1912: Piltdown Man
(Rise of Evolution) (Evolution Challenged)
Is Piltdown Man a "missing link"? Both critics and proponents
of evolution eagerly await the discovery of a "missing link" between humans and
other primates. The fossil skull called Piltdown Man seems to be this link. The
New York Times hails the find of Piltdown Man with the headline "Darwin Theory
is Proved True." The find at first bolsters the argument for human evolution -- in
the 1920s, a model of the skull is even brought to the Scopes trial by the defense --
but in the 1950s the fossil is revealed as a fake.
c. 1913: Flood Geology
(Evolution Challenged)
Flood geology has few proponents. Many, if not most, conservative
Christians of the day accept that Earth may be millions of years old. Yet the seeds
for the young-Earth creationist movement are sown. A Seventh-day Adventist named
George McCready Price, in his book The Fundamentals of Geology, argues that
virtually all fossil-bearing rock on Earth can be attributed to the one year of
Noah's flood. This idea will not be widely accepted by fundamentalists for 50 years.
1914-1918: WWI
(Evolution Challenged)
WWI spurs anti-evolution crusade. Horror at The Great War plays
a pivotal role in bringing together various strands of conservative Christians into
a united fundamentalist movement and helps launch an anti-evolution crusade. Critics
of evolution link German military aggression to the Darwinian idea of "survival of
the fittest, " even though there is no clear relationship between the spread of
evolutionary ideas and the war. One anti-evolutionist notes: "The Germans who
poisoned the wells and springs of Northern France and Belgium ... were angels compared
to the textbook writers and publishers who are poisoning the books used in our schools."
1915: Bible in School
(Battle in the Schools)
Bible reading required in public schools. Most public schools
in the U.S. have long included Bible reading, but the new fundamentalist movement
now brings a slew of legal statutes in the South to ensure the practice. In Tennessee,
the legislature notes that 10 Bible verses must be read daily, yet it prohibits
comment on the readings in order to avoid discrimination between Christian faiths.
1919: WCFA
(Evolution Challenged)
Conservative Christians flock to the WCFA. Some 6,000 conservative
Christians attend the inaugural conference of the World's Christian Fundamentals
Association, or WCFA. Around this time, the term "fundamentalist" is coined to
describe Christians who are turning away from what they perceive as dangerous
"modernist" trends. The Baptist reverend William Bell Riley, who helps found the
WCFA, proclaims that "modernist" Christianity is "the new infidelity." While
modernist Protestants seek to incorporate the findings of science with Christian
doctrine, fundamentalists begin to rally against the science they see as the
greatest threat to their faith: Darwinian evolution.
c. 1920: Bryan's Crusade
(Evolution Challenged)
William Jennings Bryan launches anti-evolution crusade. In
The Menace of Darwinism and a series of other speeches, Bryan rallies
against the teaching of evolution. Known as "the Great Commoner," Bryan is one
of the most influential politicians in America. He has run for president three
times on the Democratic ticket. Now, the last great campaign of his life is
against evolution. "What shall it profit a man," he writes, "if he shall gain
all the learning of the schools and lose his faith in God?" Historian Edward
Larson later notes, "It took William Jennings Bryan to turn the fundamentalist
movement into a popular crusade against teaching evolution."
1923: First Anti-Evolution Bills
(Battle in the Schools)
First anti-evolution bills passed. Spurred by William Jennings
Bryan and a growing grassroots movement, six Southern and border states consider
anti-evolution proposals. Two measures pass. In Oklahoma, a ban is placed on
public school textbooks that teach the "Materialist Conception of History
(i.e.) the Darwin Theory of Creation." In Florida, a non-binding resolution
declares, "It is improper and subversive to the best interest of the people"
for public schools "to teach as true Darwinism or any hypothesis that links man
in blood relationship to any form of lower life." Many anti-evolutionists abhor
the idea that humans are closely related to apes and other animals. There is
"demoralization involved in accepting a brute ancestry," notes William Jennings
Bryan.
-> Go to 1925
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