In 1925, a teacher who taught evolution was put on trial in an event known as the “Monkey Trial”; in 2025, the Trump administration is once again harassing universities, firing scientists, and reintroducing religion into public schools. History repeats itself—in a more fanatical and powerful version
A century after the Monkey Trial – one of the most symbolic and moving trials in American history – the dispute between religion and science has not subsided. In fact, under conservative administrations like the one led by Donald Trump, it is breaking new records. In that trial, held in July 1925 in the town of Dayton, Tennessee, a 24-year-old teacher, John T. Scopes, was tried for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school – in violation of state law. The law, known as the Butler Act, prohibited the teaching of any theory “which denies the creation of man according to the biblical story” and promotes the idea that man is descended from inferior animals.
Scopes was a substitute science teacher at the local high school, teaching from a textbook that included a description of the theory of evolution. The affair was essentially staged: A local citizens' group, opposed to the law but mainly seeking publicity for the sleepy town, convinced Scopes to be used as a test case and arrested. What began as a local initiative became a national media event: newspapers sent reporters, radio stations broadcast live, and the American public was amazed to watch an uncompromising confrontation between theology, science, and the law.
The defense was represented by Clarence Darrow, the lawyer known as "the condemned man's lawyer," who saw the trial as a battle for freedom of education against religious fundamentalism. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan – a prominent politician, three-time presidential candidate, and representative of the fanatical religious approach, who saw the theory of evolution as a direct threat to the Christian faith. The dramatic climax of the trial came when Darrow questioned Bryan himself on the witness stand, attempting to prove that a literal reading of the Bible did not stand the test of logic or reality.
A central part of the defense was a group of scientists and clergy from the University of Chicago – a leading institution that carried the banner of religious modernism. Prominent among them were anthropologist Professor Fay-Cooper Cole, vertebrate researcher Professor Horatio Hackett Newman, and geologist Kirtley Mather – a university graduate who later became a key figure in the study of petrology. Shayler Matthews, dean of the university’s theology department, also contributed his testimony (in a telegram) in favor of the compatibility of Christian faith and science.
These experts did not come as atheists—quite the opposite. Most were pastors’ sons, graduates of Methodist and Baptist colleges, and supporters of a modern theistic approach. They emphasized that religion should not oppose science, but be renewed in its light. As Matthews wrote: “Science strengthens religion—because it reveals law, purpose, and personality in the world.”
Judges and juries did convict Scopes, but the public discourse was forever changed. Testimony from scientists and theologians who testified for the defense, many from the University of Chicago, was entered into the trial record and widely publicized. These included anthropologists, biologists, geologists, and liberal religious leaders—who saw evolution not as a contradiction to religion, but as a complement to it.
A hundred years later – the monkey law is still relevant
But a century later, history is repeating itself – and this time in a darker and more dangerous light. Since Trump came to power, research institutions and universities in the United States have become political targets. Researchers in the fields of climate science, health, social biology and gender have been fired from federal jobs or have had their funding cut. Conservative lawmakers are promoting reforms that would bring prayers back to schools, require the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms, and even directly fund religious educational institutions – at the expense of the public education system.
Professor James Hodnutt-Boemler of Vanderbilt University warns that this is the same pattern we saw in the 20s: politicians exploiting cultural and religious anxiety to challenge the authority of knowledge. “This is not just another confrontation,” he says, “this is a deliberate attempt to reshape America as a religious, not a pluralistic, country.”
The collapse of the principle of separation of religion and state
Human rights organizations and legal scholars have expressed deep concern about the collapse of the principle of separation of church and state. Daniel Mach of the ACLU argues that "the struggle today is not just about this or that educational content. It is about whether the American public will be forced to live under a religious education system operated by the state - in complete violation of the Constitution."
The current reality is disturbingly reminiscent of the toxic tones of that 1925 confrontation. Back then, the people of the South and Midwest felt humiliated by the secular elites of the East. Today, the religious right is using the same narrative of victimhood and cultural siege – to crush the systems of education, research and criticism. What was born as a response to biblical criticism and evolution has now become a well-oiled machine of legislation, propaganda and legalization of faith.
Scopes, who eventually moved to Chicago to study geology under the influence of the scientists who defended him, refused to turn his trial into a public career. He aspired to return to the world of science, but even there he was gradually pushed aside by his label as a “dangerous epicure.” He did not complete his doctorate, drifted between industrial jobs, and ended his life with his status as a cultural hero all but forgotten.
And yet, the trial that made him a symbol remains relevant. Theories of evolution, climate, and social rights continue to be attacked in schools. The government's preoccupation with teaching content has become a means of ideological control. And in the America of 2025, when the second Trump administration is systematically acting against universities, scientists, and journalists, it is necessary to warn again: the Apes trial was not the culmination of a struggle – but its first warning sign.
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Completely correct except for the sentence that puts health, biology, and climate studies in one package along with gender studies. On this point, the commenter Nostradamus is right. The studies of nothingness and "affirmative" discrimination also caused a backlash.
You won't find a consensus backed by facts and the simple physics of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. The few who do do it do so in exchange for research money from oil companies. Check.
I am still patiently waiting for an article that will present a serious scientific perspective from someone who thinks differently about global warming.
Of course, if everyone who thinks differently is defined as a charlatan and a fraud, there will not be a single "scientist" who thinks differently.
It's interesting that before Trump and the rise of progressivism, no one complained, like about gender studies or lesbian ballerinas, and especially about the lowering of the standard of education and discrimination in favor of populations with very low IQs like blacks and Latinos, and the harm to science and the real danger to lives in medicine.