cartoon on Darwinian evolutionary theory by E.J. PaceA Poem for the 100th Anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, by Warren Bonham The Society July 21, 2025 Culture, Poetry 9 Comments . Hairless Apes On the 100th Anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial . In nineteen hundred twenty-five, as Darwinists began to thrive, they wisely chose to hang their hopes upon a teacher named John Scopes who’d contravened the Butler Act by teaching children, it was fact that humans, not so long before, had been mere apes, and nothing more. When Scopes was charged, his plight soon drew support from the ACLU which paid for him to mount a case they hoped would serve to bring disgrace upon creationist accounts. Although they lost, they can announce that as they battled case by case, they put God in his rightful place. We’re now taught we just live, then die, but if thought through, we must ask why we should control our inner beast. That wouldn’t matter in the least to hairless apes whose thumbs oppose, since apes should do what they suppose will bring about what they think’s right, if needed, through deceit or might. Those with just ape-like DNA to guide their footsteps every day, have urges they must satisfy, and no act they can’t justify, since what is virtuous and true is just based on their point of view, and not a perfect paradigm from He who started space and time. . Poet’s Note: What is now popularly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial concluded on July 21st, 100 years ago. John Scopes was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee. He was accused of violating the Butler Act, which prohibited teaching the theory of evolution in public schools in that state. The American Civil Liberties Union agreed to fund the defense of Mr. Scopes so they could mount a challenge to the constitutionality of the law. Although that effort failed, this was the first of many battles that ultimately led to teaching Darwin’s evolutionary theory as a proven fact for how new species were created. . . Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. ***Read Our Comments Policy Here*** 9 Responses Roy Eugene Peterson July 21, 2025 Great subject and great poem that sums up what has happened to our county and our culture. Reply Roy Eugene Peterson July 21, 2025 Issues and stories often become confused. From my postgraduate studies in history, this is one of those. The issue was freedom of speech, while the story was evolution, just like the reason for the Civil War was not slavery, but states’ rights. Reply Edward C. Hayes PhD Hayes July 21, 2025 . . . and, as well, a good illustration of the powerful role that (not-so-humble) POETRY can play in saving, rather reviving, the values of a collapsing culture. Still merely collapsing, not comatose or DOA. The SCP has a crucial role to play in that rehabilitation, and it should make it the main publc pronouncement for all cultural revivalists: “Poetry Leads The Way” – not politics, not crowd-enthrawling partisans, not even Trump-supporting comic books. Those play a part for the moment. But what truly supports a return to, a permanent rebirth of, the love of truly great art, architecture, sculpture, writing, advertising (I mean that), and music — all that we have lost in the aesthetic world from our highly emotional, pell-mell charge toward absolute freedom — now featuring sex change operations and the denial of biological definitions of the sexes? Why, as the example here clearly suggests, culturally themed POETRY could lead the charge for that rehabilitative cultural revival, and its accompanying permanent revolution that we are all awaiting. Sincerely, I will try to attach my own lengthy, somewhat jargonistic, string of couplets which say that same thing. Reply Cynthia L Erlandson July 21, 2025 This is a nice poetic summary of the topic, Warren. Reply Brian Yapko July 21, 2025 This is a splendidly conceived and executed poem, Warren, which lays out a logical argument in verse very skillfully. I’ve been fascinated by the Scopes trial ever since seeing the movie “Inherit the Wind” with Spencer Tracy and Frederic March in the only slight fictionalized Clarence Darrow (“Drummond”) and William Jennings Bryan (“Brady”) roles. And I was always taken by the Brady line “I am more interested in the Rock of Ages than I am in the age of rocks.” I believe in evolution but I believe that evolution happens to be one more tool used by God as part of Creation — a God who happens to exist outside of Time so that the passage of eons means literally nothing to Him. I’ve always resented the animus of the ACLU in trying not to separate church and state but to try to eliminate church completely. Not remotely what the Founders wanted or anticipated. Reply Martin Rizley July 21, 2025 Warren, I like your use of iambic tetrameter. It is a meter that has a natural, flowing feel to it, which is just right for summarizing in a simple, straightforward manner the story of the Scopes trial. I also like the way you incorporate what could be described as a “moral argument” in the last two stanza to argue for man´s superiority to the beasts. For though you do not use the word “soul”, you seem to suggest that human ideas of moral virtue and our rejection of the idea that “deceit and might” make right point to a fundamental difference between men and apes, which would be hard to account for if in fact we had no soul and were mere beasts lacking accountability for our actions and destined to pass into oblivion at death. A couple possible corrections: since the last sentence of stanza two is in the past tense, shoud you use “could” instead of “can”? Also, I´m pretty sure that technically speaking, the last line of your poem should read “from Him” instead of “from He”. Reply Joseph S. Salemi July 21, 2025 As a totally convinced evolutionist, I must dissent from the argument of this poem, though its structure and deft use of tetrameter are admirable. LTC Peterson is quite correct. The issue at the Scopes trial was not the truth or falsity of evolution, but our American right to free speech and free thought. The state of Tennessee had overstepped the boundary between the authority of religion and the authority of the state by passing an absurd law that disallowed any public discussion of a subject that contradicted the teachings of a sectarian religious text. If you read some of the accounts of the atmosphere and public opinion in Dayton at the time of the trial, it becomes quite clear that many ordinary persons in the town and its environs took the entire spectacle as either a joke, or a convenient way to get publicity for the place. Many of them had mixed opinions on the question of evolution or the legal issue of Tennessee’s right to pass laws about what to teach. It was only a minority of very noisy Bible-thumpers that turned the Scopes trial into a clownish and embarrassing display of provincial ignorance. Reply Michael Vanyukov July 21, 2025 The poem is a finely stated narrative, but the narrative is mistaken, just as an atheist’s narrative, like Dawkins’s “The God Delusion” is wrong. There is no scientific theory other than evolution that is consistent with the biological, paleontological, and geological data, and G-d is not its alternative. I do agree with Brian that evolution can be viewed as G-d’s tool, just as natural laws are for holding the universe together. The Bible is not a science textbook and is not in conflict with evolution as a scientific concept. I’d recommend reading Theodosius Dobzhansky, an evolutionist, geneticist, and a Christian, on that matter, “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution,” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/10/2/text_pop/l_102_01.html. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant July 21, 2025 Warren, thank you! This powerful and beautifully written piece is sure to stir up many viewpoints, as it should. I only hope our children get to discuss every aspect and angle of creationism and evolution . It seems a tad one-sided in schools at present. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy Eugene Peterson July 21, 2025 Great subject and great poem that sums up what has happened to our county and our culture. Reply
Roy Eugene Peterson July 21, 2025 Issues and stories often become confused. From my postgraduate studies in history, this is one of those. The issue was freedom of speech, while the story was evolution, just like the reason for the Civil War was not slavery, but states’ rights. Reply
Edward C. Hayes PhD Hayes July 21, 2025 . . . and, as well, a good illustration of the powerful role that (not-so-humble) POETRY can play in saving, rather reviving, the values of a collapsing culture. Still merely collapsing, not comatose or DOA. The SCP has a crucial role to play in that rehabilitation, and it should make it the main publc pronouncement for all cultural revivalists: “Poetry Leads The Way” – not politics, not crowd-enthrawling partisans, not even Trump-supporting comic books. Those play a part for the moment. But what truly supports a return to, a permanent rebirth of, the love of truly great art, architecture, sculpture, writing, advertising (I mean that), and music — all that we have lost in the aesthetic world from our highly emotional, pell-mell charge toward absolute freedom — now featuring sex change operations and the denial of biological definitions of the sexes? Why, as the example here clearly suggests, culturally themed POETRY could lead the charge for that rehabilitative cultural revival, and its accompanying permanent revolution that we are all awaiting. Sincerely, I will try to attach my own lengthy, somewhat jargonistic, string of couplets which say that same thing. Reply
Brian Yapko July 21, 2025 This is a splendidly conceived and executed poem, Warren, which lays out a logical argument in verse very skillfully. I’ve been fascinated by the Scopes trial ever since seeing the movie “Inherit the Wind” with Spencer Tracy and Frederic March in the only slight fictionalized Clarence Darrow (“Drummond”) and William Jennings Bryan (“Brady”) roles. And I was always taken by the Brady line “I am more interested in the Rock of Ages than I am in the age of rocks.” I believe in evolution but I believe that evolution happens to be one more tool used by God as part of Creation — a God who happens to exist outside of Time so that the passage of eons means literally nothing to Him. I’ve always resented the animus of the ACLU in trying not to separate church and state but to try to eliminate church completely. Not remotely what the Founders wanted or anticipated. Reply
Martin Rizley July 21, 2025 Warren, I like your use of iambic tetrameter. It is a meter that has a natural, flowing feel to it, which is just right for summarizing in a simple, straightforward manner the story of the Scopes trial. I also like the way you incorporate what could be described as a “moral argument” in the last two stanza to argue for man´s superiority to the beasts. For though you do not use the word “soul”, you seem to suggest that human ideas of moral virtue and our rejection of the idea that “deceit and might” make right point to a fundamental difference between men and apes, which would be hard to account for if in fact we had no soul and were mere beasts lacking accountability for our actions and destined to pass into oblivion at death. A couple possible corrections: since the last sentence of stanza two is in the past tense, shoud you use “could” instead of “can”? Also, I´m pretty sure that technically speaking, the last line of your poem should read “from Him” instead of “from He”. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi July 21, 2025 As a totally convinced evolutionist, I must dissent from the argument of this poem, though its structure and deft use of tetrameter are admirable. LTC Peterson is quite correct. The issue at the Scopes trial was not the truth or falsity of evolution, but our American right to free speech and free thought. The state of Tennessee had overstepped the boundary between the authority of religion and the authority of the state by passing an absurd law that disallowed any public discussion of a subject that contradicted the teachings of a sectarian religious text. If you read some of the accounts of the atmosphere and public opinion in Dayton at the time of the trial, it becomes quite clear that many ordinary persons in the town and its environs took the entire spectacle as either a joke, or a convenient way to get publicity for the place. Many of them had mixed opinions on the question of evolution or the legal issue of Tennessee’s right to pass laws about what to teach. It was only a minority of very noisy Bible-thumpers that turned the Scopes trial into a clownish and embarrassing display of provincial ignorance. Reply
Michael Vanyukov July 21, 2025 The poem is a finely stated narrative, but the narrative is mistaken, just as an atheist’s narrative, like Dawkins’s “The God Delusion” is wrong. There is no scientific theory other than evolution that is consistent with the biological, paleontological, and geological data, and G-d is not its alternative. I do agree with Brian that evolution can be viewed as G-d’s tool, just as natural laws are for holding the universe together. The Bible is not a science textbook and is not in conflict with evolution as a scientific concept. I’d recommend reading Theodosius Dobzhansky, an evolutionist, geneticist, and a Christian, on that matter, “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution,” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/10/2/text_pop/l_102_01.html. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant July 21, 2025 Warren, thank you! This powerful and beautifully written piece is sure to stir up many viewpoints, as it should. I only hope our children get to discuss every aspect and angle of creationism and evolution . It seems a tad one-sided in schools at present. Reply
