Scopes Trial
In 1859, Charles Darwin published his book the Origin of Species, which would forever change the way people thought about the creation of man. In his book, Darwin made two main points. First, he claimed that man evolved into his current physical state over a time period of millions of years. Secondly, he discussed a method for how this "evolution" worked. For this he gave the term "natural selection." Darwin asserted that natural selection was a process through which organisms adapted over time to the climate in which they were situated. The individuals with the stronger traits thus had more surviving offspring. Through this filter of evolution, the strongest individuals survived. So, Darwin's evolution worked in that each generation of beings became progressively stronger, and so this continuous process is the source of the evolution of species.As we all know though, the idea of creationism had been written in the Bible long before Darwin had ever been born. Thus creationism was the known and accepted method for the creation of man for several hundreds of years.Shortly after Darwin's Origin of Species was published, it seemed as if creationism and evolution could peacefully coexist as alternate theories regarding the
Waugh also stated that she had been informed that a Board subcommittee was formed to work on the Alternative Plan, even though Board policy provided that "any Board member would have an opportunity to volunteer for subcommittees appointed by the chair. Scopes was a high school teacher in Dayton, and after meeting with Rappelyea and his associates, was convinced to go along with the plan . Shortly after, in a Dayton area high school biology class, Scopes taught from George William Hunter's book, A Civic Biology, which was a pro-evolution text. Since the Supreme Court strongly rebuked state legislatures for their efforts to either ban the teaching of evolution or require the teaching of both evolution and creationism, creationists have shied away from using the state houses to achieve their goals. After the National Science Education Act was . "The backgrounds of Johnson and Holloway suggest that the Kansas Action removed evolution from the state curriculum because it conflicted with the teachings of creationism. On August 11, 1999, by a vote of 6 to 4, the Kansas Board of Education removed evolution from the Kansas State Science Standards, which are part of the overall curriculum provided to the public school districts in Kansas. In a fitting manner, the Alternative Plan proposed the removal of the entire section about macroevolution from the state science curriculum. Rather, creationists now focus their attention on gaining control of school boards and influencing education at that level. Furthermore, the Draft was strongly based on and text was used from standards published by the National Research Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Teachers Association. America's most famous trial attorney Clarence Darrow arrived in Dayton a few days after Bryan, and began to organize his case as the volunteer attorney for John Scopes. The 1960's and 1970's saw a large rise in the membership of Christian denominations in the United States. Creationists launched a counterattack against the new evolution-containing science books, denouncing them as an "attempt to ram evolution down the throats of their children. Janet Waugh also indicated her unhappiness with Board's lack of openness in dealing with the Science standards and voiced her frustration with the manner in which the three member subcommittee worked on them.
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