Scopes: Creation on Trial [Paperback]

John Morris (Author), R. M. Cornelius (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Master Books (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890512574
• ISBN-13: 978-0890512579
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,673,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A look at the Scopes Trial from the creationist perspective, May 7, 2005

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Scopes: Creation on Trial (Paperback)

The position of the small volume "Scopes: Creation on Trial" is that the "fact" surrounding the trial of John T. Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee in the summer of 1925 in the celebrated "Monkey" Trial has been skewed into evolutionary propaganda. The trial is largely considered to connote a moment in history when "science triumphed over religion." The main contention here is that those who know what really happened in the Tennessee case tried by Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan "know that the real issues have been altered by the media." Therefore, the book purports to present "the true, largely-untold story of an historically memorable battle between creation and evolution," with Darwin's theory coming out on the short end of the argumentative stick.

Certainly the "duel in the shade" when Darrow cross-examined Bryan on the front lawn of the Rhea County Courthouse has become what everybody knows about the Scopes Trial. The legal outcome of the case, in which Scopes was convicted of violating the Butler Act but the verdict was overturned on a technicality by the Tennessee State Supreme Court, has been largely forgotten. Almost from the start the widespread assumption has been that Darrow ridiculed Bryan, the Butler Act, and the fundamentalist attack on evolution. However, even with Bryan dying five days after the end of the trial, the anti-evolution movement succeeded in passing laws banning the teaching of evolution in the states of Mississippi and Arkansas.

Chapter 1, "Their Stage Drew All the World: A New Look at the Scopes Evolution Trial," by R.M. Cornelius, then a history professor at Bryan College in Dayton, is revised and reprinted from a 1981 "Tennessee Historical Quarterly" essay. Cornelius characterizes the trial as a drama, its plot conceived in the offices of the A.C.L.U. and its script written in a Dayton drug store, that turned into a "tour de farce." The emphasis is on the complex questions that the trial involved that were obscured by the ballyhoo. However, a major part of the essay looks at what happened to and in Dayton in the trial's aftermath. If there is a thesis to the political position under girding the history here it would be a quote from a Bryan letter where the Great Commoner wrote, "The collective right is bound to protect itself from misrepresentation and is just as sacred as the individual's right to think for himself as an individual."

Chapter 2, "Mr. Bryan on Evolution," is an article first published in August 25 written by Bryan shortly before his death. While containing many of the same ideas found in the speech Bryan was not able to deliver as a closing argument at the Scopes Trial, the article adopts a less oratorical tone. An Editor's Addendum updates some of the points and asserts that both the article and Bryan's undelivered speech, constitute a strong case against evolution even today.

Chapter 3, "The Dayton Deception" by John D. Morris, reconsiders the Scopes Trial within the larger framework of "the long war against God." Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research, has a doctorate in geological engineering. Morris is well aware that although Scopes was convicted, the anti-creationists (an interesting rhetorical label to be sure) won a major victory. Christians were depicted during the trial as being "ignorant, foolish anti-intellectuals" and divine creation, along with Christianity to a large degree, were "ridiculed, ignored, or legislated out of the public arena." The primary focus here is not so much the scientific evidences for creation but an argument that the "biggest victory for evolution was built on false leads, and things have improved little since." Morris makes the case that for the five key points of evidence in support of evolution in 1925 "one was a hoax, one an ape, two (at least) perfectly human, and one a pig."

Chapter 4, "The Effect of the Evolution 'Victory,'" also by Morris, shifts from science to religion to talk about the creation/evolution controversy in scriptural terms (e.g., Morris quotes John 3:12 and denotes "heavenly things" as being about creation).

Consequently, we have a concise look at the Scope trial that makes a nice case for how Bryan was trying to present a reasonable position on the witness stand and actually avoided several of Darrow's traps, Bryan's essential position on evolution in 1925, a rebuttal to the scientific evidence for evolution in general but much more specifically to what was known in 1925, and a earnest plea for Christians to believe the divine message. The fact that Cornelius and Morris are providing a slightly different perspective than what has been found on writings about the Scopes trial from Ray Ginger and L. Sprague de Camp to Edward J. Larson is what makes it worth reading for those interesting in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial and its potent legacy. Scopes and Darrow have found many voices to continue their side of the debate. Cornelius and Morris represent a couple of voices on Bryan's side.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Downhill Slide, April 20, 2002

By 

"dound" (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scopes: Creation on Trial (Paperback)

In the beginning chapter, it does an fine job describing the Scopes Trial and provides good facts and accounts of what happened.

The second chapter also isn't bad, but pertains to post-trial occurrences (Brady, mainly).

After the second chapter, the book just slips into a void. It starts discussing 'evolutionary finds' that were present at the time of the Scopes trial. It discounts each of these finds, and although the information was interesting to read, it was off-subject and highly critical of evolutionists. The last chapter, very short, was just a few pages packed with biblical phrases which let the authors' disposition towards creationism shine through.

Overall, it is not horribly bad or horribly good. The portion of The Great Trials: The Watershed Decasde in America's Courtrooms and the book Summer For The Gods were both very good accounts of the trial (Summer... was more in-depth [expected since that was the book's only topic :P)

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very slanted, June 24, 2001

By 

Christopher Condon "Fuzzyman" (Shelton, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scopes: Creation on Trial (Paperback)

I would recommend the much more evenhanded account by John Larson in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Summer for the Gods." Morris, as ever, twists the facts around to make his case, but it doesn't hold together.