Inherit the Wind

[hyphenate]

is still as relevant today as it was in 1925 with the Scopes trial. One little question leading to eternal doubt is all that we need today, against the same enemy--ignorance. But is there anyone as bold as Clarence Darrow who lives today to ask that question?

With such things as the Creationist Museum and orators such as Pat Robertson, the now departed Jerry Falwell, and Franklin Graham, there appears to be no such person willing to risk their life to counter the loud and attacking rhetoric of the religious right: those who try are preaching to the choir and looking like self-aggrandizing fools to those who might be in doubt.

We cannot win if we cannot use the arguments we have at our disposal to repeatedly strike against the religious right--it is not a question of us patting ourselves on the back and arguing our weighty intellectual "facts" along the way. The right way to handle the religious right is to hammer away with incisive questions for which the right has no answers. They can claim that T-Rex was an herbivore dwelling peaceably with the first human beings, but they will buckle when we can show empirical evidence to the contrary and keep pounding away with their ridiculous drivel about the origin of man. Hell, a single rendering image of what Jesus Christ would look like, in terms of geographical origin, makes their WASPish Christ look like a mockery of the truth, and a defamation of over half the population of the world at that time.

Have we gotten so politically "correct" that we have allowed the religious right to run over every non-Christian belief in the world ? Or do we still have the courage to show that we won't tolerate their pompous and illiterate shit and allow them to put the United States on a lower world academic rung? We cannot and must not give them any further ability to dictate our educational standards--indeed, while they may practice their narrow-minded detritus in their own lives, separation of church and state must prevail in making their views limited in scope nationwide.

[Swamp Rat]

1. One of my favorite movies

:)

[Faygo Kid]

2. It's on Turner Classic Movies right now.

Started at 8 Eastern time, though. Great film.

[Warpy]

3. There are a lot of Clarence Darrows now

and they voted out that stupid school board in Dover, Penna as well as the backwards people in Kansas. They voted out the rabid antiabortionists in South Dakota.

When the Christian Coalition "stealth candidates" make their move and try to bring theocracy, they seem to lose office in record time.

We don't need the one courageous man to stand up in a court. We're all courageous people who will use our votes to get rid of ignorant men in power.

[AlCzervik]

4. that Nova special on Dover was just excellent.

love this movie, love the cast.

[karlrschneider]

5. There are a lot of Bryans too...about 5 on the Supreme court.

:grr:

[KoKo]

6. I gave up my Episcopal Church ...because they didn't do enough for PEACE

because of the Iraq Invasion. I am now considered by them to be the "UnChurched"...and this is from somone who had badges and certificates as a "Perfect Sunday School Attendance" for all 12 years of my "Schooled Life" and all my long life of more mixed attendance after that. I was an Episcopalian...which I thought was the most "intellectual" and forward thinking of our Protestants (even with the blight of Henry VIII who created us to get rid of a bad marriage) and all that baggage of the first of the Reformation.

My Christian Faith left me when we invaded Iraq. I couldn't stomach it...I looked for alternatives...and have yet to find one. I've done the UU's, Church of Christ, Lutherines, Presbyterians and everything inbetween.

Nothing will restore my faith..... After Vietnam...and now Iraq Occupation... I am "out in the wilderness."

[msedano]

7. robert e. lee

and jerome lawrence wrote the play. read it. it's far better than that excellent movie.

i've always enjoyed the scene where the darrow character confronts the bryan clown:

~ genesis 4:16, "and cain went out from the presence of the lard and he dwelt in the land of nod at the east of eden. and cain knew his wife." where'd she come from? did someone else pull another creation over in the next county?


http://readraza.com

http://labloga.blogspot.com

[hyphenate]

8. I've got the book

as well as two different versions of the film. Back many years ago now, I had to write a speech for a class and used the original Scopes trial as the subject matter for my speech. While I know that there are many significant differences between the real trial and the dramatic play, the real trial was itself quite a spectacle, and caused its own upheaval at the time. John Scopes knew that teaching evolution was illegal at the time he taught it, and had been asked by the ACLU to specifically teach it to make it to court--in fact, he was found guilty, and was fined $100 for his "crime." It was one of those "landmark" trials which stood out to test the laws in place, and worked to create a great deal of publicity for the ACLU and Clarence Darrow. H.L. Mencken, the real journalist at the trial, wrote quite at length about the trial (his newspaper was also partially footing the bill for the defense) and many of his transcripts were used in the writing of the play.

We don't get that of attention anymore--in our current times, we're used to instant news and have become inured toward the extraordinary that happens. It's meant that we can't judge that which is history making from that which is mundane and not worth bothering with. It's one of the reasons I have a lot of interest in the last part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century--looking at the world through a slightly myopic lens made everything that more interesting.