The Scopes-Monkey trial is perhaps the greatest trial ever in the 20th century. The trial was conducted because John Scopes, a high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, decided to teach Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Scopes decision caused in uproar in the local community because of an anti-evolution statute. With famed defense lawyer Clarence Darrow defending Scopes and William Jennings Bryan prosecuting, the trial was bound to make an impact on the legality of teaching Divine Creation or the Theory of Evolution. I think that the issue of the trial was more truth vs. ignorance because make people were believers in Divine Creation, but they had no evidence other than the Bible. Darwin's theory was supported by science and the fact that humans and primates shared some characteristic traits. As the trial commenced, people throughout the country debated privately on each topic. They were concerned with a decision that could alter the way people were taught in school. .
According to some witness testimony, John Scopes was a believer in modernism. He wanted to teach evolution in his high school class since the beginning to the school year. Scopes, according to observers, remained quiet throughout the trial. He only spoke at the end when he stated closing remarks. Scopes never declared that he did not believe in God or of a Divine Creation, although he stated that children should be subject to "alternative creation subjects.".
William Jennings Bryan, the main prosecution lawyer, could be characterized as a believer in fundamentalism. Earlier in his career, he led a crusade to ban Darwin's evolution theory from American schools. He declared in his opening statement "if we were to allow the teaching of evolution, then we would be advocating the sterilization of an inferior stock." He also said that evolution would undermine traditional values that he had long supported.