CCP167: On the 100th Anniversary of the Scopes Trial

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss another significant anniversary happening this year. We recently aired CCP165: On the Nicene Creed as 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the creed. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of what's known as the Scopes Trial (or the “Monkey Trial”) - a sensational trial in American history where the debate over creation vs. evolution entered the courtroom. Set in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee back in 1925, the trial set defenders of evolutionary theory against those who wanted public schools to teach what was considered to be a biblical view of the origin of the world's inhabitants. Episode Links As Dr. White mentioned, the church plays a huge role when it comes to apologetics - helping people to know why they believe what they believe and to be able to give an account of their faith to others. This has always been a priority at Mecklenburg Community Church. In fact, you may be interested in checking out the following series that were given by Dr. White, all related to apologetics and/or faith vs. science: “Doubt” “Don't Check Your Brains at the Door” “The Science of God” “Astrophysics… for People Who Are Open to God” “Why Believe?” There are two resources we'd suggest you check out related to the conversation today. For a better understanding of the Hebrew mindset, we'd suggest Our Father Abraham written by Marvin R. Wilson. And then for more on the interplay between faith and science, we suggest you read How I Changed My Mind About Evolution, edited by Kathryn Applegate and J.B. Stump. Finally, today's discussion was sparked by an article on NPR by Scott Neuman and Nell Greenfieldboyce titled “100 years after evolution went on trial, the Scopes case still reverberates” outlining the cultural ramifications of this trial even 100 years later. You can read or listen to that article HERE. For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.