New Britain herald., 1925-06-06

At the same time the so-called Commoner harangued about the al- legged control Of the public school system by others legislators, boards of education teachers and scientists, He added the unnten- tional bon mot that the scientists were relatively few in number 10 help "control" public education!
 Il was news to the world that scientists have been attempting 10 control" education. That isn't the business of scientist. These gem l tlemen and some women in their | ranks merely spend their lives in making investigations, weighing probabilities. coming to conclusions and gradually turning one theory after another into proven facts -, and the public, the public school authorities and the remainder of citizenry generally can take or leave | all the theories and all the facts. Of course, an intelligent citizen would prefer 10 read and ponder | over book on science written by scientist to one written by w. J. Bryan on the same subject And ! there are many devout Christians who would even prefer 10 read a book on religion written by almost anyone except Mir. Bryan. The pub lie has long ago concluded that the gentleman from the Platte is and has been no authority upon any thing, from the days when he es- poused free silver as a great cure all to the later day when he lent his silver tongue 10 the promotion of real estate sales in Florida.
 Bryan claims that evolution dis putes the Bible record of man S creation, eliminates as false the miracles of the Bible, including the virgin birth and the bodily resur- rection of Christ. The facts are, however, that evolution doesn't dispute with religion at all -- it merely states a theory and then at tempts to prove it. irrespective of Christianity or any other religion. If Mr. Bryan thinks evolution so devastatingly disputes these stories in the Bible, he evidently is not well read in religious matters, as there have been innumerabIe re- ligious volumes written by biblical scholars which do quite as much. It is from these that the modern ists have developed not from con- temptation of the theory of eyolu- tion. These volumes are in the pos session of thousands of intelligent citizens and are found in nearly
 every public library - probably also in Tennessee.
 The venerable fund2meutalist said Christians build their own col leges "to teach Christianity and suggested that atheists and agnostics build their own schools. Here is an
 example of his style of reasoning Those who regard the theory Of evolution with favor are snmmari- , Iy classed with atheists and agnos- 7 tics. Nothing can he further from [ the truth. There arc multitude of , Christians. as sincere in their Rtt1- . tude toward religion as Mir, Bryan, who have accepted inc theory Of evolution as a likelihood and who F remain true 10 the precepts ot their ) religious faith. The chances are l that such Christians have taken the , rains to investigate and study the l Bible stories in their logical anc l historical perspective and have come 1 10 the same conclusions as inc g learned commentators of whomMr s Bryan is not a member.
 @ The a-fundamentalist head ol
 Zion City, III, maintains that tho
 earth is fiat and that the sun moves
 around it's edges, passing his deduc
 lions entirely upon the Bible; an1
 in fact, this was the common con
 ception of the world at the tlm'
 the Bible stories were written Th'
 Zion City individual is pcriectl! . sincere. but he has not gone qn'i' , as far as NIT. Bryan in attemp'in:
 to control the belief of others re o gardng the nature of the world | would not be surprising, however ', if he came 10 the defense of tn n Tennessee monkey law.
 Clarence Darrow is not doing an s talking prior to the Dayton trial 4 The general impression seems 10 b
 that he will make monkeys of in A proeeCution.
 What are the icebergs doing il
 the North Atlantic if they can't COG
 US off