The Prosecution
Mr. Stewart (during Mr. Darrow’s cross-examination of Mr. Bryan): I want to interpose another objection. What is the purpose of this examination?
Mr. Bryan: The purpose is to cast ridicule upon everybody who believes in the Bible, and I am perfectly willing that the world shall know that these gentlemen have no other purpose than ridiculing every Christian who believes in the Bible.
The Defense
Mr. Darrow: We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States, and you know it, and that is all.
Statements of Noted Scientists as Filed into Record by Defense Counsel
Charles H. Judd, Director of School of Education, University of Chicago: It will be impossible, in my judgment, in the state university, as well as in the normal schools, to teach adequately psychology or the science of education without making constant reference to all the facts of mental development which are included in the general doctrine of evolution.... Whatever may be the constitutional rights of legislatures to prescribe the general course of study of public schools it will, in my judgment, be a serious national disaster if the attempt is successful to determine the details to be taught in the schools through the vote of legislatures rather than as a result of scientific investigation.
Jacob G. Lipman, Dean of the College of Agriculture, State University of New Jersey: With these facts and interpretations of organic evolution left out, the agricultural colleges and experimental stations could not render effective service to our great agricultural industry.
Wilbur A. Nelson, State Geologist of Tennessee: It, therefore, appears that it would be impossible to study or teach geology in Tennessee or elsewhere, without using the theory of evolution.
Kirtley F. Mather, Chairman of the Department of Geology, Harvard University: Science has not even a guess as to the original source or sources of matter. It deals with immediate causes and effects.... Men of science have as their aim the discovery of facts. They seek with open eyes, willing to recognize it, as Huxley said, even if it “sears the eyeballs.” After they have discovered truth, and not till then, do they consider what its moral implications may be. Thus far, and presumably always, truth when found is also found to be right, in the moral sense of the word.... As Henry Ward Beecher said, forty years ago, “If to reject God’s revelation in the book is infidelity, what is it to reject God’s revelation of himself in the structure of the whole globe?”