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John T. Scopes
(3 Aug 1900 - 21 Oct 1970)
American teacher and geologist who was the defendant in the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial (10 Jul 1925). The trial was to challenge the constitutionality of the Butler Act, a Tennessee law (signed 21 Mar 1925) to prohibit the teaching of evolution in the state’s schools.
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Science Quotes by John T. Scopes (7 quotes)
[My] parents had steadily preached integrity and tolerance and independence of mind. Reading was always a pleasant pastime and that brought no conflict. In high school it opened new worlds for which I had been thirsting. How better can a boy develop an independent mind than by reading the great masters of the past and thinking over them?
— John T. Scopes
Recalling his high school reading of library books. In John Scopes and James Presley, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes (1967), 19.
Dickens, Twain, and Jack London, each in his own way, tried to do the same thing, it seemed to me: to show that civilization is a veneer and to warn us against accepting, without question, the soothsayers of the past. Each author was saying: Don’t hide behind these façades society has erected; don’t repeat the cliches of the past and at the same time act as savagely as your predecessors did.
— John T. Scopes
Recalling his high school reading of library books. In John Scopes and James Presley, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes (1967), 20.
I believe that the Dayton trial marked the beginning of the decline of fundamentalism. … I feel that restrictive legislation on academic freedom is forever a thing of the past, that religion and science may now address one another in an atmosphere of mutual respect and of a common quest for truth. I like to think that the Dayton trial had some part in bringing to birth this new era.
— John T. Scopes
From 'Reflections—Forty Years After', in Jerry R. Tompkins (ed.), D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial(1965), 31. As quoted in Stephen Jay Gould, Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History (1983), 274.
I furnished the body that was needed to sit in the defendant’s chair. [Explaining his role in the Scopes Monkey Trial.]
— John T. Scopes
As quoted in Newsweek, Vol. 69, 94.
Many times I have been asked why I have had no further role to play relative to the issues—even why I did not at least capitalize on my publicity and reap the monetary harvest that was close at hand. Perhaps my best answer is to paraphrase Calvin Coolidge’s “I do not choose to run”, for me it would be, “I did not choose to do so.”
— John T. Scopes
In unpublished notes 'Reflections — Forty Years After', on website of famous-trials.com by Douglas O. Linder, law professor at UKMC, 'Famous Trials in American History: Tennessee vs. John Scopes — The “Monkey Trial”'. Quoted in Vernon L. Grose, Science but Not Scientists (2006), 560, cited on p.595.
My father had read to me [as a young boy] from Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, Descent of Man, and The Voyage of the Beagle, which I had then finished reading for myself, and, although not a trained scholar, I thought Darwin was right. It was the only plausible explanation of man’s long and tortuous journey to his present physical and mental development.
— John T. Scopes
In John Scopes and James Presley, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes (1967), 53.
That John Thomas Scopes, heretofore on the 24th day of April, 1925, in the county aforesaid, then and there unlawfully did wilfully teach in the public schools of Rhea County, Tennessee, which said public schools are supported in part, or in whole by the public school fund of the State, a certain theory or theories that denied the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, but did teach instead thereof, that man is descended from a lower order of animals, he, the said John Thomas Scopes, being at the time, and prior thereto, a teacher in the public schools of Rhea County, Tennessee, as foresaid, against the peace and dignity of the State.
— John T. Scopes
Text of the indictment of John Scopes for teaching evolution. As given in John Scopes and James Presley, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes (1967),
Quotes by others about John T. Scopes (4)
Coolidge is a better example of evolution than either Bryan or Darrow, for he knows when not to talk, which is the biggest asset the monkey possesses over the human.
[Referring to the Scopes trial, with Darrow defending a teacher being prosecuted for teaching evolution in the state of Tennessee.]
[Referring to the Scopes trial, with Darrow defending a teacher being prosecuted for teaching evolution in the state of Tennessee.]
'Rogers Thesaurus'. Saturday Review (25 Aug 1962). In Will Rogers' Weekly Articles (1981), Vol. 2, 66.
As Karl Marx once noted: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial was a tragedy. The creationists and intelligent design theorists are a farce.
In '75 Years and Still No Peace'. Humanist (Sep 2000)
Let no one mistake it for comedy, farcical though it may be in all its details. It serves notice on the country that Neanderthal man is organizing in these forlorn backwaters of the land, led by a fanatic, rid of sense and devoid of conscience.
[Commenting on the Scopes Monkey Trial, while reporting for the Baltimore Sun.]
[Commenting on the Scopes Monkey Trial, while reporting for the Baltimore Sun.]
In Michael Shermer, Why Darwin Matters (2006), 26.
That John Thomas Scopes, heretofore on the 24th day of April, 1925, in the county aforesaid, then and there unlawfully did wilfully teach in the public schools of Rhea County, Tennessee, which said public schools are supported in part, or in whole by the public school fund of the State, a certain theory or theories that denied the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, but did teach instead thereof, that man is descended from a lower order of animals, he, the said John Thomas Scopes, being at the time, and prior thereto, a teacher in the public schools of Rhea County, Tennessee, as foresaid, against the peace and dignity of the State.
Text of the indictment of John Scopes for teaching evolution. As given in John Scopes and James Presley, Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes (1967),
See also:
- 3 Aug - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Scopes's birth.
- Butler Act - Tennessee House Bill No. 185 (1925)
- Butler Act Repeal - Tennessee House Bill No. 48 (1967)
- 17 May - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of repeal of the Butler Act.
- 21 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of enactment of the Butler Act.
- Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes, by John Scopes. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Scopes Monkey Trial.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
