Onto the Galapagos. After a flight from Quito Airport to Baltra Island (with a quick stop in Guayaquil), a ferry ride from Baltra Island to Santa Cruz, a car ride from Santa Cruz to our hotel, Pikaia Lodge, we arrive in the Galapagos Islands. Places are really hard to get to here.

The Galápagos Islands are one of the most unique and ecologically significant places on Earth. The islands are located about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator. It is home to many species found nowhere else, such as: Galápagos giant tortoises, marine iguanas (the only sea-swimming lizards), flightless cormorants and Darwin’s finches. The islands are a living laboratory of evolution. The creatures that call the islands home act as if humans are nothing more than slightly annoying paparazzi.

The Galapagos Islands were the inspiration for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. (Well, not so much of a theory, more like a fact. Except for those who believe in Creationism – think Adam and Eve.) So, I started learning about Charles Darwin, best known for his contributions to the theory of evolution through natural selection as he observed in the Galapagos. Although he was only here for five weeks in 1835, it was the wildlife he observed that inspired him to develop his Theory of Evolution. His influential book, The Origin of the Species published in 1859, provided extensive evidence for evolution and proposed that all life evolved from a common ancestor. It shocked religious society by suggesting that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. If humans had evolved instead of being created, then the Bible’s account of creation must be inaccurate.

Way deep in the back of my brain, I recalled learning about the Scope Trial in school (and I think there is a monkey involved) so asked AI …

In 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act, making it unlawful “to teach any theory that denies the story of Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.” This was the first law in any state that said schools were not allowed to teach evolution. Under this act, a teacher named John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution. Interestingly Scopes was a substitute teacher that day. As a football coach and science teacher, he never taught biology. But evolution was put on trial, and it marked the beginning of separation of church and state. 

The newly formed American Civil Liberties Union was founded to resist wartime checks on free speech. Now they were in search of a test case against anti-evolution statutes it considered to be an unconstitutional violation of religious liberties.

The trial pitted the theory of evolution against religion – and set the stage for one of the greatest battles in legal history.

Why was it called the Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial? The trial’s contested subject matter was also an opportunity for intrepid journalists like The Baltimore Sun’s H.L. Mencken. A journalist and free-speech advocate, Mencken became the unofficial, often caustic voice of the trial. Dubbing the proceedings “The Monkey Trial,” a nod to the furor over whether humans had descended from monkeys or been created by God.

Now, in 2025, a hundred years after the Scopes trial, controversies over what should be taught in school are more intense than ever. A true example of history is repeating itself.