Monkey off their backs

National | In Tennessee, the secular view of origins has evolved into fact | Roy Maynard

Photographic visages of Tennessee high-school biology teacher Wesley Roberts and his Tennessee predecessor from the 1920s, John Scopes, are remarkably similar: prominent Roman noses; U-shaped, receding hairlines; eyes registering near-religious fervor. Moreover, both men have shared another similarity: a belief that evolution, not God, determined their facial fate.

Last week the Tennessee Senate rejected a bill that sought to require modern Tennessee teachers like Mr. Roberts to teach evolution as theory, rather than as unchallenged fact, which is currently the case in many classrooms. But this is where the likenesses between Tennessee's historic Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925 and last week's evolution debate in the volunteer state end.

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