Scopes: The Battle Over America's Soul

July 21, 1925 marked the start of the Scopes Monkey Trial. At issue was the Butler Act, which had been passed a few months earlier by the Tennessee General Assembly. The law said "... that it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach 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".The debate of evolution and divine creation is one that continues to this very day, and this trial is often referenced to.