schools and other institutions promote young-Earth creationist beliefs. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Washington Post
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Takeaways from AP's report on creationist beliefs 100 years after the Scopes trial
WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. — Some people thought the 1925 Scopes monkey trial marked a cultural defeat for biblical fundamentalism. But a century after what was dubbed the Trial of the Century, the issue is far from settled. Many American adults still embrace creationism — a belief in the literal truth of the Genesis account of the origins of the Earth and humanity. To be sure, Tennessee public schoolteacher John Scopes was convicted in 1925 for violating a state law against teaching human evolution. But it appeared to be a pyrrhic victory for creationists. That's because the star of the prosecution team — populist politician William Jennings Bryan — faltered when he took the stand as an expert witness. He struggled to defend the Bible's miraculous and mysterious stories. But creationist belief is resilient . Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked. That belief is most evident in a region of northern Kentucky that hosts a Creation Museum and a gargantuan replica of the biblical Noah's Ark . They draw a combined 1.5 million visits per year. This trend alarms science educators, who say the evidence for evolution is overwhelming and see creationism as part of an anti-science movement affecting responses to serious problems like climate change. Ken Ham began speaking in support of creationism 50 years ago — halfway between the Scopes trial and today — as a young schoolteacher in Australia. He's expanded that work by founding Answers in Genesis, a vast enterprise that includes books, videos and homeschool curricula. The organization opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, in 2007. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden — life-forms that scientists say are actually separated by tens of millions of years. The museum features an array of exhibits, some of them added in recent years, that argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Most dramatically, Answers in Genesis opened the Ark Encounter theme park in nearby Williamstown, Kentucky, in 2016. Its main attraction is the massive ark replica — 'the biggest freestanding timber frame structure in the world,' says Ham. It's 510 feet (155 meters) long, or one and a half football fields in length; 85 feet (26 meters) wide and 51 feet (16 meters) high. Like the museum, the park includes numerous exhibits arguing for the plausibility of the ark — that Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives had the skill and means to sustain thousands of animals in their care. The park also includes theme-park attractions such as a zoo, zip lines and virtual-reality theater. Similar theaters are planned for tourist hubs Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri. 'The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true,' Ham says. 'That's why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.' Core beliefs of Christian creationism include: — God created the heavens and the Earth by fiat in six literal days, with humans as the crown of creation. — The Earth is just a few thousand years old. — Humans sinned, and that brought death and suffering into the world (and, ultimately, the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ). — God drowned almost all people and breathing animals in a global flood because of human wickedness. God spared Noah and his family, instructing him to build a large ark and bring aboard pairs of each animal kind to preserve them from extinction. — The flood explains geological phenomena such as the Grand Canyon. According to the vast, long-standing scientific consensus, the above biological and geological claims are absurd and completely lacking in evidence. The consensus is that the Earth is billions of years old; that humans and other life forms evolved from earlier forms over millions of years; and that mountains, canyons and other geological features are due to millions of years of tectonic upheaval and erosion. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found 98% of American scientists accept evolution. 'Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula,' says the Geological Society of America. Evolution is 'one of the most securely established of scientific facts,' says the National Academy of Sciences. The academy urges that public schools stick to the scientific consensus and that creationism is not a viable alternative. Creationists, it said, 'reverse the scientific process' by beginning with an inflexible conclusion, rather than building evidence toward a conclusion. Creation and evolution may not be front-burner issues today, but the Scopes trial set a template for other culture-war battles over school books and gender policies. William Jennings Bryan's words from his era would sound familiar at a modern school board meeting: 'Teachers in public schools must teach what the taxpayers desire taught.' The Scopes case involved the 1925 conviction of schoolteacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee, for violating a state law against teaching in public schools 'any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.' Tennessee repealed that law in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion. The high court in 1987 overturned a Louisiana law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court ruling similarly forbade the Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania from presenting 'intelligent design,' as an alternative to evolution, saying it, too, was a religious teaching. Though distinct from young-Earth creationism, intelligent design argues that nature shows evidence of a designer. A 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 17% of U.S. adults agreed that humans have existed in their present form since 'the beginning of time.' A 2024 Gallup survey found that 37% agreed that 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.' The differences may be due to the phrasing of the question and the circumstances of the survey. Both surveys found that majorities of Americans believe humans evolved, and of that group, more believe God had a role in evolution than that it happened without divine intervention. Catholics and many Protestants and other religious groups accept all or parts of evolutionary theory. But many conservative evangelical denominations, schools and other institutions promote young-Earth creationist beliefs. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Knoxvillian, former UT professor represented defendant in famous Scopes Monkey Trial
The Scopes Trial that occurred 100 years ago was considered one of the more unusual in 20th-century America in attempting to delve into the debate of creationism versus evolution. Also unusual was a Knoxville man involved in the trial. John Randolph Neal Jr. represented defendant John Scopes, the Rhea County instructor charged with teaching evolution, then a violation of a new state law. While Neal was not as well-known as fellow defense team member Clarence Darrow or prosecution lead attorney and former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, he still stood out during that Dayton, Tennessee, trial and in his career. And it was not just for his praised legal skills, but also for his seemingly unkempt appearance and lax grading standards while he was earlier a University of Tennessee law instructor. Born in Rhea County in 1876 as the son of Confederate Civil War veteran and Third District U.S. Congressman John Neal Sr., he had taught at the UT law school from 1909-23. While popular and respected among his students, his unorthodox mannerisms resulted in a clash with Dean Malcolm McDermott. This included accusations of not always showing up for class and talking more about current events than giving legal lessons. As a result, he was one of several professors fired throughout campus by the UT Board of Trustees in 1923, despite his support among students. He had also been supportive of a fired psychology professor, Jesse Sprowls, who had taught evolution. To him, as someone who deeply cherished American freedoms, the situation was more about man than monkeys. 'I don't care whether man descended from a monkey or whether the story of Genesis or evolution was true, to me it was a fight for the freedom of teaching,' he was quoted following his death as having said. He apparently left UT amicably, but his inner anger over what he perceived as the world's wrongs remained and he would continue to fight them in legal circles. The former UT undergraduate, who had gone to law school at Vanderbilt University and received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia, would go on to start his own law school named after his father. It was primarily for part-time and night students and thrived until about 1943, when a law was passed saying law schools had to be full-time colleges. The former state senator – who in later years would often run unsuccessfully for the state's highest offices – was also known to support liberal and progressive causes. That included his strong advocacy for a public Tennessee Valley Authority to help the larger region instead of just private companies building power plants in places like North Alabama. He had also been involved in cases involving civil liberties and workers' rights. When the Scopes Trial began, he had volunteered to lead the defense. He clashed with attorney Clarence Darrow, who later joined the team, over strategy. Noted reporter and writer H.L. Mencken, who covered the trial, did call Neal a brilliant attorney, however. The July 1925 trial, which was held in a still-standing courthouse designed by Walter Chamberlin of Knoxville, had resulted in Scopes being found guilty, although the verdict was thrown out on a technicality regarding the fine. The Butler Act preventing the teaching of evolution was repealed in 1967. Despite all his high-profile work and good mind in conversation throughout his life, Neal was always a study in contrasts. Besides his unusual dress and appearance habits, the lifelong bachelor preferred living in hotels. A check in some old city directories at the McClung Historical Collection in downtown shows him beginning before World War I as living in such places as the Stratford Hotel at 409 Wall and the Vendome at 417 W. Clinch Ave. He later lived at the Oxford Hotel across Clinch Avenue and at the time of the trial lived at the Atkin Hotel at Gay Street and Depot Avenue. He later lived in the Watauga Hotel at 316 N. Gay St. before moving to the Spring City area beginning in the late 1940s. The Watauga building later had several floors taken down and became the site of Regas' restaurant for years. His college at the time of the Scopes Trial was at the Union National Bank building at 302½ S. Gay St. before relocating to the Fretz Building, later called the McTownlee Building, at 603 Market St. The UT law school during his time there was in now-razed Old College on the hill, then South Hall, and later Ayres Hall. Neal lived in Spring City and attended Spring City Methodist Church for more than 10 years until his death from pneumonia in a Rockwood hospital on Nov. 23, 1959, at the age of 83. He was buried at Ault Cemetery in Roane County, with former law students among his pallbearers Despite his sometimes-unkempt appearance, he tried during his lifetime to bring order to the legal issues regarding civil liberties for all. For those wanting more information on Neal, Knoxville historian Jack Neely will be speaking on him and the trial at noon March 24 in Room 132 of the UT College of Law. This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxvillian represented defendant in famous Scopes Monkey Trial
