Evolution 101: A Monkey is Like a Chicken

"Trying to tell you people come from monkeys and all that stuff. Couldn't be right! Monkeys to me, like a chicken, you know? People is people."
—O.W. Wooden, a Dayton, TN, farmer who is still scratching his head over why anyone would believe in evolution

I didn't know whether to laugh or pull over to the side of the road and cry. July 5th was the 80th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, the famous test of a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching evolution in the public schools, and NPR was running a story.

In case your school didn't cover the trial in history class, you might be interested to know that famous face off between fundamentalist populist William Jennings Bryan and the ACLU-funded Clarence Darrow came about because Dayton town fathers saw an opportunity to promote tourism in the economically depressed burg. That's right, all the instigators wanted was a little attention and some new money flowing through town.

If you believe the folks pushing for a ban on Darwinism, they have a much higher purpose, but their argument is still on the order of O.W.'s: Peypuhl is peypuhl.