Elsayed 1

Ahmed Elsayed Prof. Fleischer HSS 403 Due: 1/1/14

Inherit the Wind

Inherit the Wind is a movie that is based on a true story regarding the Scopes Monkey Trials, a title popularized by author and journalist H.L. Mencken. During this trial there were three key figures who made history as a result of the trials and their participation in them. Clarence Darrow (Henry Drummond in the film) was played by a lawyer that was hired by an organization in New York. The American Civil Liberties Union was the organization that sent Clarence Darrow, this organization defends and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution. These rights include the First Amendment, your equal protection under the law, due process and your right to privacy, and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in the country (Baldwin). His role was to show people that the Bible distorted and that people are misunderstanding that the bible has a lot of conflicts between science and What the Bible says. Which leads the audience to think he is an Atheist and offer advocacy for the atheistic viewpoint, though it appears that he shifts in and out of belief throughout the movie due to the different phases. Darrow defends John T. Scopes in the State of Tennessee v. Scopes trial., a. H.L. Mencken had

Elsayed 2

attended this Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, and wrote scathing columns for the Baltimore Sun (widely syndicated) and American Mercury mocking the anti-evolution Fundamentalists (especially William Jennings Bryan). The play, "Inherit the Wind", is a fictionalized version of the trial, and the cynical reporter E.K. Hornbeck is based on Mencken. The trial pitted Darrow against William Jennings Bryan in an American court case that tested the Butler Act, which had been passed on March 21, 1925. The act forbade the teaching of "The Evolution Theory" in any statefunded educational establishment in Tennessee. More broadly, the Butler Act outlawed instate funded schools, including universities, the teaching of "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." As stated by the police man that was arresting Scopes in the classroom. Bertram Cates in the film took the risk involved in pursing this case because he wanted to open up the minds of the children; he wanted them to think about everything before they accept it blindly. We see in the movie that all he had to do was too plead guilty and the whole trial would be over, and it wouldnt have caused so much heartbreak within the community. But he keeps fighting because he didnt want to live in a world where the people would be penalized for voicing their thoughts. The reason the related trials were referred to as The Scopes Monkey Trial is because Scopes was teaching evolution in school which means that he was teaching that current primates and humans evolved from an organism that existed eons of centuries ago. Using the logic you have used, then we can also say that humans evolved from the fruit fly, for the

Elsayed 3

DNA of humans and the DNA of fruit flies have much in common. As a result, the newspaper gave that name to the trial in its headlines, becoming famously known as such immediately thereafter. The trials go over and reiterate what evolution is. According to the most popular definition (at the time), it is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over consecutive generations. It was this theory, initiated by Charles Darwin, that Scopes was teaching in his school. According to evolutionary theory, life began billions of years ago, when a group of chemicals inadvertently organized themselves into a selfreplicating molecule. This tiny molecule gave rise to everything that has ever lived on the planet. Different and more complex organisms grew from this simple beginning through mutation of DNA and natural selection. This goes against the teachings of the Bible and Act 31.428 volume 37, which makes it unlawful for any teacher in public school to teach any theory that denies the creation of man as taught in the Bible. This theory misleads many people who are not cognizant of the difference between the colloquial use of the term, theory, and a scientific theory. A theory is a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation; basically it is a thought which has no evidence to prove it is true. A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on knowledge that has been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation. Scientists create scientific theories from hypotheses that have been corroborated through the scientific method, and then gather evidence to test their accuracy. In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence as a scientist, he was honored with a major ceremonial funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton. The current position of Catholic Church regarding Darwins evolution theory is

Elsayed 4

that it is wrong and it goes against the teachings of the bible. The Bible says God created man and the evolution theory says man evolved from sea creatures. In the movie Henry Drummond brings up the argument that the bible says the sun was created on the fourth day after the earth was created with its vegetables and fruits, which goes against scientific proof that the sun has to be created before the earth so you can have day and night and vegetables and fruits cant grow without sunlight. Also how would the measurement of day and night be valid if the sun didnt exist yet (Genesis 1-20)? All these questions go unanswered, and Darrow is able to make a sweeping victory in this regard in front of the whole court room. Interestingly enough, the position of Islam on this subject is one that agrees with science and was known 1400 years ago as stated in the Quran (Chapter 55). Islam goes where the science goes and has no problem accepting the fact that if humans did in fact evolve from something, and that is how God mandated the creations of humans, then it is fine. But Islam also requires proof or strong evidence before making a case. At the end of the movie Darrow says that Bryant was looking too high for God, referring to what appeared as him getting lost on his intensive search to find God with faith alone and that he was missing humankind's God-given passion to search for truth. He was trying to make him use his God-given intellect to think of Gods existence instead of having blind faith. At the end of the movie Darrow refuses to let the teacher pay the hundred dollar fine no intention of paying any fine because they are appealing the verdict in the State Supreme Court. He asks for thirty days to prepare the appeal, and the judge granted his request and sets bond at five hundred dollars. This means that he looking forward to win this case though the Supreme Court. The reason being that he wanted to change the law he found to be unjust, as opposed to helping the teacher out. When Darrow

Elsayed 5

was packing his things up before exiting the court room after the verdict, he had a moment with the bible and the book of Charles Darwin; he looked at both of them trying to figure out which one is more important to him, which book will satisfy his needs, and at the end he took both, concluding thereafter that one needs both the faith and logical aspects of human consciousness to fully understand this life.

Works Cited
Baldwin, Roger. ACLU. n.d. <https://www.aclu.org/about-aclu-0>. BBC. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml>. Chapter 55. n.d. <http://quran.com/55>. Genesis 1-20. biblegateway. 2001. <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=ESV->. wikipedia Charles Darwin. n.d. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin>. wikipedia Evolution. n.d. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution>.