12. How we lost the Scopes Monkey Trial

Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn was many things such as the head of the Department of Palaeontology at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. He was also a Marxist and a standing leader in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). As part of the ACLU, he was a key player in furthering their agenda to overturn Christian-backed legislation which forbids the teaching of evolution in schools.

In February, 1922, Dr. Osborn received a fossilized tooth that was recently found in Snake Creek, Nebraska, which he concluded to be undisputable evidence of a missing link which became known as Nebraska Man. Scientific claims and artist conceptions were produced to depict ape-men-like wookies crossing the American plains in large running strides while carrying clubs and spears. It was a very dramatic work of creativity all drawn from a single tooth. Dr. Osborn saw his tooth as his own silver bullet for a test case that the ACLU would hold in 1925 at Dayton, Tennessee, which became historically known as “Scope’s Monkey Trial.”

How They Made Monkeys Out of Mankind

Though the tooth was one of the triggers for the Scope’s Monkey Trial, it was not admitted as evidence. Disagreements on the legitimacy of the tooth began to slowly and quietly break out within the scientific community. In the American Museum Novitiates for January 6, 1923, nine authorities wrote their objections that the tooth was from an ape or a human. So, ACLU lawyer, Clarence Darrow, began to attack the book of Genesis as a true, historical record with his goal to undermine the Authority of the Word of God. One of the key questions he asked is “Where did Cain get his wife?” which he posed to William Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor who stood for the Christian faith in the trial. The transcript of the interrogation of Bryan by Darrow is as follows:

Darrow - Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife?

Bryan - No, sir; I leave the agnostics to hunt for her.

Darrow - You have never found out?

Bryan - I have never tried to find.

Darrow - You have never tried to find?

Bryan - No.

Darrow - The Bible says he got one doesn’t it? Were there other people on the Earth at that time?

Bryan - I cannot say.

Darrow - You cannot say. Did that ever enter your consideration?

Bryan - Never bothered me.

Darrow - There were no others recorded, but Cain got a wife.

Bryan - That is what the Bible says.

Darrow - Where she came from you do not know.

While Bryan is confessing his trust in the Scriptures, which is a key issue, he is not giving a good answer to a blind and dying world. As a result, the world sees his inability to explain the Scriptures as a reason not to trust the Word of God. Just trusting and believing and having faith is a good thing for a believer who is wrestling with doubts and uncertainty within his or herself is great in that one scenario. However, when we are representing the Truth to a world that is blind and cannot get it, we need to do our homework so that we may be “. . . ready always to [give] an answer to every man

that asks you the reason of the hope that is in you. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15) Was William Jennings Bryan giving answers with gentleness and respect to a lost, vindictive ACLU lawyer? Was he speaking with a hardened heart, filled with self-righteousness, or was it with humility and gentleness which earnestly seeks the opportunity to give an answer to those lost in darkness about the hope that is within us? If we wish to represent Jesus, then we better do it His way with His Word alive in our hearts. These are darkened times where seven out of eight “born-again” youths leave the Church and the Faith by the time they reach their early twenties. It is a time when we must study and press in to find answers to questions that people may have. Often times, we in the Christian Faith dismiss the unknown and just trust God. This is good for you as a believer, but it doesn’t help your high school kid who is getting indoctrinated by the secular community forty hours per week. We must know why we believe what we believe so that we may overwhelm the opposition.

Where did Cain get his wife?

Secular society often hides behind the assumption that if there were an Adam and an Eve, then their children would have to marry from other tribes of men or else there would be all kinds of deformities in the human genetic code early on. This confirms their underlying beliefs that humanity never had a fall and that we are only evolving into something greater. They believe that after Cain was expelled for killing his brother Abel that he went to the land of Nod, married a wife, and took charge of a town. Some believers fashion a form of this belief to themselves. They start talking about pre-Adamite races in that races of men populated the earth before Adam and Eve, and that Adam and Eve were a separate “godly” race. All of this is heresy and should be condemned on site. Such heresies have misled people into trying to justify the mistreatment of Africans as slaves by dubbing them as members of the “pre-Adamite” race incapable of salvation. We may not stone people today, but we should stone lies, falsehoods, and deceptions.

According to the Scriptures, Adam was the first of mankind. His sin brought the curse upon us all. This is paramount in the Christian doctrine. It is the source of all of our troubles and sins that we face today, and it is the reason why Jesus came to the earth and died upon the cross. Eve is also deemed as the mother of all mankind as well. There were no rival races of men upon the earth. They did not have Ten Commandments, they and all of the creatures of the earth had one commandment: Be fruitful and multiply. Life was very simple: you plant a harvest, hunt, make fires and shelters, and couples “knew” each other biblically often enough to fill the earth with youngins. They were created in genetic perfection capable of living 800-900 years old, and during that time, they were commanded by God to be fruitful and to have many children in which they did. “After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.” (Gen 5:4) No one truly knows just how many children they could have had during that time. But during these days, men such as Adam, Abraham, and Jacob, started families which turned into nations in very short amounts of time. In a matter of decades, their children would be marrying and having offspring. At this point, many critics of the Scripture would stand upon their moral high-horse and proclaim, “But wait! Isn’t that against God’s law?” The answer at this point in time is no! At this point, things were pure, and the human genome was perfect. It wouldn’t be until almost 2,500 years later after the fall during Moses’ time that the genetic imperfections would start to emerge and God’s law would be presented to address this matter in Leviticus 18-20. So prior to this, it would not be against the law to marry close relatives. So, Cain ended up marrying a close relative who was a younger sister or niece. Some critics also argue that Cain left by himself and found a wife after being expelled, but what do the Scriptures state? “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city then, and he named it after his son, Enoch.” (Gen 4:16-17) No where there does it mention that Cain went and found a wife. His wife was expelled with him, and when they reached their destination, they started a family. It’s an assumption by the critics that Cain left alone and found a wife. Scripture clearly states that he left, found a new spot, and that was when his wife started having that nesting feeling, and then kids happened. Cain was out to build a town, and one key ingredient to a town is to have a population. In time, he had a town and an entire civilization at that.

The Tooth of Nebraska Man

The fossilized tooth that sparked the Scope’s Monkey Trial had its own closure from the history books. Additional searches were made of the Snake Creek, Nebraska area where the original tooth was found bringing the scientific community to conclude that the tooth belonged to an extinct race of pigs. These facts were not broadcasted through the media, but the 14^th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britanicca (1929, 14:767) did cite the fact that the tooth actually belonged to a “being of another order.” It’s funny how they would not admit to it being a pig’s tooth. The story continues. In 1972, a herd of this so called extinct race of pigs was discovered to be alive and well by Ralph Wetzel in Paraguay’s Chaco region. Wetzel’s description was documented in Science (1975, 189:379) and they were classified as Catagonus ameghino. Once again the fossil record is corrected from being a several million year old missing link, to an extinct pig, to a new discovery of a species of living, breathing pigs.

In Conclusion

The Scripture speaks it clearly. There was only one man and one woman at the beginning of creation. From them all mankind came to be. Then, there was a Flood which left only Noah, his wife, and his sons with their wives alive. Within four generations of the Flood, mankind came together in a wicked form of unity (instead of going into all the earth as commanded) and built a tower (thinking they would have a place to go if God’s Judgment came again as a flood – which He promised that He wouldn’t). God then transformed mankind into the different races we see today, scrambled their languages so they could not be united in disobedience, and caused them to spread throughout the earth as originally commanded. As Christians, we must know what we believe, and why we believe it. We believe that the Bible is true. We must also know why it is true. And answers such as “Just because,” or “Cuz I have faith!” just do not provide the answer which creates a life-changing foundation in an unbeliever.