For many years, the church and Christianity had been part of most of the scientific world, and scientists often used ideas from the bible. The bones of plesiosaurs and dinosaurs were being discovered at that time, but man believed them to be the mythical behemoth and leviathan from Biblical myth.

Until in the 1800s, biologist Charles Darwin changed the world when he discovered evolution: a natural biological process in which simple organisms change over the millennia into more complex animals, by adapting to the changing enviroment through natural selection and mutation. He discovered it when he realized that the animals on the Galapagos changed over time when their environment changed. Naturally, this claim interfered with the bible's account of genesis.

Genesis is the belief that the Universe is only 4,000 years old. It states in the Bible that God created two of all species on the planet, including humans. The peace changed, however, when an evil "walking snake", a personification of Satan, made the first humans bite into an evil apple and cause the entire world to be reduced to carnivores and sin. God attempted to flood the land, only sparing Noah and all the animals he spared on his ark. The dinosaur fossils were the giant creatures that died in the flood.

The church was not happy with Darwin's theory, especially on Darwin's theory man evolved from primates. This was seen as obscene and demoralizing. The discovery had much controversy, but the theory began to gain popularity, especially with fossils being constantly discovered of prehistoric animals showing traits of modern animals. People began to poke holes in the Church's genesis account, and began to suggest they shouldn't take the Genesis account literally. Science and religion split up and mostly ignored each other.

However, things would soon change. People began to unearth the bones of prehistoric people with features of apes. The Neanderthal man, the Java man, and the piltdown man all constituted as evidence. People also discovered archaeopteryx, the missing link between dinosaurs and birds.

As evolution grew in popularity, people began to associate it more with Biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamrack's theory of survival of the fittest. Because of this, Darwin's nephew, Francis Galton, developed the idea of eugenics, improving humans by natural selection, preventing minorities and deformed people from breeding with other people to create so-called superior humans. Naturally, this became a key part of segregation, and racism (ironically, Charles Darwin himself hated racism, slavery and eugenics and believed that humans were above survival of the fittest by caring for each other).

Eugenics attracted the outrage of Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan, a populist who wanted civil rights. Eugenics would prevent that. He came to the conclusion that the belief of humans coming from a lower order caused Eugenics, and went on a crusade to prevent it from being taught to youth in public schools. Despite this, the arguments still raged on, so the Court illegally staged a trial to settle the argument, in which an innocent man would be randomly selected and sued for teaching evolution. They selected the accused, John Scopes, and the trial began...

William Jennings Bryan was a Christian Fundemetalist and populist who strongly worked for civil rights and women's sufferage. Groups and opposed evolution due to it's association with eugenics and demoralization. He was born in 1860. He rose to fame and political power with his religious speeches. He was even a presidential candidate. At first he was open minded about the origin of man, until he became convinced that evolution taught that men should kill the weak. He wanted to ban Darwin's theory from the class, hoping the teachings of the bible would teach love. He took up the opposing side to sue John Scopes

Clarence Darrow was a criminal defense Lawyer that defended John Scopes in the trial. He was an atheist born in 1857 in Ohio. His father was an Abolitionist, a carpenter, and an undertaker, and his mother worked in women's suffrage. He became a freethinking political atheist. He started out in a railroad company, until the workers went on strike and he became a lawyer to defend them. He soon became famous when he defended child killers Nathan Leopoldo and Richard Loeb, and saved them from the death penalty. He supported William Jennings Bryan when he became a presidential candidate, but never agreed with his religious views. So, When John Scopes was accused, he took up the role of Defense and opposed William Jennings-Bryan.

John Scopes was born in 1990 in Kentucky. He moved to Salem and went to Salem High School. He went to Kentucky to get a major degree in law and a minor degree in biology.

John Scopes was convicted when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and William-Jennings Bryan helped Tennessee pass out the Tennessee Butler act, banning evolution in public schools. He was working as a biology substitute in Dayton, when he was asked to teach a textbook containing a chapter on evolution. He feared to be sued, so he skipped the chapter. However, he got sued anyway, due to being randomly selected for the trial.

The trial started in a courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. Clarence Darrow attacked William Jennings Bryan with statements on how the bible was ridiculous and had no basis in scientific fact. When the argument escalated, the judge called for a break. Darrow reportably bribed the jury, possibly due to the factor that the judge, John T. Ralston, was fundamentalist and he could lose the argument due to bias. He was caught, but never convicted due to lack of evidence. The judge eventually ruled for William Jennings-Bryan, due to the fact that while evolution teaches science, it didn't teach important lessons such as morality.

Five days after the trial, William Jennings-Bryan died. Clarrence Darrow said while William Jennings-Bryan "won the case, he had lost the argument." Despite the trial, Evolution and creationism is still a very controversial matter in public schools. Many court cases have risen in response to the scopes trial. It was even adapted into a movie, in Inherit the Wind, with the names and location changed. Satirical Journalist H.L. Mencken was very critical of the trial, and dubbed it " the monkey trial".