In earlier generations, historians would have been tempted to apply the warfare model to episodes of that sort, on the assumption that science and religion have always been locked in mortal combat, with religion constantly yielding to science. This article explores fundamentalists, modernists, and evolution in the 1920s. The whole process is so intelligent that there is no question in my mind but what there is an Intelligence behind it. 42-44). The great scientists of the new [twentieth] century are to a very large degree intense spiritualists. A regular at several prestigious venues in the Northeast, he was best known for his annual week-long series at theChautauqua Institution, the mother of all American bully pulpits. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, a wave of anti-alcohol sentiment swept the United States. I believe there is a kinship between all living things. Advertisement for talks Rimmer had given at a California church several months earlier. Schmucker himself put it like this: With the growth of actual knowledge and of high aims man may really expect to help nature (is it irreverent to say help God?) Fundamentalists thought consumerism relaxed ethics and that the changing roles of women signaled a moral decline. A former Methodist lay preacher whohelped launchthe field of developmental biology in the United States, Princeton professorEdwin Grant Conklinwas one of the leading public voices for science in the 1920s and 1930s. Indeed, the basic folk-science of the educated sections of the advanced societies is Science itself (Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems, pp. Samuel Christian Schmuckers Christian vocation was to educate people about the great immanent God all around us. With Rimmer and his crowd decrying good science, and Schmucker and his crowd denying good theology, American Christians of the Scopes era faced a grim choice. 92-3. They rarely lead anyone in attendance to change their mind, or even to re-assess their views in a significant way. Written in many cases by authors with genuine scientific expertise, such works had the positive purpose of forging a creative synthesis between the best theology and the best science of their dayexactly what we at BioLogos are doing. I do not know.. A narrow bibliolatry, the product not of faith but of fear, buried the noble tradition (quoting the 1976 edition ofThe Christian View of Science and Scripture, p. 9). Starting in the 1920s, the era of theScopes trial, Rimmer established a national reputation as a feisty debater who used carefully selected scientific facts to defend his fundamentalist view of the Bible. With the English historian Michael Hunter, Ted edited, Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, The Christian View of Science and Scripture, more than 300 debates in which he participated, the warfare view is dead among historians, Samuel Christian Schmuckers Christian Vocation, The Antievolution Pamphlets of Harry Rimmer, All Things Made New: The Evolving Fundamentalism of Harry Rimmer, A Whale of a Tale: Fundamentalist Fish Stories, Science Falsely So-Called: Evolution and Adventists in the Nineteenth Century, Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science, Prophet of Science Part Two: Arthur Holly Compton on Science, Freedom, Religion, and Morality [PDF], The Unholy ExperimentProfessional Baseballs Struggle against Pennsylvania Sunday Blue Laws, 1926-1934. The building bears a large sign reading T. This means that professional scientists like Dawkins are perfectly capable of doing folk science; you dont need to be a Harry Rimmer or a Ken Ham. I never fully understood why Scopes went on trial. He expressed this in language that was more in tune with the boundless optimism of the French Enlightenment than with the awful carnage of theGreat Warthat was about to begin in Europe. Basically, Rimmer was appealing to two related currents in American thinking about science, both of them quite influential in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and still to some extent today. Either way, varieties of folk science, including dinosaur religion, will continue to appeal to anyone who wants to use the Bible as if it were an authoritative scientific text or to inflate science into a form of religion. This material is adapted from two articles by Edward B. Davis, Fundamentalism and Folk Science Between the Wars,Religion and American Culture5 (1995): 217-48, and Samuel Christian Schmuckers Christian Vocation,Seminary Ridge Review10 (Spring 2008): 59-75. For much of the nineteenth century, by contrast, many highly respected Christian scholars had introduced a substantial body of literature harmonizing solid, respectable science of their day with the evangelical faith. How did fundamentalism affect society in the 1920s? The telephone connected families and friends. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. Science is mans earnest and sincere, though often bungling, attempt to interpret God as he is revealing himself in nature. (Through Science to God, pp. Every immigrant was seen as an enemy fundamentalism clashed with the modern culture in many ways. As far as we can tell from the evidence available today, Harry Rimmers debate with Samuel Christian Schmucker was of this type. The 1920s was a decade of change, and we see the 2020s as reminiscent of the cultural flux of that period. Schmucker got in on the ground floor. Historically speaking, however, there was nothing remarkable about this. On the other hand, most contemporary proponents of Intelligent Design are traditional Christians with little or no sympathy for the theological views of Schmucker and company. Of course, each type of folk science has its own particular audience, as Ravetz realized. Add an answer. Nevertheless, the trial itself proved to be high drama. For more about Compton and design, see my article, Prophet of Science Part Two: Arthur Holly Compton on Science, Freedom, Religion, and Morality [PDF],Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith61 (September 2009): 175-90. These fundamentalists used the bible to guide their actions throughout the 1920's. A perfect example of this would be the increased amount of charity . Wiki User. The problem with the New Atheists isnt their science, its the folk science that they pass off as science. To understand this more fully, lets examine Rimmers view of scientific knowledge. July 1, 1925 John Thomas Scopes a substitute high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was accused of violating Tennessee's a Butler Act, a law in which makes it unlawful to teach human evolution and mandated that teachers teach creationism. His textbook,The Study of Nature, was published in 1908the same year in which The American Nature Study Society was founded. A time will come when man shall have risen to heights as far above anything he now is as to-day he stands above the ape. There seemed no end to what Infinite Power and limitless time could bring about. As we will see in a future column, his involvement with theNature Study movementdovetailed with his liberal Christian spirituality and theology. Harry Rimmer at about age 40, from a brochure advertising the summer lecture series at the Winona Lake Bible Conference in 1934. Additionally, the first radio broadcasts and motion pictures expanded Americans' access to news and entertainment. What are the other names for the 1920s. If you enjoyed this article, we recommend you check out the following resources: Teaching My Students About Henrietta Lacks. When Rimmer began preaching before World War One, Billy Sunday was the most famous Bible preacher in America. Why do you think the American government passed laws limiting immigration in the 1920s? Simultaneously, some of the larger Protestant denominations were rent by bitter internal conflicts over biblical authority and theological orthodoxy, with the right-wing fundamentalists and the left-wing modernists each trying to evict representatives of the other side from pulpits, seminaries, and missionary boards. How did fundamentalism affect society in the 1920s? https://philschatz.com/us-history-book/contents/m50153.html. One of the main disputes between both groups was born from the idea of modernism, and fundamentalism. A sub-literate audience, he said, needs fewer trappings of academic jargon and titles, while a sophisticated audience requires a reasonable facsimile of a leading branch of Science, such as physics (pp 388-89). Undated photograph of the interior of the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia, in its glory years. Indeed, in the broad sense of the term, many of . Young, Portraits of Creation: Biblical and ScientificPerspectives on the Worlds Formation(Eerdmans, 1990), pp, 147-51, and 186-202. These will also be made monkeys of. The cars brought the need for good roads. Summary of the Fundamentalist Movement & the 'Monkey Trial' Summary and Definition: The Fundamentalist Movement emerged following WW1 as a reaction to theological modernism. Yeah? How did fundamentalism and nativism affect society in 1920s? The Institutes mission was to educate the general public about science, at no cost, and Schmucker was as good as anyone, at any price, for that task. Unfortunately, Rimmer sometimes used even pseudo-scientific facts to defend the reliability of Scripture against scientists and biblical critics. The fundamentalism can be better considered a response to the horrors of WWI and the involvement in international affairs, although it was partially a response to the new, modern, urban, and science-based society, as shown in the Scopes Monkey Trial. What are fundamentalist beliefs? When then asked to stand again if they found Schmucker more persuasive, it seemed that only this same small group stood up and those who voted seemed not to have had their preconceived ideas changed by the debate. Rimmers own account (in a letter to his wife) differed markedly; he claimed that Schmuckers support nearly disappeared, while gloating over his rhetorical conquest. I have not found a comparable body of literature from the first half of the twentieth century. Direct link to Zachary Green's post why was there nativism in, Posted 4 years ago. As an historian, however, I should also point out thatthe warfare view is dead among historians, though hardly among the scientists and science journalists who are far more influential in shaping popular opinioneven though they usually know far less about this topic than the relevant experts. The modern culture encouraged more freedom for young people and women. Contemporary creationistscontinue this tradition, but their targets are more numerous. There has always been nativism, in many time periods, including now :(, immigrants have not been welcome. . Either God is everywhere present in nature, or He is nowhere. (Quoting his 1889 essay, The Christian Doctrine of God) Good stuff, Aubrey Moore; I recommend a double dose for anyone suffering from serious doubts about the theism in theistic evolution. fundamentalism, type of conservative religious movement characterized by the advocacy of strict conformity to sacred texts. If this were Schmuckers final word on divine immanence, it would be hard for me to be too critical. The 1920s was a decade of change, when many Americans owned cars, radios, and telephones for the first time. The twin horns of that dilemma still substantially shape religious responses to evolution. What exactly did he mean by a correlated body of absolute knowledge? When laws are challenged it shakes the town or city one is apart of. How quickly we forget! Sunday epitomized muscular Christianity. While many Americans celebrated the emergence of modern technologies and less restrictive social norms, others strongly objected to the social changes of the 1920s. The cause was that a scientific theory (natural selection) challenged the beliefs of the legislators in Tennessee, who outlawed the teaching of that theory. While prosperous, middle-class Americans found much to celebrate about a new era of leisure and consumption, many Americansoften those in rural areasdisagreed on the meaning of a "good life" and how to achieve it. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. When it comes right down to it, not all that different fromKen Ham versus Bill Nye, except that Ham has a couple of earned degrees where Rimmer had none. Society's culture was significantly affected by the radio because the radio allowed people to listen to new entertainment. The moment came during his rebuttal. John Thomas Scopes was put on trial and eventually . Prosperity was on the rise in cities and towns, and social change flavored the air. They founded "The Klan" to protect the interests of the white popularity. The Rimmer quotations come from Combating Evolution on the Pacific Coast,The Kings Business14 (November 1923): 109;Modern Science and the Youth of Today(1925), pp. The great gulf separating Rimmer from Schmucker, fundamentalist from modernist, still substantially shapes the attitudes of American Protestants toward evolution. Often away from home for extended periods, Rimmer wrote many letters to his wife Mignon Brandon Rimmer. Lets see what happened. What really got him going wasNature Study, a national movement among science educators inspired by Louis Agassiz famous maxim to Study nature, not books. In the eventual trial, those legislators were "made monkeys of". The country was confidentand rich. The leading creationist of the next generation, the lateHenry Morris, said that accounts of Rimmers debates made it obvious that present-day debates are amazingly similar to those of his time (A History of Modern Creationism, note on p. 92). To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. Fundamentalists believed consumerism and women reversing roles were declining morals. He convened a conference in Washington that brought world leaders together to agree on reducing the threat of future wars by reducing armaments. Isaac Newton at age 46, as painted by Godfrey Kneller (1689). Protestant Christian fundamentalists hold that the Bible is the final authority on . Two of his books were used as national course texts by theChautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and his lectures, illustrated with numerousglass lantern slides, got top billing in advertisements for a quarter century. Though the movement lost the public spotlight after the 1920s, it remained robust . Fundamentalists looked to the Bible with every important question they had . Going well beyond this discussion, I recommend a penetrating critique of religious aspects of naturalistic evolutionism by historianDavid N. Livingstone, Evolution as Metaphor and Myth,Christian Scholars Review12 (1983): 111-25. To rural Americans, the ways of the city seemed sinful and extravagant. How Did The Scopes Trial Affect Society. Walking with Andy Gosler | Wolfson Meadow, Lizzie Henderson | Different Kinds of I Dont Know, BioLogos 2022 Terms of Use Privacy Contact Us RSS, Ted Davis is Professor of the History of Science at Messiah College. Direct link to David Alexander's post We can reject things for , Posted 4 years ago. One of the most apparent ways was to refuse to join the league of nations. This was especially relevant for those who were considered Christians. Whereas theologically liberal scientists and theologians of the 1920s typically affirmed design while denying the Incarnation and Resurrection, many Christian scientists and theologians today are reluctant to speak of design at all. Fundamentalism and nativism had a significant affect on American society during the 1920's. Fundamentalism consists of the strict interpretation of the bible. If there is just one take-away message, it is this: the warfare view grossly oversimplifies complex historical situations, to such an extent that it has to be laid to rest. Such is, in fact . For the first time, the Census of 1920 reported that more than half of the American population now were indulging in urban life. Hams version of natural history qualifies fully as folk science.. The Lost Generation refers to the generation of writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals that came of age during the First World War and the "Roaring Twenties.". The radio was used extensively during the 1920's which altered society's culture. This year, 2021, legislatures in many states are mounting a similar offensive against critical race theory. Sadly, its still all too commonly donethe internet helps to perpetuate such things no less than it also serves to disseminate more accurate information. Eight decades later, the horse remains atextbook example of evolution, and creationists still demand more transitional formsdespite the fact that, as creation scientistTodd Woodadmits, the evolutionists got that one right. A newspaper reported that Rimmer drew hearty applause when he declared [that] the entire structure of the theory of evolution fell to pieces by the admission of its supporters that the inheritance ofacquired characteristicshas been proved exploded. Although Schmucker knew thatAugust Weismannswork had ruled out that particular mechanism, he probably thought there was still some environmental influence on genetic variation. History, asan historian once said, is just too important to be left to historians. Philadelphias Metropolitan Opera House in its heyday, not long after it was built by Oscar Hammerstein, grandfather of the famous Broadway lyricist, on the southwest corner of Broad and Poplar in the first decade of the last century. Nativism inspired groups like the KKK which tried to restrict immigration. Cultural Changes during the 1920's. For decades prior, people began to abandon and move away from the traditional rural life style and began to flock towards the allure of the growing cities. . Like televised political debates, evolution debates are rarely productive. Fundamentalism and secularism are joined by their relationship to religious conviction. Ken Ham, the CEO of theCreation Museum. This material is adapted from two articles by Edward B. Davis, Fundamentalism and Folk Science Between the Wars,Religion and American Culture5 (1995): 217-48, and Samuel Christian Schmuckers Christian Vocation,Seminary Ridge Review10 (Spring 2008): 59-75. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. That subtlety was probably lost on the audience, which responded precisely as Rimmer wanted and expected: with loud applause for an apparently crippling blow. The theory of evolution, developed by Charles Darwin, clashed with the description of creation found in the Bible. This caused a sense of fear and paranoia in American . As it happens, his opponent was Gregorys longtime friend Samuel Christian Schmucker, a very frequent speaker at the Museum and undoubtedly one of the two or three best known speakers and writers on scientific subjects in the United States. 1920 - The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution gives women the right to vote. T. Martin, Headquarters / Anti-Evolution League / The Conflict-Hell and the High School.. As a key part of his strategy, he openly challenged professors to debate himto defend their own faith in science against his scathing assaults on their credibility. 13-14) Ultimately, Schmucker all but divinized eugenics as the source of our salvation; he believed it was the best means to eliminate sinful behaviors, including sexual promiscuity, the exploitation of workers, and undemocratic systems of government. The ISR's Ashley Smith interviewed him about one of the pressing questions raised by the Arab Springthe Left's understanding of, and approach to, Islamic Fundamentalism. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. BioLogos gets it right: we understand the importance of creation, contingency, and divine transcendence. Incorporating himself as the Research Science Bureau, an apparently august organization that was actually just a one-man operation based out of his home in Los Angeles, Rimmer disseminated his antievolutionary message through dozens of books and pamphlets and thousands of personal appearances. The trial was exacerbated and publicized to draw attention to Dayton, Tennessee, as well as the fundamentalism vs. evolution argument. 386-87). The telephone connected families and friends. In the 1920s, a backlash against immigrants and modernism led to the original culture wars. I began this article by exploringan evolution debate from 1930between fundamentalist preacher Harry Rimmer and modernist scientist Samuel Christian Schmucker, in which I introduced the two principals. For more than thirty years, Schmucker lectured at theWagner Free Institute of Science, located just a mile away from the Metropolitan Opera House in north Philadelphia. Years later, Morris expressed disappointment that he didnt get a chance to talk to Rimmer afterward, owing to another commitment: he had been eagerly looking forward to getting to know [Rimmer] personally, hoping to secure his guidance for what I hoped might become a future testimony in the university world somewhat like his own (A History of Modern Creationism, p. 91). Distinctions of this sort, between false (modern) science on the one hand and true science on the other hand, are absolutely fundamental to creationism. Portrait of S. C. Schmucker in the latter part of his life, by an unknown artist, Schmucker Science Center, West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Eugenics was part of the stock-in-trade of progressive scientists and clergy in the 1920s. Fundamentalism focused on Protestant teachings and the total belief that everything said in the Bible was the absolute truth. Knowing of Bryans convictions of a literal interpretation of the Bible, Darrow peppered him with a series of questions designed to ridicule such a belief. The modern culture encouraged more freedom for young people and women. The laws of nature are eternal even as God is eternal. Despite the fact that Isaac Newton himself had explicitly rejected both the physics and the theology he was about to utter, Schmucker then said that gravitation is inherent in the nature of the bodies. During the Scopes Monkey Trial, supporters of the Butler Act read literature at the headquarters of the Anti-Evolution League in Dayton, Tennessee. The invitation came from a young instructor of engineering,Henry Morris, who went on to become the most influential young-earth creationist of his generation. By 1919, the World Christians Fundamentals Association was organized. What an interesting contrast with the situation today! The term has been co-opted in recent decades to give it a specifically anti-evolutionary meaning; design and evolution are now usually seen as mutually exclusive explanations, which was not true in Schmuckers day. 1887 Buchner Gold Coin (N284) #25 Billy Sunday. This material is adapted from Edward B. Davis, Fundamentalism and Folk Science Between the Wars,Religion and American Culture5 (1995): 217-48. He approached every debate as an intellectual boxing match, an opportunity to achieve a hard-fought conquest despite his almost complete lack of formal education. Although it is against the law to teach or defend the Bible in many states of this Union, he complained, it is not illegal to deride the Book or condemn it in those same states and in their class rooms (Lots Wife and the Science of Physics, quoting the un-paginated preface). Indeed, hes the leading exponent of dinosaur religion today. Apparently, Rimmer had originally sought to debate the renowned paleontologistWilliam King Gregory from theAmerican Museum of Natural History, but that didnt work out. Thats fine as far as it goes, but proponents are sometimestoo empirical, too dismissive of the high-level principles and theories that join together diverse observations into coherent pictures. Lets go further into this particular rhetorical move. For reliable information on common sense realism and the notion of science falsely so-called, seeGeorge M. Marsden, Creation Versus Evolution: No Middle Way,Nature305 (1983): 571-74;Ronald L. Numbers, Science Falsely So-Called: Evolution and Adventists in the Nineteenth Century,Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation27 (1975): 18-23; and Ronald L. Numbers and Daniel P. Thurs, Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Falsely So-Called, in Peter Harrison, Ronald L. Numbers & Michael H. Shank (Eds. The unprecedented carnage and destruction of the war stripped this generation of their illusions about democracy, peace, and prosperity, and many expressed doubt and cynicism . But, they didnt get along, and perhaps partly for that reason the grandson was an Episcopalian. The cars brought the need for good roads. The high hope of eugenics was to increase the proportion of fine strong beautiful upright human families and diminish the ratio of shiftless, weak, defaced, unmoral people, in order that the world will be bettered for ages. Progress was boundless. Without such, its impossible to claim that science and a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible agree. The same decade that bore witness to urbanism and modernism also introduced the Ku Klux Klan, Prohibition, nativism, and religious fundamentalism. The most influential historical treatments remain Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism (1970) and George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture (1980). At the same time, its easy now to find leading Christian scientists, including Nobel laureates, who affirm both evolution and theecumenical creeds, whereas such people were all but invisible in Schmuckers daya fact that only contributed to fundamentalist opposition to evolution. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. Schmucker wrote five books about evolution, eugenics, and the environment for major publishing houses. Source:aeceng.net. 20-21. No longer is He the Creator who in the distant past created a world from which He now stands aloof, excepting as He sees it to need His interference. He laid out his position succinctly early in his career as a creationist evangelist, in a brief article for aleading fundamentalist magazine, outlining the goals of his ministry to the outstanding agnostics of the modern age, namely the high school [and] college student. The basic problem, in his opinion, was that students were far too uncritical of evolution: With a credulity intense and profound the modern student will accept any statement or dogma advanced by the scientific speculations and far-fetched philosophy of the evolvular [sic] hypothesis. The key words here are credulity, speculations, far-fetched, and hypothesis. Only by undermining confidence in evolution, Rimmer believed, could he affirm that The Bible and science are in absolute harmony. Only then could he say that there is no difference [of opinion] between the infallible and absolute Word of God and the correlated body of absolute knowledge that constitutes science. One is known as common sense realism, a form ofBaconian empiricismoriginating in Scotland during the Enlightenment and associated withThomas Reid. According toDavid LindbergandRonald L. Numbers, recent scholarship has shown the warfare metaphor to beneither useful nor tenablein describing the relationship between science and religion. The key word here is tenable. The warfare view is not. Perhaps Ill provide that medication at some point down the road. Describing himself unabashedly as professionally engaged in scientific research and a friend of TRUE SCIENCE, written in large capitals for emphasis, he added in bold type that There is a difference between science and scientific opinion, and it is the latter that is often meant when we say modern science. Stating his definition of science as a correlated body of absolute knowledge, he then said this: When knowledge on a subject has been refined and isabsolute, the knowledge of those facts becomes the science of that subject. This article explores fundamentalists, modernists, and evolution in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 by six veterans of the Confederate Army. Wasnt that just putting the work of the wholly immanent God into practice, by applying the divine process of evolution to ourselves? For his part, Rimmer defended the separate creation of every order of living things and waited for the opportunity to deliver a knockout punch. Indeed, if we historians wrote about current scientific matters with the same blunt instruments that scientists typically employ when they write about past scientific matters, I dare say that no one would pay serious attention to us.
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