Though there once was prosecution (2)
If you taught kids evolution,
Evolution’s the solution,
Showing how we came to be.

Darwin said there’s variation,
Variation from mutation,
Then gestation, propagation.
And that’s how we came to be.

Then comes natural selection,
And some variant rejection,
But with no divine direction,
That is how we came to be.

From selection, speciation,
Spreading all throughout creation,
That’s a simple distillation.
Of how we all came to be.

Through religious persecution,
Even legal prosecution,
Evidence for evolution
Proves that’s how we came to be.

Darwin, Wallace, evolution:
They both made their contribution.
Both deserve some attribution,
They showed how we came to be.

Let’s avoid circumlocution;
And religion’s old illusion,
For we have the resolution,
Of just how we came to be.

Teach our students evolution.
Evolution’s the solution.
No religious institution
Disproves how we came to be.

(1) May be sung to “Give Me That Old Time Religion,” a nineteenth century “Negro” spiritual. It has many, many variants.
(2) The “Scopes Monkey Trial” ran from July 10 to 21, 1925, in Dayton Tennessee. John Scopes was tried for violation of the Butler Act, a Tennessee law forbidding the teaching of evolution in public schools.