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Abstract and Keywords
During the trial of John Thomas Scope for violating Tennessee’s law prohibiting the teaching of evolution, three-time democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, an ardent opponent of the scientific theory of evolution joined the prosecution team. Clarence Darrow, a prominent defense attorney, called Bryan to testify. Their exchange over the factual validity of the bible captured wide public attention.
Source: Robert D. Marcus and David Burner, eds, America Firsthand: Readings from Reconstruction to the Present, Vol I. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford. 1997. 154, 157–63.
Q: But the Bible you have offered in evidence says 2,340 something, so that 4,200 years ago there was not a living thing on the earth, excepting the people on the ark and the animals on the ark and the fishes?
A: There have been living things before that.
Q: I mean at that time.
A: After that.
Q: Don’t you know there are any number of civilizations that are traced back to more than 5,000 years?
A: I know we have people who trace things back according to the number of ciphers they have. But I am not satisfied they are accurate.
Q: You are not satisfied there is any civilization that can be traced back 5,000 years?
A: I would not want to say there is because I have no evidence of it that is satisfactory.
Q: Would you say there is not?
A: Well, so far as I know, but when the scientists differ from 24,000,000 to 306,000,000 in their opinion as to how long ago life came here, I want them to be nearer, to come nearer together, before they demand of me to give up my belief in the Bible.
Q: Do you say that you do not believe that there were any civilizations on this earth that reach back beyond 5,000 years?
A: I am not satisfied by any evidence that I have seen.
[ . . . ]
Q: When was that flood?
A: I would not attempt to fix the date. The date is fixed, as suggested this morning.
Q: About 4004 B.C.?
A: That has been the estimate of a man that is accepted today. I would not say it is accurate.
Q: That estimate is printed in the Bible?
A: Everybody knows, at least, I think most of the people know, that was the estimate given.
Q: But what do you think that the Bible, itself, says? Don’t you know how it was arrived at?
A: I never made a calculation.
Q: What do you think?
A: I do not think about things I don’t think about.
Q: Do you think about things you do think about?
A: Well, sometimes.
The Bailiff: Let us have order.
Mr. Darrow: Mr. Bryan, you have read these dates over and over again?
A: Not very accurately; I turn back sometimes to see what the time was.
Q: You want to say now you have no idea how these dates were computed?
A: No, I don’t say, but I have told you what my idea was. I say I don’t know how accurate it was.
Q: You say from the generation of man—
Gen. Stewart: I am objecting to his cross-examining his own witness.
Mr. Darrow: He is a hostile witness.
The Court: I am going to let Mr. Bryan control—
The Witness: I want him to have all the latitude he wants, for I am going to have some latitude when he gets through.
Mr. Darrow: You can have latitude and longitude.
The Court: Order.
Gen. Stewart: The witness is entitled to be examined as to the legal evidence of it. We were supposed to go into the argument today, and we have nearly lost the day, your Honor.
Mr. McKenzie: I object to it.
Gen. Stewart: Your Honor, he is perfectly able to take care of this, but we are attaining no evidence. This is not competent evidence.
The Witness: These gentlemen have not had much chance—they did not come here to try this case. They came here to try revealed religion. I am here to defend it, and they can ask me any question they please.
The Court: All right.
Mr. Darrow: Great applause from the bleachers.
The Witness: From those whom you call “yokels.”
Mr. Darrow: I have never called them yokels.
The Witness: That is the ignorance of Tennessee, the bigotry.
Mr. Darrow: You mean who are applauding you?
The Witness: Those are the people whom you insult.
Mr. Darrow: You insult every man of science and learning in the world because he does not believe in your fool religion.
The Court: I will not stand for that.
Mr. Darrow: For what he is doing?
The Court: I am talking to both of you.
[ . . . ]
Q: I ask for a direct answer.
A: I do not ask to expect to find out all those things, ad I do not expect to find out about races.
Q: I didn’t ask you that. Now, I ask you if you know if it was interesting enough or important enough for you to try to find out about how old these ancient civilizations were?
A: No; I have not made a study of it.
Q: Don’t you know that the ancient civilizations of China are 6,000 or 7,000 years old, at the very least?
A: No; but they would not run back beyond the creation, according to the Bible, 6,000 years.
Q: You don’t know how old they are, is that right?
A: I don’t know how old they are, but probably you do. [Laughter in the courtyard.] I think you would give preference to anybody who opposed the Bible, and I give preference to the Bible.
Q: I see. Well, you are welcome to your opinion. Have you any idea how old the Egyptian civilization is?
A: No.
Q: Do you know of any record in the world, outside of the story of the Bible, which conforms to any statement that it is 4,200 years ago or thereabouts that all life was wiped off the face of the earth?
A: I think they have found records.
Q: Do you know of any?
A: Records reciting the flood, but I am not an authority on the subject.
Q: Now, Mr. Bryan, will you say if you know of any record, or have ever heard of any records, that describe that a flood existed 4,200 years ago, or about that time, which wiped all life off the earth?
A: The recollection of what I have read on that subject is not distinct enough to say whether the records attempted to fix a time, but I have seen in the discoveries of archaeologists where they have found records that described the flood.
Q: Mr. Bryan, don’t you know that there are many old religions that describe the flood?
A: No, I don’t know.
Q: You know there are others beside the Jewish?
A: I don’t know whether these are the record of any other religion or refer to this flood.
Q: Don’t you ever examine religion so far to know that?
A: Outside of the Bible?
Q: Yes.
A: No; I have not examined to know that, generally.
Q: You have never examined any other religions?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: Have you ever read anything about the origins of religions?
A: Not a great deal.
Q: You have never examined any other religion?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: And you don’t know whether any other religion ever gave a similar account of the destruction of the earth by the flood?
A: The Christian religion has satisfied me, and I have never felt it necessary to look up some competing religions.
Q: Do you consider that every religion on earth competes with the Christian religion?
A: I think everybody who does not believe in the Christian religion believes so—
Q: I am asking what you think?
A: I do not regard them as competitive because I do not think they have the same sources we have.
Q: You are wrong in saying “competitive”?
A: I would not say competitive, but the religious unbelievers.
Q: Unbelievers of what?
A: In the Christian religion.
Q: What about the religion of Buddha?
A: I can tell you something about that, if you want to know.
Q: What about the religion of Confucius or Buddha?
A: Well, I can tell you something about that, if you would like to know.
Q: Did you ever investigate them?
A: Somewhat.
Q: Do you regard them as competitive?
A: No, I think they are very inferior. Would you like for me to tell you what I know about it?
Q: No.
A: Well, I shall insist on giving it to you.
Q: You won’t talk about free silver, will you?
A: Not at all . . .
Review:
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1. How would you describe the tone of the exchange between Darrow and Bryan?
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2. How does this exchange encapsulate the tensions between modernism and fundamentalism? Pick out some key examples of this tension.