The "Monkey Trial"

It was on this day, the 21st of July, in 1925 that the infamous "monkey trial" ended in Dayton, Tennessee in the United States, with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution and being fined $100.

This law was the Butler Act of 1922 which stated,

"That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."

And what does the nation that put a man on the moon believe now, 86 years on? Most Americans do not accept the theory of evolution. Instead, 51 percent of Americans say God created humans in their present form, and another three in 10 say that while humans evolved, God guided the process. Just 15 percent say humans evolved, and that God was not involved.

Here is the report from the following day's New York Times on the close of the trial.

Dayton, Tenn., July 21 -- The trial of John Thomas Scopes for teaching evolution in Tennessee, which Clarence Darrow characterized today as "the first case of its kind since we stopped trying people for witchcraft," is over. Mr. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, and his counsel will appeal to the Supreme Court of Tennessee for reversal of the verdict. The scene will then be shifted from Dayton to Knoxville, where the case will probably come up on the first Monday in September.

But the end of the trial did not end the battle on evolution, for not long after its conclusion William Jennings Bryan opened fire on Clarence Darrow with a strong statement and a list of nine questions on the basic principles of the Christian religion. To these Mr. Darrow replied and added a statement explaining Mr. Bryan's "rabies." Dudley Field Malone also contributed a statement predicting ultimate victory for evolution and repeating that Mr. Bryan ran away from the fight.

The end of the trial came as unexpectedly

All Beings are Interconnected, All Beings are Related

One of our Sangha members recently sent me this email, with her kind permission I'm posting it here........

Someone I know took their children this week to Howlett's Zoo in Kent. They were watching a gorilla who was standing by the wire (sort of heavy duty chicken wire) and he could just get his fingers through but not his arm. He kept pointing at the ground of the small space between his wire and the railings behind which the public stand. On the ground were small food pellets and someone realised that he wanted them to be picked up and thrown to him. They did. He then picked up the stick in his enclosure and was pushing more pellets, that he couldn't pull towards him, towards the public so that they could reach them and throw them to him. Finally, he passed his long stick through his wire to someone so that they could more easily reach the pellets to be thrown to him. Obviously his party piece, but as this person said it makes you think that perhaps it is us who should be behind bars and the gorillas free........

It also reminds me of Darwin and Jenny the orangutan.....

It was not until a year and a half after his voyage on board the Beagle that Charles Darwin first came face to face with an ape. He was standing by the giraffe house at the London Zoo on a warm day in late March of 1838. The zoo had just acquired an orangutan named Jenny. One of the keepers was teasing her--showing her an apple, refusing to hand it over. Poor Jenny "threw herself on her back, kicked & cried, precisely like a naughty child," Darwin wrote in a letter to his sister.

In the secret notebooks that he kept after the voyage, Darwin was speculating about evolution from every angle, including the emotional, and he was fascinated by Jenny's tantrum. What is it like to be an ape? Does an orangutan's frustration feel a lot like ours? Might she cherish some sense of right and wrong? Will an ape despair because her keeper is breaking the rules--because he is just not playing fair?

Our own species has been talking, volubly and passionately, for at least 50,000 years,

Darwin & The Buddhist Gazette

I’ve just noticed that we had a “StumbleUpon” review by Bjorn Antonio for our post “Darwin, the Isle of Wight, Evolution and Buddhism”. Bjorn is the editor of The Buddhist Gazette which is a really good portal site for Buddhist news, Buddhist Bloggers, Monasteries and Temples (North America) and useful Buddhist Links. So good in fact that I’ve included it under our Favourite Sites (right-hand, slate blue column under “Babel Fish”).

Buddhism and Evolution, a "Thought for Today"

I nearly missed this one, on Wednesday 24th of November Vishvapani gave yet another "Thought for Today" on BBC Radio Four's Today program. As a non-theistic "religion", Buddhism has a completely different take on Darwin's great insight into the workings of nature.

150th Anniversary of the Publication of “On the Origin of Species”

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”, his momentous work, which he started here on the Island, explaining where we, and all of life, actually came from. There has been recent speculation that Darwin may have been influenced by Buddhist teachings. It turns out that Darwin's friend Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, the botanist and explorer, visited Tibet in 1847. He became familiar with Buddhist concepts there. He also wrote letters to Darwin.

Psychologist Paul Ekman has said that Darwin's descriptions of compassion, as well as his view of morality as it relates to compassion, closely mirror Buddhist ideas. For Darwin and Buddhists, the seed for compassion is in the mother-infant relationship - this is "simple compassion," Ekman said. Then there's global compassion - for example, sending money and clothes to victims of a natural disaster. Finally, heroic compassion means risking your own life to save another, just as the Buddha said a mother would to save her only child.

The fundamental idea in both Darwin's writings and Buddhist views of compassion is that "when I see you suffer, it makes me suffer, and that motivates me to reduce your suffering so I can reduce my suffering," he said.

Ekman, co-wrote a book with the Dalai Lama on compassion called "Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion." after reading him some passages of Darwin's work, Ekman recalls the Dalai Lama saying, "I am now calling myself a Darwinian."

Creation comes to Newport

This coming Friday, the 25th, Cineworld in Newport will be showing "Creation" the story of how Charles Darwin prepares to write his revolutionary theories on evolution. As you may know Darwin is thought to have actually started work on "The Origin of Species" while staying here on the Island. This year is of course the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th of the publication of "On the Origin of Species"

Adapted from Randal Keynes' revealing biography, Annie's Box, Creation is a biographical film about the life of Charles Darwin. It tells the story of What happens when a world-renowned scientist, crushed by the loss of his eldest daughter, formulates a theory in conflict with religious dogma, it tells of a global revolution played out in the confines of a small English village; a passionate marriage torn apart by the most dangerous idea in history; and a theory saved from extinction by the logic of a child. It is directed by Jon Amiel and stars married couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Charles and Emma Darwin.

The film had its world premiere on September 10, 2009 at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it was selected as the opening night Gala Presentation for later that evening, the first non-Canadian film since 1996 to be so honoured.

Although distribution was obtained for many countries around the world, no distributor has yet picked up the film in the United States due to the prominence of the Creation Vs. evolution controversy.

Buddhism and Evolution

Further to our previous post about Darwin I recently came across these graphs showing the percentage of people who agree that evolution is the best explanation for the origins of human life on Earth. The first is by "belief" system.....Some people appear not to be following the party line!

and the second is by nationality...........Say no more.

For a good read on how modern science agrees with the Buddha's teachings have a look at "Buddha's Nature: Evolution As a Practical Guide to Enlightenment" by Wes Nisker.

Darwin, the Isle of Wight, Evolution & Buddhism

Today marks the 200th aniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and is internationally recognised as "Darwin Day". Moreover, 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species", on the 24th of November 1859.

In a recent letter to the Isle of Wight County Press A.J.M. Gale points out that

"Charles Darwin visited the Island in 1858, the year he started writing his famous work, The Origin of the Species. Normally his home was in Shropshire but at the beginning of June 1858 scarlet fever was sweeping through the village. Darwin decided to take his family away until the outbreak had run its course. Darwin chose to come to the Island and at first stayed in Sandown — it is thought at the King's Head Hotel adjoining the Ocean Hotel.

It is in a letter to Charles Lyell dated June 18, 1858, that he wrote 'We are established here for ten days and then go onto Shanklin'. He also said he had contemplated writing an abstract of his work but realised it would take a larger work. It is reasonable to assume that while on the Island he started on the abstract that would lead to his main work. On July 30, while resident at Norfolk House, Shanklin, Darwin wrote to J. D. Hooker: 'This is a very charming place and we have got a comfortable house'. Later he wrote: 'I pass my time by doing daily a couple of hours of my Abstract'. He also expresses the view this will lead onto his larger work."

As to Buddhism and evolution, Darwin's theory is readily acceptable to Buddhists. Everything is conditioned by what went before, everything is interconnected, nothing is permanent - all changes and, here's the cruncher, - there is no creator god.

Read more on the Buddhist perspective on Darwin HERE