Press Releases

April 15, 2002
The Trial of the Century Belonged to Darwin, Not O.J.

Southampton College Class Puts Evolution on Trial for Semester Finale

Contact:
Darren Johnson (PR@southampton.liu.edu)
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

The Trial of the 20th Century wasn't O.J.'s.

Go back in time even further and there was much greater courtroom drama. In 1925, a battle between evolutionists and creationists broke out that changed the face of public education. Skilled orator William Jennings Bryan took on famed lawyer Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey Trial before the U.S. Supreme Court. But the controversy still rages on. Today, the debate between the biblical creation and Darwin's theory of evolution is the subject of lawsuits, op-eds and talking-head TV.

So, a class at Southampton College of Long Island University has decided that it's time to bring back Bryan and Darrow and try to settle the debate once and for all. Dr. William A. Schutt, Jr., professor of Natural Science at Southampton College, has organized a trial based on Scopes as a part of his Evolution class at the College.

Schutt planned the trial as a way for his students to become deeply involved in the controversy of the Darwinism vs. Creationism question. "What I'm really trying to do is to get students and others to look at all sides of an argument before they come to a conclusion," Schutt said. At the beginning of the semester, the students were randomly assigned to either the defense or prosecution and will be acting as lawyers, witnesses and jurors in the trial. Schutt will act as judge.

During the trial, the students will be exploring two basic questions: "How did life on Earth originate?" and "Have species changed over time, and, if they have changed, what has been the result of this change?" At the conclusion of the trial, a jury of students, faculty, staff and administrators will be asked to decide on one of four possible verdicts.

During his graduate studies at Cornell University, Schutt had the opportunity to attend a number of debates like the one he is staging for his students. He said that the questions explored during these debates "enabled us all to see that this controversy is far more complicated than a belief or disbelief that man's ancestors were monkeys." His goal is to expose students to all the possible perspectives concerning the origin of life.

The trial will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m. on April 30, May 2 and May 7 in the Duke Lecture Hall of Southampton College. The trial is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. William Schutt at 631-287-8406.