Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
icals. In short order, although he had no scientific background or training, he became the
fundamentalists' principal scientific authority.
Fundamentalist beliefs on evolution came to a head in the spring of 1925, when high
school teacher John Thomas Scopes confessed to violating a state law against teaching hu-
man evolution in Dayton, Tennessee. At his famous trial, defense attorney Clarence Dar-
row called prosecutor William Jennings Bryan to the witness stand as his final expert on the
relation between science and the Bible. Bryan was a well-known politician who jumped at
an opportunity to campaign against the moral decay that set in when evolution encouraged
people to question biblical authority.
Darrow grilled Bryan about a host of biblical absurdities. Where did Cain, the murderous
son of Adam and Eve, find his wife if his parents were the only other people on Earth? Was
Jonah really eaten by a whale and then spit up alive after spending days submerged in the
belly of the beast? How could Bishop Ussher's 4004
BC
date for the creation be accurate
when Chinese and Egyptian history extend back farther in time? Could Bryan point to any
credible scientist who believed that the story of a global flood could be taken literally? In
response, Bryan named Price.
Hearing this, Darrow scoffed, “You mentioned Price because he is the only human being
in the world so far as you know that signs his name as a geologist that believes like you
Darrow went on to get Bryan to admit that the days of Genesis 1 were not literal twenty-
four-hour days. Each day might have lasted for millions of years. The planet itself might be
quite ancient even if people were created just six thousand years ago. Although Bryan re-
portedly believed in a local rather than a global flood and equated young-Earth creationists
with flat Earthers, it did not stop him from using Price's flood geology to attack evolution.
At the end of the day, despite Bryan's joking rejoinders, Darrow had made his point that
literalists interpreted the Bible as much as anyone, cherry-picking their way through Scrip-
ture. The other defense attorney, Dudley Field Malone, noted that Bryan's reading was not
the only way for Christians to interpret the Bible: it was possible to accept modern science
as not being at odds with religious truths.
The press was not at all kind to Bryan. Neither was fate. He died right after the trial.
