Class 27 (10/25)
Religion and science: evolution
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Geology and Genesis
The age of the earth
The biblical cosmology
Darwin on evolution and man
The book of nature and the book of revelation
What changes after the 1890s
In American science
In American religion
In American society
The "trial of the century"?
Postscript: Creationism
| Primary | Secondary |
| day-age interpretation
gap interpretation On the origin of species (1859) The descent of man (1871) Higher criticism (Biblical criticism) theological modernism fundamentalism Scopes Trial (1925) (for its cast of characters, see Larson's book) creation science |
Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918)
John William Draper (1811-1882) The fundamentals (1909-1912) Creation Research Society |
How did Bryan get on the witness stand? What was the effect?
What was the role played by science in the court's proceedings
or the jury's decision?
What was effect of the appellate hearing?
How did the story of the trial get told in its immediate aftermath?
How was it told in the 1930s and thereafter? What does this
second-order history reveal about the meanings of the trial for Americans?
Alongside questions of science, what intervening developments
in American constitutional interpretation have affected how statute, case,
and decision are viewed today?
Where do you think Larson's sympathies lie? Is that a legitimate
question to ask?