Everybody knows what the Scopes Monkey Trial was all about, right? The forces of impartial science stooping nobly to enlighten brutes and ignoramuses who doubted evolutionary theory.
But as modern Tennesseans are being portrayed afresh as simpletons for thinking schools shouldn’t censor discussions of evolution, global warming and so forth, it behooves us to consider a forgotten bit of the history of that 1925 trial in Dayton, Tenn. Namely, the alleged “science” textbook involved: “A Civic Biology,” by one George William Hunter.
Inconveniently for those who like to depict the proceedings as a battle between hillbilly inquisitors and martyrs for truth and light, the good folks at Bryan College in Dayton maintained extensive historical records related to the trial – including a handy copy of Hunter’s book.
That’s a relief, because otherwise we might not know that the text defended by evolutionists was an abominable exercise in racial bigotry and an endorsement of extreme measures, if not outright violence, against groups deemed by the author to be unfit for society – often because of handicaps or other characteristics over which the groups in question had no control.
Dr. Todd Wood, an associate professor of biology and director of Bryan’s Center for Origins Research, helpfully ascertained for me that the eye-popping passages below are contained in “A Civic Biology.” So without further ado, let’s see what the self-anointed defenders of “science” were promoting as fact nearly nine decades ago just up the road in Dayton: