the book inherit the wind

[pokeyliz14]

we had to read that book this week for school any opinons on the book by robert lee about scopes monkey trial etc... cause i don't really get it.

thanks liz

 

[Douglaangu]

Don't get it?
What do you mean?

 

[Nathan Poe]

Today at 05:37 AM pokeyliz14 said this in Post #1

we had to read that book this week for school any opinons on the book by robert lee about scopes monkey trial etc... cause i don't really get it.

thanks liz

First of all, it's not a "book" per se, it's a play. You'll get it a lot better if you see it performed.

There's a classic 1960s version starring Spencer Tracy, but I prefer the 1999 Showtime version with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. Go to the video store and rent it.

 

[seebs]

You might ask in the book reviews section. It's a play, and it does a good job of capturing the sense of the early debates over evolution in our school systems.

 

[lucaspa]

Today at 05:37 AM pokeyliz14 said this in Post #1

we had to read that book this week for school any opinons on the book by robert lee about scopes monkey trial etc... cause i don't really get it.

thanks liz

The play, like all plays, sacrifices historical accuracy for drama.

In the 1920s several states had laws forbidding the teaching of evolution.  The ACLU got a Tennessee teacher, Scopes, to disobey the law to make a test case for the law.

During the course of the trial the validity of evolution and a literal reading of the Bible were argued.  The dramatic highlight is when the defense lawyer, Clarence Darrow, put the prosecution lawyer, William Jennings Bryan, on the witness stand as an expert in the Bible. Darrow used several contradictions and unknowns in Genesis to show that a literal reading of Genesis 1-8 didn't make any sense.

What the trial showed was that young earth creationism is a silly belief and was not good science.  The creationists erred in thinking evolution was atheism.  The rest of the country erred in thinking that all Christians were literalists and therefore stupid and foolish.

Scopes was convicted. The law stayed on the books.  Laws forbidding the teaching of evolution were not finally defeated until Epperson vs Arkansas in 1962 when those laws were declared unconstitutional.