The Evolution-Creationism
Controversy: A Chronology
13. 7 Billion
Years Ago
|
According
to the theory of the Big Bang, as presently understood by most physicists,
the approximate date of the creation of our universe.
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4.5 Billion
Years Ago
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Dust and
gas condense to form the planet earth. Sometime after this, in a manner
scientists do not yet understand, life emerged.
|
2.5 Billion
Years Ago
|
Earliest
generally accepted date of life (bacteria) existing on earth. Some scientists
date bacteria fossils found in Western Australian greenstones to 3.465
billion years.
|
7 Million Years
Ago
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Approximately
the time when, according to paleontologists, the ancestral lines of modern
apes and modern humans diverge; the time of the last common ancestor of man
and ape.
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October 23, 4004
B.C.
|
The date
of Creation, according to Bishop James Ussher, a seventeeth-century Biblical
scholar.
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13th Century
B.C.
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Moses, a
priest and politician who was raised in the court of Pharaoh Ramses II,
develops his vision of an all-powerful Creator, "Yahweh."
|
Circa 1000
B.C.
|
The
Genesis 2 (Adam and Eve) creation story is written, probably in what is today
southern Israel.
The story most likely derives from a story told around campfires by
generations of desert dwellers.
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Circa 560 B.C.
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The
Genesis 1 (Six Day) creation story is written, during or soon after the Jews'
Babylonian captivity.
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Mid-3rd Century B.C.
|
Seventy-two
Jewish scholars, called to Alexandria,
Egypt by
Ptolemy II, translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The resulting work,
the Septuagint, will become the Old Testament of the early Christian Church.
|
Mid-1st Century B.C.
|
Philo
Judaeus, a Jew living in Alexandria,
writes On Allegory, a book which explored deeper meanings of Old
Testament text. The book, considered the first work of theology,
rejected literalistic interpretations of the creation story and set an
interpretive path that would be followed a century later by Saint Paul, who
more than anyone can be said to have founded the Christian Church.
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June 1633
|
Galileo
Galilei is convicted by the Holy Congregation, a panel of cardinals, of
teaching that the earth revolves around the sun in violation of an injunction
issued against him by the Vatican seventeen
years earlier. The cardinals believed that Galileo's teachings
contradicted certain passages (such as Joshua 10:13) in the Bible
|
Summer of 1650
|
Bishop
James Ussher publishes The Annals of the Old Testament. The
Annals sets the date for creation as October 23, 4004 B.C. The date
becomes widely accepted, appearing as part of a chronology in popular Bibles.
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January 15, 1751
|
Georges-Louis
Leclerc de Buffon is asked by the theology faculty of the Sorbonne in Paris to reputiate his
"reprehensible proposition" that the earth was created when a comet
collided with the Sun, rather than by God in the manner reported in Genesis.
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July 1, 1858
|
The
theory of evolution is announced to thirty attendees at a meeting of the
Linnaean Society in London.
The theory is presented in a paper bearing the names of both Charles Darwin
and Allfred Russell Wallace. Wallace had sent a letter to Charles
Darwin earlier in the year outlining a theory of evolution which Wallace
independently derived. The letter prompted Darwin to complete his own work on
evolution.
|
November 1859
|
Origin
of Species, by
Charles Darwin, is published in London.
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June 30, 1860
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The first
celebrated debate on the evolution-creationism controversy takes place at a
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford. Thomas H.
Huxley, an outspoken champion of Darwin's
ideas, and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce offer opposing views as to whether man
and ape have a common ancestor.
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1871
|
Charles
Darwin publishes his second great work on evolution, The Descent of
Man. Unlike his first work, The Descent of Man makes connections
between apes and humans explicit.
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1882
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Charles
Darwin dies and is buried in London's
Westminister Abbey.
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1909
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Discovery
of the Burgess Shale outcrop in the Canadian Rockies. The outcrop
becomes the source of tens of thousands of fossils and greatly expands
scientificunderstanding of the history of life on earth.
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1916
|
James H.
Leuba publishes a survey of religious beliefs of college students and professors.
William Jennings Bryan will later read Leuba's survey and draw from it the
conclusion that evolution presents a serious threat to religious beliefs.
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1919
|
George W.
Hunter publishes Civic Biology, a textbook designed for high school
biology students. The book contains a section on evolution. It includes
racist suggestions and endorses controversial ideas, such as sterilization of
epileptics and the mentally feeble, from the then-popular field of
eugenics. The book will be adopted by Tennessee and assigned as reading in the
classroom of John Scopes. The year also marks the inaugural conference
of William B. Riley's World Christian Fundamentals Association.
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1922
|
William
Jennings Bryan, William B. Riley, John R. Straton, T. T. Martin (and other religious
leaders) began a campaign for legislation that will ban the teaching of
evolution in public schools.
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January 24, 1924
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William
Jennings Bryan delivers a major speech in Nashville attacking evolution.
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January 21, 1925
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John
Washington Butler introduces a bill in the Tennessee House of Representatives
to ban the teaching of evolution in the public schools. The bill will
later become the Butler Act, and will be the basis for the prosecution of
John Scopes.
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February 1925
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Evangelist
Billy Sunday holds revival meetings in Tennessee.
He tells rapt crowds, "Education today is chained to the Devil's
throne."
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March 21, 1925
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Tennessee
Governor Austin Peay signs the Butler Act, prohibiting the teaching of
evolution in the state's public schools. He expresses the opinion that
the law will never be enforced.
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April 21, 1925
|
Scopes
discusses with his biology students the section on evolution in Hunter's Civic
Biology, according to the later testimony of Superintendent Walter
White. (A student, in his testimony, puts the date as "about the
middle of April." The original indictment identifies the date of
his teaching evolution as "the 24th day of April.")
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May 1, 1925
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The
school year ends at the Rhea
County High
School.
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May 3, 1925
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The ACLU
discusses the Tennessee antievolution act at
a board meeting in New York.
The board decides to issue a press announcement that it stood willing to
support any teacher that challenged the law's constitutionality.
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May 4, 1925
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The Chattanooga
Daily Times publishes a story reporting that the ACLU is hoping to mount
a challenge to the Butler Act and that it is looking for a teacher willing to
serve as a defendant in a test case. The story is read by a Dayton coal plant
manager, George Rappalyea.
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May 5, 1925
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At a
gathering of town leaders at Robinson's drug store in Dayton,
George Rappalyea proposes holding a trial that will test the
constitutionality of Tennessee's
new antievolution law. Scopes, fetched from a tennis court, comes to
Robinson's and indicates his willingness to be a defendant. A warrant is
issued for the arrest of John Scopes.
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May 6, 1925
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In
response to a letter from Rappalyea seeking the organization's cooperation in
defending John Scopes, the ACLU wires back its willingness to assist with
financial help, legal advice, and publicity.
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May 9, 1925
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At a
preliminary hearing, three Rhea
County justices of the
peace formally bind Scopes to a grand jury. Law professor John Neal,
from Knoxville,
appears to represent Scopes, who is released without bond.
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May 13, 1925
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William
B. Riley, founder and head of the World Christian Fundmentals Association,
telegraphs William Jennings Bryan, asking him to go to Dayton and join the Scopes prosecution
team. Bryan telegraphs local prosecutors
in Dayton expressing
his willingness to help.
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May 14, 1925
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After
discussing the matter with journalist H. L. Mencken and others, Clarence
Darrow volunteers to join the team defending John Scopes.
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May 25, 1925
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Seven
boys testify to a grand jury that Scopes taught evolution. Scopes is
indicted and his trial is set by Judge John T. Raulston for July 10.
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Early June, 1925
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John
Scopes and his first attorney, John R. Neal, travel to New York to meet with ACLU officials about
the upcoming trial. Scopes states his preference for being represented
by Clarence Darrow and Dudley Field Malone. The ACLU reluctantly
agrees to Scopes's choice of lawyers.
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July 7, 1925
|
William
Jennings Bryan arrives in Dayton by train from
Florida.
That evening, the Progressive Club of Dayton holds a banquet in his honor at
the Hotel Aqua. Sitting with Bryan
at the main table is John Scopes. At the banquet, Bryan declares, "If evolution wins,
Christianity goes!"
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July 8, 1925
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People
continue to pour into Dayton
in anticipation of the beginning of the Scopes trial. Among the
arrivals are journalist H. L. Mencken, the father of John Scopes, and defense
lawyers Dudley Field Malone and Arthur Garfield Hays.
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July 9, 1925
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More
people--lawyers, expert witnesses, reporters, evangelists, and the interested
public--arrive in Dayton.
Defense attorney Clarence Darrow arrives from Chicago and is hosted for a banquet at the
Hotel Aqua.
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July 10, 1925
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The
Scopes trial opens in the Rhea County Court House in Dayton. A jury is selected.
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July 13, 1925
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Defense
lawyers argue that the indictment of Scopes should be thrown out as violative
either of the United States
or Tennessee
constitutions.
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July 14, 1925
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Lawyers
argue over the appropriateness of Judge Raulston's practice of beginning each
court session with a prayer. An angry Judge Raulston appoints a
committee to investigate who leaked to reporters the story that he would not
grant the defense's motion to quash the indictment on constitutional grounds.
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July 15, 1925
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The
prosecution presents its case against Scopes, calling to the stand the School
Board head Walter White and two students of John Scopes. The defense
calls its first witness, zoology professor Maynard Metcalf. The
prosecution argues Metcalf's testimony is irrelevant.
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July 16, 1925
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Lawyers
for both sides debate the issue of whether the defense should be allowed to
present expert witnesses. Memorable speeches on the subject are
delivered by William Jennings Bryan and (especially) Dudley Field Malone.
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July 17, 1925
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Judge
John Raulston rules that the defense will not be allowed to present expert
testimony on evolution or its consistency with Genesis.
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July 20, 1925
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Before a
crowd of thousands on the courthouse lawn, Clarence Darrow calls William
Jennings Bryan as a witness and examines him on the meaning of the Bible and
the age of the earth.
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July 21, 1925
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John
Scopes is convicted and sentenced to a fine of $100. The "monkey
trial" comes to an end.
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July 26, 1925
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William
Jennings Bryan dies in his sleep in Dayton,
Tennessee.
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1926
|
Mississippi, at the urging of evangelist T.
T. Martin, enacts a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in its public
schools.
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January 17, 1927
|
The
Tennessee Supreme Court overturns the conviction of John Scopes on the
technical ground that the fine was set by the judge rather than, as the state
constitution required, by the jury.
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1928
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Arkansas becomes the third and last state
to enact a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution.
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1950
|
In his
Encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII declares evolution to be a
serious hypothesis that did not contradict essential Catholic teachings.
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January 10, 1955
|
Inherit
the Wind, a play
loosely based on the Scopes trial and written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert
Lee, opens on Broadway. In the play, Darrow (Henry Drummond) is
portrayed as a heroic champion of free speech, while most residents of Hillsboro (Dayton)
are portrayed as religious fanatics.
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October 4, 1957
|
Sputnik
is launched by the Soviet Union. The
success of the satellite's launch prompts a major evaluation of how science
is taught in American schools. States become much more willing to
accept the teaching of evolution in public schools.
|
1961
|
The
Genesis Flood, a
book by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, arguing that the geological record
supports the Biblical creation story is published. The book
revives the creationist movement.
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May 17, 1967
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Tennessee repeals the Butler Act, the law
passed in 1925 prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools.
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November 12,
1968
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The
United States Supreme Court holds, in the case of Epperson v Arkansas, state
law prohibiting the teaching of evolution to violate the Establishment Clause
of the U. S. Constitution.
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June 19, 1987
|
The U. S.
Supreme Court rules, in Edwards v Aguillard, that Louisiana's Balanced Treatment Act,
requiring public school teachers who teach evolution to also teach
"creation-science," is struck down as an "establishment of
religion."
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1991
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Law
professor Phillip E. Johnson publishes Darwin on Trial. The book
makes the case against evolution and suggests that if evolution as scientists
today envision it is fact, there is no meaningful role left for God.
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October 22, 1996
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Pope John
Paul II tells the Pontifical Academy of Sciences that evolution is "more
than a hypothesis" and does not contradict Catholic teaching. The
Pope insists, however, that "souls are immediately created by God"
and that theories of evolution that hold the human mind to be a product of
evolution are incompatible with "the dignity of the person."
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1999
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The State
Board of Education of Kansas removes evolution from the state's science
teaching standards, becoming the first of several states to be battlegrounds
in the new evolution-creationism war.
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