DAYTON, Tenn.--Strolling down the quiet main street of downtown Dayton, Tenn., would reveal nothing more than a typical east Tennessee small town complete with a general store and local café.

While casual passers-by might notice the grand, red brick courthouse tucked behind some towering trees, they may not realize that the most dominant feature in downtown Dayton once served as the setting for a trial that continues to affect worldviews 80 years after the verdict.

Monkey Business: The True Story of the Scopes Trial

The trial of John Thomas Scopes, a first-year schoolteacher, took place at the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton in July 1925. The state prosecuted Scopes on charges of teaching evolution in a high school classroom.

The so-called "Monkey Trial" received international media attention and continues to influence the creation vs. evolution debate more than three-quarters of a century later.

In May, the Broadman & Holman division of LifeWay Christian Resources released Monkey Business by Marvin Olasky and John Perry. The book attempts to disclose the truth about the Scopes trial to readers whose opinions and stereotypes may be largely based on inaccurate media coverage of that 1925 trial.

"It's not the trial, but the distortion of the trial that had an impact," said Olasky, editor-in-chief of World magazine and journalism professor at the University of Texas, Austin. "The journalistic coverage led to a stereotype in American life of essentially the smart evolutionist vs. the stupid creationist."

Olasky said reporters flocked to the "Trial of the Century" with mostly selfish agendas.

"Reporters were in a propaganda frame of mind and were looking to promote their religion," he said. "It was a perfect example of how religious and ideological views of reporters strongly influence their coverage."

While researching Monkey Business, the authors examined countless newspaper accounts, conducted interviews with experts, and read the official court transcript, which Perry said differs greatly from the story most people know.

 "[The book] gave us the chance to unscramble the misrepresentations of what happened, of what creation science is and who creation scientists are," said Perry, editor of Home and Christian Life Review.

The Truth Behind the Trial
The Scopes trial began as a public relations campaign organized by Dayton town leaders who wanted to boost the town's economy after a triad of mining accidents that had devastated the area.

Town leaders responded to an American Civil Liberties Union advertisement outlining the organization's desire to challenge Tennessee's new Butler Act that made it illegal to teach any theory contrary to divine creation. Leaders convinced Scopes to become the defendant even though, as he later wrote in his autobiography, he couldn't recall ever teaching evolution.

The publicity stunt succeeded initially as about 200 reporters descended upon Dayton in July 1925, and stories about the trial made headlines as far away as Japan.

Unfortunately, most of the stories the press generated cast a negative light on Dayton, its residents, and creationists in general that still invades public conscience today.

"Their interpretations of events are more familiar today than the events themselves," the authors wrote. "The facts of the case have been obscured by half-truths and pure fiction."

Perry and Olasky said they hope Monkey Business can rectify 80 years of historical understanding based mostly on the words of opinionated reporters such as H.L. Mencken, a renowned journalist with The Baltimore Sun who "reported" on the trial.

According to Monkey Business, before the trial even began, Mencken wrote, "So-called religious organizations which now lead the war against the teaching of evolution are nothing more, at bottom, than conspiracies of the inferior man against his betters."

Olasky said one of the most frustrating assumptions concerning the Scopes trial is that it was a battle of science vs. religion. That mindset implies that beliefs are tied to a person's level of intelligence.

"The battle then and the battle now is not science vs. religion," Olasky said. "It's the battle of two religions, of two worldviews. Both views are held by intelligent people.

"It's not smart against stupid."

Back in the Classroom
Scopes never returned to teaching after a jury found him guilty, but that doesn't mean classrooms haven't felt his influence.

Perry said the debate between evolution and creation continues to rage throughout the country because "what you think about where you came from, affects everything."

According to a recent Gallup poll, 38 percent of 13-17 year olds believe God created human beings. Forty-three percent believe humans "developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided" that process.

Olasky said those statistics show that schools don't have much effect on students' beliefs concerning the origin of man. "There's a natural human tendency that evidently can't be beaten out of people that something can't come out of nothing, and that is essentially what schools are trying to teach."

Perry would like to see Monkey Business used in classrooms as an accurate record of the Scopes trial instead of literature such as the play Inherit the Wind, which veers greatly from the court transcripts of the case, but is often the only exposure students receive to the trial.

"If you're educating your children properly, you must present them with all the facts," Perry said. "People need to know they don't know the truth about the Scopes trial, they don't know the truth about evolution, they don't know the truth about creationism."