Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/119

 men on religious questions by law is contrary to the laws of God and to the plans of God. He pointed out that God had it in His power to control man's mind and body, but that He did not see fit to coerce the mind or the body into obedience to even the Divine Will; and that if God Himself was not willing to use coercion to force man to accept certain religious views, man, uninspired and liable to error, ought not to use the means that Jehovah would not employ. Jefferson realized that our religion was a religion of love and not a religion of force.

These words were written by William Jennings Bryan and the defense appeals from the fundamentalist, Bryan of today, to the modernist, Bryan, of yesterday.

We maintain and we shall prove that Christianity is bound up with no scientific theory, that it has survived 2,000 years in the face of all the discoveries of science and that Christianity will continue to grow in respect and influence if the people recognize that there is no conflict with science and Christianity. We will show that science occupies a field of learning separate and apart from the learning of theology which the clergy expound. We will show that throughout the ages, every scientific discovery or new invention has been met by the opposition of people like those behind this prosecution who have pretended that man's inventive genius was contrary to Christianity. We shall prove by experts and scientists in every field of scientific knowledge that there is no branch of science which can be taught today without teaching the theory of evolution, and that this applies to geology, biology, botany, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, bacteriology, embryology, zoology, sanitation, forestry and agriculture. We will show that it will have been impossible for men like Luther Burbank and others without knowledge and faith in the theory of evolution to produce their invaluable experiments and results.

The prosecution has twice since the beginning of the trial referred to man as descended from monkeys. This may be the understanding of the theory of evolution of the prosecution. It is not the view, opinion or knowledge of evolution held by the defense. No scientist of any preeminent standing today holds such a view. The most that science says today is that there is an order of men like mamalsmammals [sic] which are more capable of walking erect than other animals, and more capable than other animals in the use of the forefeet as hands.

There are indications that not 6,000 years ago, but through the long course of the ages from this order came man in one direction, and monkeys in the other. All that science says is that probably some time not 6,000 years ago, but in the course of the ages, and all that science says today is that there are tendencies which indicate the validity of this opinion.

For the purpose of illustration, we hope to show you from embryology about the development of a child from a single cell to its birth. In the course of this development the cell divides repeatedly as growth proceeds and the mass grows. The parts begin to appear at first without resemblance to those of a human being. The arms and legs, for example, first appear as little rounded knobs without fingers or toes. Gradually they elongate and toes and fingers appear. At the end of four months the work of development is practically completed except for proportion. At an early stage, perhaps at the end of one month, the embryo has a tail about one-fourth as long as the rest of the body. This, of course, is not the tail of a monkey, but the tail in formation which is part of the embryo. It also has gill slits; not the gill slits of a fish, but the gill slits