In 1859, Charles Darwin introduced his infamous theory of evolution in his book The Origin of Species. He argued that organisms evolved, becoming more complex, over millions of years through natural selection. 12 years later, he wrote The Descent of Man, where he pushed his theory further and directly asserted that humans arose by common descent from ape-like beings through evolution.
"We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World. This creature, if its whole structure had been examined by a naturalist, would have been classed amongst the Quadrumana, as surely as the still more ancient progenitor of the Old and New World monkeys."
~ Charles Darwin
Title Page of The Origin of Species, 1859,
Library of Congress
Title Page of The Descent of Man, 1871,
Leeds University Library
Evolution of humans, BiologyWise
Anti-Evolution League, ACLU
Darwin's theory of evolution startled the United States as it contravened Christianity. It plunged churchgoers and religious leaders into a debate on accepting the theory or rejecting it and following a literal interpretation of the Bible. While most churches in urban areas rectified evolution with their values, rural churches remained traditional with their beliefs.
Another factor that led to the Scopes Trial was World War I. A handful of Americans partly blamed German militarists who accepted evolution for the outbreak of the war, being a source of opposition to Darwin’s theory.
"The German military believed it was engaged in a global battle for 'the salvation of the human species.' Many German officers became convinced that Germany was the super-race destined to win the so-called "evolutionary struggle for existence."
~ Linda Hunt
German soldiers during WWI, Rare Historical Photos
Title Page of A Civic Biology, 1914, Open Library
Additionally, the American public education system expanded after the war, creating more caution over what was being taught in schools.
"For the first time, students, particularly in rural areas, were being expected to continue their education into high school, and were correspondingly being exposed to more … books like Hunter's 'A Civic Biology' — which broached the conception of evolution — being used throughout the country (including Dayton, Tennessee)."
~ Glenn Branch
In the 1920s, evolution became a focus of Fundamentalism and many devoted much of their time in expunging Darwinism from American education, especially in the South due to major Protestant influence. To these people, whatever falsified God was unholy, and compromise between God’s creation of mankind and Darwin’s theory of the origin of humans was impossible. This idea would be at the heart of the Butler Act and thus the Scopes Trial.
.Depicting how fundamentalists believed strictly in the word of God
Fears of accepting evolution, 1924, Seven Questions in Dispute
"American Fundamentalism was a particular strain of Protestant Christianity, and in stressing the literal truth of the Bible and the literal truth of Genesis, it certainly ran right up against evolution. It was simply incompatible with evolution."
~ Eugenie Scott