Abstract
IT is probable that Mr. Bateson would not have been surprised to find that some points in his address on “Evolutionary Faith and Modern Doubts,” delivered at Toronto before the American Association for the Advancement of Science (see NATURE, April 29), gave rise to a certain amount of criticism and dis cussion; but we should have thought that neither he nor any one else could have anticipated that this able deliverance would be used as a text on which to found a violent attack upon the teaching of evolution in the schools of a civilised State. Such, however, is the fact; and the attempt to force this remarkable form of pro hibition upon the Kentucky Legislature was only defeated, after repeated divisions, by a single vote. That an occurrence of this kind should be possible at the present date may well cause astonishment, and the accounts which have reached us of the discussion which took place in the House of Representatives reveal an amount of ignorance and prejudice on the part of responsible legislators which would be ludicrous if it were not lamentable. One of the promoters of the measure, we are told, who spoke for nearly an hour amidst cheers and applause, made a division between “sheep ” and “goats,” placing the principal opponents and various zoology text-books in one class, and the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and- himself in the other. He wound up his discourse by throwing one of the text-books on the floor and trampling it underfoot. The gentleman by whose single vote the proposal was eventually negatived “believed that what was would be anyhow,” but said that he would have to discard his religion and vote “No.” Why his de clared belief should necessitate such a renunciation does not seem to have been stated.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
D., F. The Dark Ages: A Survival in Kentucky. Nature 109, 669–670 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109669a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109669a0