Latest news with #WilliamJenningsBryan
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Making the City Beautiful: How Bahamians built the iconic Venetian Pool — and Coral Gables
On a hot afternoon last August, the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables seemed almost idyllic. Little kids swam under the waterfall and into a cave. Their parents sunbathed under lush palm trees. With two towers and a bridge, the 60,000-square-foot Venetian Pool built from coral rock is best known for its iconic Mediterranean Revival aesthetic, akin to that of Venice, Italy. The Venetian Pool is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a distinction city officials have long sought to maintain, and it annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Long before it became one of South Florida's most popular tourist attractions, it was an eyesore. Originally a quarry in the early 1920s, it was the source of much of the coral rock used to build homes and structures in the city. What was left after removing the rock was a large pit that wasn't very attractive to potential home buyers and developers. The solution: transform the pit into a pool. The people who quarried the coral rock to build many buildings in Coral Gables and the Venetian Pool more than a century ago were expert stonemasons from the Bahamas. Bahamians' contributions to Coral Gables, particularly their quality craftsmanship in building the city, are being highlighted this year during the city's centennial celebration. While the Venetian Pool represents the grandeur of their artistry, the two small neighborhoods where they lived showcase the durability of their work: the Golden Gate and MacFarlane Homestead subdivisions — built by both Bahamians and Black Southerners during racial segregation — feature original century-old homes in the Bahamian bungalow and shotgun wood-frame styles. All of them have survived despite hurricanes and the test of time. The Venetian Pool first opened in 1924, a year before the city was incorporated, under the name 'Venetian Casino.' It debuted with Jan Garber's orchestra playing poolside. Another draw: Orator William Jennings Bryan spoke at the pool. He was a former secretary of state who ran for president three times and served in Congress. It quickly became a popular attraction. 'The Venetian Pool was more than just the community pool, it was also a way to attract ... developers and people to purchase their homes,' said Coral Gables City Manager Carolina Vester, who started her career with the city over 20 years ago as a lifeguard at the pool and later worked as its manager. '[Coral Gables founder] George Merrick set forth big attraction events where people were coming in to purchase property, and he had to entertain them,' she said. The Venetian Pool hosted beauty contests, dance performances and aquatic shows. Jackie Ott 'The Aqua Tot' was one of many celebrities who performed. He started at the age of 4, dressing up, swimming, aquaplaning and diving through fire hoops. The pool would often also become a makeshift amphitheater where opera singers and orchestras would perform at the bottom of the drained pool. On the city's 90th anniversary, the Miami Symphony Orchestra recreated one of those music performances, assembling on the pool floor. ' Not much has actually changed of how it looked a hundred years ago to what it looks like today,' Vester said. 'And that's the beauty of preservation.' During a $2 million renovation in 1987, a 10-foot tall diving board was removed. Also, pumps were installed to recirculate water. 'We actually drain and fill the pool every single night from Memorial Day to Labor Day,' Vester said. 'That's about 820,000 gallons of water, and we don't waste it. ... We have two injection wells across the street, and they inject the water at high velocity back down into the aquifer about a hundred feet underground.' The water naturally percolates through the limestone bedrock, which acts as a filter, before it reaches the Biscayne Aquifer, Vester said. 'So we're constantly recirculating the water, both manually and naturally,' she said. 'That's very, very unique to the pool. This pool is one of a kind.' In preparation for the city's centennial anniversary celebrations, the pool has been undergoing renovations since October. It is scheduled to reopen this summer. Many locals know little about the Bahamian people who quarried the rock to build Coral Gables. At the turn of the 20th century, a large portion of Miami's Black population was from the Bahamas. Many farmers from there would travel seasonally to South Florida to work the region's agricultural crops. 'As laborers, they built churches and residences, hotels and businesses for Coral Gables, 'The City Beautiful,'' said Dorothy Jenkins Fields, a Bahamian descendant and founder of the Black Archives Foundation. 'I'm always so proud to be able to say that, because we were a big part of making it beautiful — not only with the construction, but also with the gardens and the landscaping.' Entrepreneurs advertised their construction projects in Bahamian newspapers to attract workers. The site where Coral Gables Senior High School is today was once a tent city for construction workers. By the 1920s, Bahamians became essential to the local economy. READ MORE: 'Long overdue': Historic marker celebrates Black community that helped establish Coral Gables 'These early pioneers knew how to use lumber to construct buildings, but they had no idea of how to deal with coral rock, which is the foundation of South Florida,' while Bahamians had experience using coral rock back home, said Marvin Dunn, a retired and renowned local historian and author of Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. Many houses as well as structures around the city — like the Alhambra and Douglas entrances — were built with coral rock. During this time of racial segregation and institutionalized racism, Bahamian workers faced many challenges here, including exploitation, unsafe working conditions and even displacement. 'There were no protections against accidents or injuries. Some people, in the course of building Coconut Grove and Coral Gables, died in accidents. No compensation. The amount of pay was barely above the level to sustain a family,' Dunn told WLRN. Bahamians and Black Southerners who had been living near the University of Miami were pushed out to make way for student dormitories. As part of a deal with Merrick and the university, community members moved across U.S. 1 to an area now known as the Golden Gate and MacFarlane Homestead subdivisions. ' In the mornings they would work for George Merrick. ... And in the afternoons they would come, and they would build their homes,' said Carl Leon Prime, president of the Lola B. Walker Homeowners Association and third-generation Macfarlane Homestead resident. In his neighborhood, there are 36 original bungalow and shotgun-style houses with apparent Bahamian influences that have survived for more than a century. Many are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 'It shows real craftsmanship and attention to detail that you can't get anywhere else,' Prime said. Today, many residents of those communities are descendants of the neighborhoods' pioneering families. Leigh Cooper-Willis, 34, grew up in Golden Gate, like generations in her family before her. '[My family] came to work for George Merrick, and then they lived in this house,' said Cooper-Willis, a fourth-generation descendant. 'And then my grandfather was born on that property. Then my mother, and now I live there with my family, [with] my son.' Prime also lives in the house that his grandfather built in 1936 at another location and moved to the current spot two years later. ' We can tell the family history in the avocado trees in the yard,' Prime said. When his grandfather moved the house, a tree was already planted there. Near it is the tree that his father planted and, between them, is the avocado tree that Prime planted himself as a child. Earlier this year, the city of Coral Gables celebrated the predominantly Black neighborhood bordering Coconut Grove for its historic contributions in marking its centennial. In an opinion letter published by the Miami Herald, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago mentioned the commission will further honor this legacy by commissioning a public sculpture to be installed at Merrick Park across from City Hall.
The Independent
20-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Christian theme park owner with replica Noah's Ark preaching creationism 100 years after landmark trial
In the rolling hills of northern Kentucky, a colossal structure rises, a testament to one man's unwavering belief in the literal truth of the Bible: a full-scale replica of Noah's Ark. Ken Ham, the driving force behind the Ark Encounter theme park, frequently guides visitors through the enormous wooden vessel, emphasising its impressive dimensions – one and a half football fields long, "The biggest freestanding timber-frame structure in the world," he proudly proclaims. Inside, across three expansive decks, life-size animal models stand within wooden cages, alongside food storage urns and other exhibits. Ham explains that the meticulous design aims to demonstrate the feasibility of the biblical narrative, arguing that Noah could have constructed such a sophisticated ship and sustained thousands of animals during a months-long global flood that wiped out the rest of humanity. The Ark Encounter serves as a physical manifestation of Ham's broader mission: to promote the literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. He contends that the Earth is a mere 6,000 years old and that humans were created by God on the sixth day, precisely as described in the biblical text. All this defies the overwhelming consensus of modern scientists — that the Earth developed over billions of years in 'deep time' and that humans and other living things evolved over millions of years from earlier species. But Ham wants to succeed where he believes William Jennings Bryan failed. Bryan, a populist politician and fundamentalist champion, helped the prosecution in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, which took place 100 years ago this July in Dayton, Tennessee. Bryan's side won in court — gaining the conviction of public schoolteacher John Scopes for violating state law against teaching human evolution. But Bryan was widely seen as suffering a humiliating defeat in public opinion, with his sputtering attempts to explain the Bible's spectacular miracles and enigmas. The expert witness' infamous missteps For Ham, Bryan's problem was not that he defended the Bible. It's that he didn't defend it well enough, interpreting parts of it metaphorically rather than literally. 'It showed people around the world that Christians don't really believe the Bible — they can't answer questions to defend the Christian faith,' Ham says. 'We want you to know that we've got answers,' Ham adds, speaking in the accent of his native Australia. Ham is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which opened the Ark Encounter in 2016. The Christian theme park includes a zoo, zip lines and other attractions surrounding the ark. Nearly a decade earlier, Answers in Genesis opened a Creation Museum in nearby Petersburg, Kentucky, where exhibits similarly argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden. The group also produces books, podcasts, videos and homeschooling curricula. '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 belief still common If Ham is the most prominent torchbearer for creationism today, he's hardly alone. 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. A 2024 Gallup poll found that 37 per cent of US adults agreed ' God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.' That percentage is down a little, but not dramatically, from its mid-40s level between the 1980s and 2012. Rates are higher among religious and politically conservative respondents. 'Scopes lost, but the public sense was that the fundamentalists lost' and were dwindling away, says William Vance Trollinger Jr., a professor of history and religious studies at the University of Dayton in Ohio. But the reach of Answers in Genesis demonstrates that 'a significant subset of Americans hold to young-Earth creationism,' says Trollinger, co-author with his wife, English professor Susan Trollinger, of the 2016 book 'Righting America at the Creation Museum.' Leading science organisations say it's crucial to teach evolution and old-Earth geology. Evolution is 'one of the most securely established of scientific facts,' says the National Academy of Sciences. The Geological Society of America similarly states: 'Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula.' The issue has been repeatedly legislated and litigated since the Scopes trial. Tennessee repealed its anti-evolution law in 1967. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion, and in 1987 it overturned a Louisiana law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court similarly forbade a Pennsylvania school district from presenting 'intelligent design,' a different approach to creationism that argues life is too complex to have evolved by chance. Science educators alarmed Some lawmakers have recently revived the issue. North Dakota's Senate this year defeated a bill that would have allowed public school teaching on intelligent design. A new West Virginia law vaguely allows teachers to answer student questions about 'scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.' The Scopes trial set a template for today's culture-war battles, with efforts to expand vouchers for attendees of private schools, including Christian ones teaching creationism, and to introduce Bible-infused lessons and Ten Commandments displays in public schools. Such efforts alarm science educators like Bill Nye, the television 'Science Guy,' whose 2014 debate with Ham was billed as 'Scopes II' and has generated millions of video views online. 'What you get out of religion, as I understand it, is this wonderful sense of community,' Nye says. 'Community is very much part of the human experience. But the Earth is not 4,000 years old. 'To teach that idea to children with any backing — be it religious or these remarkable ideas that humans are not related to, for example, chimpanzees or bonobos — is breathtaking. It's silly. And so we fight this fight.' Nye says evidence is overwhelming, ranging from fossil layers to the distribution of species. 'There are trees older than Mr. Ham thinks the world is,' he adds. Religious views on origins vary One weekday in March, visitors milled about the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum, which draw an estimated 1.5 million visits per year (including duplicate visits). 'We are churchgoing, Bible-believing Christians,' says Louise van Niekerk of Ontario, Canada, who traveled with her family to the Creation Museum. She's concerned that her four children are faced with a public-school curriculum permeated with evolution. The Creation Museum, van Niekerk says, 'is encouraging a robust alternate worldview from what they're being taught,' she says. Many religious groups accommodate evolution, though. Gallup's survey found that of Americans who believe in evolution, more say it happened with God's guidance (34 per cent) than without it (24 per cent). Catholic popes have shown openness to evolution while insisting the human soul is a divine creation. Many liberal Protestants and even some evangelicals have accepted at least parts of evolutionary theory. But among many evangelicals, creationist belief is strong. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest evangelical body, has promoted creationist beliefs in its publications. The Assemblies of God asserts that Adam and Eve were historical people. Some evangelical schools, such as Bryan's namesake college in Tennessee, affirm creationist beliefs in their doctrinal statements. There's a larger issue here, critics say Just as Ham says the creation story is important to defend a larger truth about the Christian Gospel, critics say more is at stake than just the human origin story. The Trollingers wrote that the Answers in Genesis enterprise is an 'arsenal in the culture war.' They say it aligns with Christian nationalism, promoting conservative views in theology, family and gender roles, and casting doubt on other areas of scientific consensus, such as human-made climate change. Nye, too, says the message fits into a more general and ominous anti-science movement. 'Nobody is talking about climate change right now,' he laments. Exhibits promote a 'vengeful and violent' God, says Susan Trollinger, noting the cross on the ark's large door, which analogises that just as the wicked perished in the flood, those without Christ face eternal hellfire. And there are more parallels to 1925. Bryan had declaimed, 'How can teachers tell students that they came from monkeys and not expect them to act like monkeys?' The Creation Museum, which depicts violence, drugs and other social ills as resulting from belief in evolution, is 'Bryan's social message on steroids,' wrote Edward Larson in a 2020 afterword to 'Summer for the Gods,' a Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Scopes trial. More attractions are planned The protests that initially greeted the museum and ark projects, from secularist groups who considered them embarrassments to Kentucky, have ebbed. When the state initially denied a tourism tax rebate for the Ark Encounter because of its religious nature, a federal court overturned that ruling. Representing Ham's group was a Louisiana lawyer named Mike Johnson — now speaker of the US House of Representatives. Despite those blips, Ham's massive ministry charges forward. Expansion is next, with AIG attractions planned for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri — both tourist hubs offering more opportunities to promote creationism to the masses. Todd Bigelow, visiting the Ark Encounter from Mesa, Arizona, says the exhibit vividly evoked the safety that Noah and his family must have felt. It helped him appreciate 'the opportunities God gives us to live the life we have, and hopefully make good choices and repent when we need to,' he says. 'I think,' Bigelow adds, 'God and science can go hand in hand.'
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.
