Harry Rimmer at about age 40, from a brochure advertising the summer lecture series at the Winona Lake Bible Conference in 1934. Though the movement lost the public spotlight after the 1920s, it remained robust . For the time being, Im afraid its back to Schmucker. 20-21. Like todays creationists, Rimmer had a special burden for students. If you enjoyed this article, we recommend you check out the following resources: Teaching My Students About Henrietta Lacks. Between 1880 and 1920, conservative Christians began . Thinkers in this tradition, including many conservative Protestants in America, hold that the common sense of ordinary people is sufficient to evaluate truth claims, on the basis of readily available empirical evidenceessentially a Baconian approach to knowledge. The radio was used extensively during the 1920's which altered society's culture. This material is adapted from Edward B. Davis, Fundamentalism and Folk Science Between the Wars,Religion and American Culture5 (1995): 217-48. Fundamentalists believed consumerism and women reversing roles were declining morals. Why do you think the issue of evolution became a flashpoint for cultural and religious conflict? The Rimmer quotations come from Combating Evolution on the Pacific Coast,The Kings Business14 (November 1923): 109;Modern Science and the Youth of Today(1925), pp. How did fundamentalism affect society in the 1920s? Some believe that the women's rights movement affected fashion, promoting androgynous figures and the death of the corset. Although he never published any important research, Schmucker was admired by colleagues for his ability to communicate science accurately and effectively to lay audiences, without dumbing downso much so, that toward the end of World War One he was elected president of theAmerican Nature Study Society, the oldest environmental organization in the nation. Going well beyond this discussion, I recommend a penetrating critique of religious aspects of naturalistic evolutionism by historianDavid N. Livingstone, Evolution as Metaphor and Myth,Christian Scholars Review12 (1983): 111-25. A sub-literate audience, he said, needs fewer trappings of academic jargon and titles, while a sophisticated audience requires a reasonable facsimile of a leading branch of Science, such as physics (pp 388-89). Additionally, the first radio broadcasts and motion pictures expanded Americans' access to news and entertainment. Fundamentalism and nativism had a significant affect on American society during the 1920's. Nativism, on the other hand, focuses on the idea of 'Americans first.' Nativists greatly disliked immigrants, as they felt they were stealing job from native born Americans (hence the name, nativists). Fundamentalism attempts to preserve core religious beliefs and requires obedience to moral codes. The Prohibition Era begins in the US but is largely ignored by fashionable young men and women of the time. Rimmer wasnt actually from Kansas, but he liked to advertise a formal connection he had made with asmall state college there. Slowly the brute shall sink away, slowly the divine in him shall advance, until such heights are attained as we today can scarcely imagine. That was the message of his national Chautauqua text,The Meaning of Evolution(pp. AsBernard Rammlamented long ago, the noble tradition which was in ascendancy in the closing years of the nineteenth century has not been the major tradition in evangelicalism in the twentieth century. His God was embedded in an eternal world that he didnt even create. Knowing of Bryans convictions of a literal interpretation of the Bible, Darrow peppered him with a series of questions designed to ridicule such a belief. In a book written many years ago, four faculty members from Calvin College pointed out that folk science provides a standing invitation to the unwary to confuse science with religionsomething that still happens all too often. What is fundamentalism discuss the characteristics of fundamentalism? The result was that those who approved of the teaching of evolution saw Bryan as foolish, whereas many rural Americans considered the cross-examination an attack on the Bible and their faith. Unlike Moore, he had no interest in a God who could create immanently through evolution but could also transcendently bring Christ back from the dead. Years later, Morris expressed disappointment that he didnt get a chance to talk to Rimmer afterward, owing to another commitment: he had been eagerly looking forward to getting to know [Rimmer] personally, hoping to secure his guidance for what I hoped might become a future testimony in the university world somewhat like his own (A History of Modern Creationism, p. 91). If this were Schmuckers final word on divine immanence, it would be hard for me to be too critical. We shouldnt be surprised by this. To rural Americans, the ways of the city seemed sinful and extravagant. When the test is made, this modern science generally fails, and passes on to new theories and hypotheses, but this never hinders a certain type of dogmatists from falling into the same error, and positively asserting a new theory as a scientifically established fact. Societal Changes in the 1920s. We can reject things for many reasons. Some cultures, including the United States, have a mix of both. Additional information comes from my introduction toThe Antievolution Pamphlets of Harry Rimmer(New York: Garland Publishing, 1995).Roger Schultz, All Things Made New: The Evolving Fundamentalism of Harry Rimmer, 1890-1952, a doctoral dissertation written for the University of Arkansas (1989), is the only full-length scholarly biography and the best source for many details of his life. Fundamentalism focused on Protestant teachings and the total belief that everything said in the Bible was the absolute truth. Direct link to David Alexander's post This is sort of like what, Posted 2 years ago. He saw it as a money-making opportunity where he could sell memberships . The cause was that a scientific theory (natural selection) challenged the beliefs of the legislators in Tennessee, who outlawed the teaching of that theory. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. Fundamentalism and modernism clashed in the Scopes Trial of 1925. But, they didnt get along, and perhaps partly for that reason the grandson was an Episcopalian. To understand this more fully, lets examine Rimmers view of scientific knowledge. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 by six veterans of the Confederate Army. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. John Scopes broke this law when he taught a class he was a substitute for about evolution. A former high school science teacher, Ted studied history and philosophy of science at Indiana University, where his mentor was the late Richard S. Westfall, author of the definitive biography of Isaac Newton. Id like to think that Hearn and others, including those of us here at BioLogos, have found a viable third way. Although he quit boxing after his dramatic conversion to Christianity at a street meeting in San Francisco, probably on New Years Day, 1913, the pugilistic instincts still came out from time to time, especially in the many debates he conducted throughout his career as an itinerant evangelist. Historically speaking, however, there was nothing remarkable about this. Rimmers son had him pegged well: Dad never won the argument; he always won the audience (interview with Ronald L. Numbers, 15 May 1984, as quoted in Numbers,The Creationists, expanded edition, p. 66). Nativism inspired groups like the KKK which tried to restrict immigration. Around 1944, Bernard Ramm attended a debate here between Rimmer and John Edgar Matthews. Image credit: The outcome of the trial, in which Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, was never really in question, as Scopes himself had confessed to violating the law. Fundamentalism vs. Modernism . I shall type my notes for easy reference and then rest until the gong sounds.. These will also be made monkeys of. He actually felt that atheistic materialism is dead, and that Nature Study would help show the way toward a new kind of belief, rooted in the conviction that God is everywhere. John Thomas Scopes was put on trial and eventually . Posted 5 years ago. Yeah? One of the students who heard Rimmer at Rice, Walter R. Hearn, became a biochemist specializing in experiments exploring the possible chemical origin of life (seehereandhere). These two pamphlets from 1927, both of which were recycled as chapters in his book, The Harmony of Science and Scripture (1936), contain the best-known examples of Rimmer using false facts to defend a traditional interpretation of the Bible against the theories of academic biblical scholars. Take a low view of the science in the hypothesis of evolution, and you can say with William Jennings Bryan, The word hypothesis is a synonym used by scientists for the word guess, or Evolution is not truth, it is merely an hypothesisit is millions of guesses strung together (quoting his stump speech,The Menace of Darwinism, and the closing argument he never got to deliver at the Scopes trial). The problem with the New Atheists isnt their science, its the folk science that they pass off as science. Indicative of the revival of Protestant fundamentalism and the rejection of evolution among rural and white Americans was the rise of Billy Sunday. This photograph from the early 1930s was given to me by his son, the late John J. Compton. Young, andClarence Menninga,Science Held Hostage: Whats Wrong with Creation Science AND Evolutionism(InterVarsity Press, 1988), pp. Every immigrant was seen as an enemy fundamentalism clashed with the modern culture in many ways. If you were an avid reader of popular science in the 1920s, chances are you needed no introduction to Samuel Christian Schmucker: you already knew who he was, because youd read one or two of his very popular books or heard him speak in some large auditorium. Schmucker got in on the ground floor. The building bears a large sign reading T. This creates such a large gap with professional science that it can never be crossed: YECs will always be in conflict with many of the most important, well established conclusions of modern science. One of the most apparent ways was to refuse to join the league of nations. At the same time, its easy now to find leading Christian scientists, including Nobel laureates, who affirm both evolution and theecumenical creeds, whereas such people were all but invisible in Schmuckers daya fact that only contributed to fundamentalist opposition to evolution. As a brief synopsis, initially, urban Americans believed in modernism . What exactly did he mean by a correlated body of absolute knowledge? Indeed, Rimmer would have been very pleased to see Morris and others establish theCreation Research Societyand theInstitute for Creation Research. Van Till,Davis A. Beginning at the end of the nineteenth century. The sense of fear and anxiety over the rising tide of immigration came to a head with the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. One is known as common sense realism, a form ofBaconian empiricismoriginating in Scotland during the Enlightenment and associated withThomas Reid. But the 1920s were an age of extreme contradiction. Fundamentalism has benefited from serious attention by historians, theologians, and social scientists. For example, lets consider his analysis of the evidence for the evolution of the horsea textbook case since the late nineteenth century. These agreements ultimately fell apart in the 1930s, as the world descended into war again. While prosperous, middle-class Americans found much to celebrate about a new era of leisure and consumption, many Americansoften those in rural areasdisagreed on the meaning of a "good life" and how to achieve it. T. Martin, Headquarters / Anti-Evolution League / The Conflict-Hell and the High School.. Undated photograph of the interior of the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia, in its glory years. The modern culture encouraged more freedom for young people and women. The two books of God came perfectly together in modern scienceprovided that we were prepared to embrace a higher conception of God alongside a clearer reverence for [scientific] investigation. Elaborating his position, he identified three very distinct stages in our belief as to the relation between God and His creation. First was the primitive belief based on a literal interpretation of Genesis. There is no limit to human perfectability [sic]. The verdict sparked protests from Italian and other immigrant groups as well as from noted intellectuals such as writer John Dos Passos, satirist Dorothy Parker, and famed physicist Albert Einstein. Cartoon by Ernest James Pace,Sunday School Times, June 3, 1922, p. 334. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. Most religious scientists from Schmuckers time embraced that position. Thats fine as far as it goes, but proponents are sometimestoo empirical, too dismissive of the high-level principles and theories that join together diverse observations into coherent pictures. The notion of folk science comes from Jerome R. Ravetz,Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems(Oxford University Press, 1971). Religious fundamentalism revived as new moral and social attitudes came into vogue. Why not? A second idea embedded in Rimmers rhetoric was emblazoned on the gondola in the balloon cartoon: Science Falsely So-Called, which references 1 Timothy 6:20, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. For centuries, Christian authors have used this phrase derisively to label various philosophical views that they saw as opposed to the Bible, including Gnosticism, but since the early nineteenth century natural history has probably been the most common target. This caused a sense of fear and paranoia in American . 39-43, 141-53, and 169-78; and Howard Van Till, Robert E. Snow,John H. Stek, and Davis A. Lets go further into this particular rhetorical move. What really got him going wasNature Study, a national movement among science educators inspired by Louis Agassiz famous maxim to Study nature, not books. The modern culture encouraged more freedom for young people and morality started changing. So great was his anger, that he carried a gun with him as an adolescent, hoping to find and kill his former stepfather. When laws are challenged it shakes the town or city one is apart of. Scientists themselves were, in the 1920s, among the most outspoken voices in this exchange. A time will come when man shall have risen to heights as far above anything he now is as to-day he stands above the ape. There seemed no end to what Infinite Power and limitless time could bring about. This article explores fundamentalists, modernists, and evolution in the 1920s. Simultaneously, some of the larger Protestant denominations were rent by bitter internal conflicts over biblical authority and theological orthodoxy, with the right-wing fundamentalists and the left-wing modernists each trying to evict representatives of the other side from pulpits, seminaries, and missionary boards. The original Ku Klux Klan was started in the 1870s in the South as a reaction against Reconstruction. By the mid-1930s, Rimmer had spoken to students at more than 4,000 schools. How quickly we forget! Sergeant Joe Friday(left), played by the lateJack Webb, and Officer Bill Gannon, played by the lateHarry Morgan, on the set of on the classic TV program,Dragnet. In the opinion of historianRonald Numbers, No antievolutionist reached a wider audience among American evangelicals during the second quarter of the [twentieth] century (The Creationists, p. 60). Wasnt that just putting the work of the wholly immanent God into practice, by applying the divine process of evolution to ourselves? This material is adapted from two articles by Edward B. Davis, Fundamentalism and Folk Science Between the Wars,Religion and American Culture5 (1995): 217-48, and Samuel Christian Schmuckers Christian Vocation,Seminary Ridge Review10 (Spring 2008): 59-75. Aspects of this debate do seem to fit the warfare model, especially Rimmers condescending hostility toward evolution specifically and scientists generally and his elevation of a literal Bible (that is the word he often chose himself) over well supported scientific conclusions. His home life was so difficult that he was expelled from school in third grade as an incorrigible child and had no further formal education until after being discharged from the Army. They believeall of the historical sciences are falsecosmology, geology, paleontology, physical anthropology, and evolutionary biology. When then asked to stand again if they found Schmucker more persuasive, it seemed that only this same small group stood up and those who voted seemed not to have had their preconceived ideas changed by the debate. Rimmers own account (in a letter to his wife) differed markedly; he claimed that Schmuckers support nearly disappeared, while gloating over his rhetorical conquest. In the Transformation and backlash in the 1920s, what does it mean by "fearful rejection". Ravetz has defined a very helpful concept, folk science, as that part of a general world-view, or ideology, which is given special articulation so that it may provide comfort and reassurance in the face of the crucial uncertainties of the world of experience. This obviously maps quite well onto Rimmers creationism, but it can also map onto real science, especially when science is extrapolated into an all-encompassing world view. Direct link to Alex's post The fundamentalism can be, Posted 3 years ago. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. Opposition to teaching evolution in public schools mainly began a few years after World War One, leading to thenationally publicized trialof a science teacher for breaking a brand new Tennessee law against teaching evolution in 1925though it was really the law itself that was in the dock. I go for the jugular vein, Gish once said, sounding so much like Rimmer that sometimes Im almost tempted to believe in reincarnation (Numbers,The Creationists, p. 316). This part turns a similar light on Schmucker. Perhaps Ill provide that medication at some point down the road. 92-3. This was exactly what had happened so many times before, in so many different places, with so many different opponents, and he was well prepared for it to happen again. He spelled it out in a pamphlet written a couple years later,Modern Science and the Youth of Today. Our foray into this long-forgotten episode will provide an illuminating window into the roots of the modern origins debate. Sunday epitomized muscular Christianity. In retrospect, one of his most important engagements happened at Rice Institute (nowRice Universityin 1943. Dozens of modernist pastors served as advisors to the American Eugenics Society, while Schmucker and many other scientists offered explicit religious justification for their efforts to promote eugenics. For more about Compton and design, see my article, Prophet of Science Part Two: Arthur Holly Compton on Science, Freedom, Religion, and Morality [PDF],Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith61 (September 2009): 175-90. Two of his books were used as national course texts by theChautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and his lectures, illustrated with numerousglass lantern slides, got top billing in advertisements for a quarter century. Cities were swiftly becoming centers of opportunity, but the growth of citiesespecially the growth of immigrant populations in those citiessharpened rural discontent over the perception of rapid cultural change. When it comes right down to it, not all that different fromKen Ham versus Bill Nye, except that Ham has a couple of earned degrees where Rimmer had none. Harding worked to preserve the peace through international cooperation and the reduction of armaments around the world. A better understanding of how we got here may help readers see more clearly just what BioLogos is trying to do. Even though he taught at a public college, he didnt hesitate to bring a religious message to his students at West Chester (PA) State Normal School. A newspaper reported that Rimmer drew hearty applause when he declared [that] the entire structure of the theory of evolution fell to pieces by the admission of its supporters that the inheritance ofacquired characteristicshas been proved exploded. Although Schmucker knew thatAugust Weismannswork had ruled out that particular mechanism, he probably thought there was still some environmental influence on genetic variation. This was especially relevant for those who were considered Christians. The heat of battle would ignite the fire inside him, and the flames would illuminate the truth of his position while consuming the false doctrines of his enemy. So, it comes to no shock when the nativism is shown to also be a problem in the 1920s. Would the matter of both nativism and religious fundamentalism be considered a response to the new urbanised America that was developing at the time? Wiki User. As Ravetz observes, the functions performed by folk-sciences are necessary so long as the human condition exists; and it can be argued that the new philosophy [of the Scientific Revolution] itself functioned as folk-science for its audience at the time. This was because it promised a solution to all problems, metaphysical and theological as well as natural. That sort of thing still happens today. The modern culture encouraged more freedom for young people and women. Shortly after World War Two, as the ASA grew in size, its increasingly well-trained members began to distance themselves from Rimmers strident antievolutionism, just as Morris was abandoning Rimmers gap view in favor of George McCready Pricesversion of flood geology: two ships heading in opposite directions. Eugenics, the idea that we should improve the evolutionary fitness of the human species through selective breeding, held the key to this transformation. After noting the existence of twelve ancestral forms related to the modern horse, he asked, What of the millions upon millions of forms that would be required for the transformation of each species into the next subsequent species? Indeed, the basic folk-science of the educated sections of the advanced societies is Science itself (Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems, pp. I have also quoted newspaper accounts of the debate, Kansan [Rimmer] Wins in Debate on Theory of Evolution,Philadelphia Public Ledger, 23 November 1930, part II, 2; and See Divine Will Behind All of Life,Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 24 November 1930, 16. Fundamentalists thought consumerism relaxed ethics and that the changing roles of women signaled a moral decline. Fundamentalism is usually characterized by scholars as a religious response to modernism, especially the theory of evolution as an explanation of human origins and the idea that solutions to problems can be found without regard to traditional religious values. In the period between the two world wars, many American scientists believed that evolution was progressiveand intelligently designed. A former Methodist lay preacher whohelped launchthe field of developmental biology in the United States, Princeton professorEdwin Grant Conklinwas one of the leading public voices for science in the 1920s and 1930s. The theory of evolution, developed by Charles Darwin, clashed with the description of creation found in the Bible. Can intelligence and reason be content with twelve links in so great a gap, and call that a complete demonstration?. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. Courtesy of Edward B. Davis. This material is adapted (sometimes without any changes in wording) from Edward B. Davis, A Whale of a Tale: Fundamentalist Fish Stories,Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith43 (1991): 224-37, and the introduction toThe Antievolution Pamphlets of Harry Rimmer, edited by Edward B. Davis (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995). He approached every debate as an intellectual boxing match, an opportunity to achieve a hard-fought conquest despite his almost complete lack of formal education. Eight decades later, the horse remains atextbook example of evolution, and creationists still demand more transitional formsdespite the fact that, as creation scientistTodd Woodadmits, the evolutionists got that one right. In earlier generations, historians would have been tempted to apply the warfare model to episodes of that sort, on the assumption that science and religion have always been locked in mortal combat, with religion constantly yielding to science. Fundamentalism consists of the strict interpretation of the bible. Prosperity was on the rise in cities and towns, and social change flavored the air. Come back to see what happens. The laws of nature are eternal even as God is eternal. Despite the fact that Isaac Newton himself had explicitly rejected both the physics and the theology he was about to utter, Schmucker then said that gravitation is inherent in the nature of the bodies. If you arent breathless from reading the previous paragraph, please read it again. For more than thirty years, historians have been probing beneath the surface of apparent conflicts, searching for the underlying reasons why people with different beliefs have sometimes clashed over matters involving science. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. The late Baptist theologianBernard Ramm, who attended one of Rimmers debates, remembered him as a superb humorist who had the crowd laughing along with him much of the time (quoting a letter from Ramm to the author). Unfortunately she destroyed their correspondence after the book was finished, so there is no archive of his papers available for historians to examine. In the year following the Scopes trial, fifty thousand copies of this pamphlet by Samuel Christian Schmucker were issued as part of an ongoing series on Science and Religion sponsored by the American Institute of Sacred Literature. Rimmers mission was to give students the knowledge they needed to defend and to keep their faith. Incorporating himself as the Research Science Bureau, an apparently august organization that was actually just a one-man operation based out of his home in Los Angeles, Rimmer disseminated his antievolutionary message through dozens of books and pamphlets and thousands of personal appearances. Summary of the Fundamentalist Movement & the 'Monkey Trial' Summary and Definition: The Fundamentalist Movement emerged following WW1 as a reaction to theological modernism. These fundamentalists used the bible to guide their actions throughout the 1920's. A perfect example of this would be the increased amount of charity . Prosperity was on the rise in cities and towns, and social change flavored the air. 281-306. Religiously-motivated rejection of evolution had led multitudes of great scientists to throw off religion entirely, becoming materialists: that was the second stage of belief. Fundamentalism and nativism had a significant affect on American society during the 1920's. Fundamentalism consists of the strict interpretation of the bible. Once used exclusively to refer to American Protestants who insisted on the inerrancy of the Bible, the term fundamentalism was applied more broadly beginning in the late 20th century to a wide variety of religious movements. The leading creationist of the next generation, the lateHenry Morris, said that accounts of Rimmers debates made it obvious that present-day debates are amazingly similar to those of his time (A History of Modern Creationism, note on p. 92). While prosperous, middle-class Americans found much to celebrate about a new era of leisure and. I began this article by exploringan evolution debate from 1930between fundamentalist preacher Harry Rimmer and modernist scientist Samuel Christian Schmucker, in which I introduced the two principals. Opposition to teaching evolution in public schools mainly began a few years after World War One, leading to the nationally . Indeed, the internet has done for plagiarism, even of really bad ideas, what steroids did to baseball for a generation. Humor was a powerful weapon for winning the sympathy of an audience, even without good arguments. What are fundamentalist beliefs? Wahhabism (Arabic: , romanized: al-Wahhbiyya) is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist movement originating in Najd, Arabia.Founded eponymously by 18th-century Arabian scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Wahhabism is followed primarily in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.. The new morality of the 1920s affected gender, race, and sexuality during the 1920s. I lack space to develop this point more fully, so Ill just quote something from one of the greatest post-Darwinian theologians, the Anglo-Catholic clergyman and botanistAubrey Moore. Out of these negotiations came a number of treaties designed to foster cooperation in the Far East, reduce the size of navies around the world, and establish guidelines for submarine usage. As Ipointed out in another series, that controversy from this period profoundly influenced the current debate about origins: we havent yet gotten past it. Fundamentalism and secularism are joined by their relationship to religious conviction. This is sort of like what China does to the people of Xinjiang of late, and what Vietnam did with former members of the Army of South Vietnam after 1975.