I recently saw a wonderful play at the Old Vic Theatre in London called Inherit the Wind. Taking in account the production, acting, subject matter and execution it was one of the very best plays I have ever seen.
Before I explain why I enjoyed the play so much I am also keen to give the background to the real life event which inspired the screenplay. By 1925 a Christian fundamentalist movement had made strong opposition to the teaching of evolution in schools and what they saw as a threat to the very moral structure that supported American society. A rough representation of their argument runs along these lines: evolution denies the literal truth of the Bible, denying the literal Biblical truth will lead to doubts about God, doubting God is abhorrent and will soon lead to pure atheism, atheism destroys morals and leads to the downfall of all that is good, our society will be destroyed and evil will prevail.
On the 23rd March 1925 the Butler Act was passed by the state in Tennessee; this act stated that:
“It shall be unlawful for any teacher to teach any theory that denies the Story of Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man had descended from a lower order of animal” (E.C.Scott, 2004).
It was therefore no longer legal for a science teacher to advance the theory of evolution. With much justification the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took it upon themselves to challenge a law that they felt was a denial of free speech and directly opposed to the First Amendment.
John T. Scopes was a science teacher in the small town of Dayton (Tennessee) and he agreed to a proposition by the ACLU that he would admit to teaching evolution in school so that it could be taken to trial; the ACLU wished to use the trial to generate publicity and highlight a law they felt was unjust. The Scopes trial did indeed receive much publicity; not least due to the involvement of William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defence. Bryan was a devout Christian with fundamentalist views (and an extreme distaste for evolutionary theory) whilst Darrow was a noted agnostic and an extremely famous defence attorney. A key stage of the trial was when Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert witness on the Bible; hoping to preach to the non-believers Bryan accepted. Bryan was made to appear somewhat foolish due to his ignorance of many issues and a naïve explanation of certain Biblical stories, which he felt should be taken as written - word for word.
Scopes was convicted; mainly because the case was brought to trial focused on the sole issue of whether Scopes broke the law by violating the Butler act (which was never in question as he had admitted doing so). Eventually, however, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the decision due to a slight technical transgression and the case was thrown out. What mattered most was that it was a wonderful success for the ACLU in highlighting the issues to the popular press.
The trial, and the events both before and afterwards, is extremely fascinating and very important in understanding the battle that still rages today between Christian fundamentalists and the scientific community. Many of these issues were represented intelligently in Inherit the Wind.
The play takes certain dramatic license, as one would expect, and a large amount of it is based on a dramatization of the exchange between Darrow and Bryan (the characters have different names in the play). But the most important thing for me is that the central theme of the play is the advancement of free-thinking and the benefits to society when we encourage other to consider matters in depth - free from suppression. Even today the suppression of free-thought is a commonplace occurrence and frequently takes place under the banner of religious “teaching”. I place teaching in quotes because I feel that even though it is called teaching it lies more firmly in the realm of indoctrination.
If people consider the evidence for evolution carefully, read unbiased scientific literature and carefully consider all angles, and still reject it – I would have no issue (although I would be keen to discuss what conclusions such a person came to). However, to either suppress the knowledge of this rich and wonderful field of scientific knowledge, or greatly distort it, leaves me deeply saddened and frustrated. Laws such as the Butler Act no longer exist in the USA so the main Creationist groups have turned to the tactic of misrepresenting evolution, and more often presenting blatantly false information about it. Falsehood, out of context quotes, and bad science permeates the Creationist literature, and yet millions accept it on face value; a religious community tends to be structured in such a way that authority is trusted completely - those in charge often take full advantage of this fact when presenting misleading information.
The creationist movement in America tried for many years to get evolution banned in schools but time and time again their attempts were thwarted in court (where they are under oath to tell the truth). Today they focus on a movement advocating equal time in science class for Intelligent Design (the new name for Creation Science but equally vacuous on scientific grounds). I have no issue with Creationism being discussed in religious classes, or perhaps in history or other lessons where it may be appropriate to consider its impact. But Creationism, Creation Science or Intelligent Design are simply not scientific theories and not suitable for science class. In school there is still some control over the broad range of subjects a child is allowed to explore; at home or in church there are no such rules. If science class is invaded by religious and personal views then it ceases to be science – will religious leaders give evolution equal time in Sunday school I wonder?
One final thought, I have written as though it is only in America that science is under attack and where religious groups seek to undermine education – however, many ripples have spread out from the epicentre in America. This can be seen by this article on the BBC website which details a recent survey in which 60% of those questioned in Britain felt creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons (perhaps indicating that bad information and misunderstanding clouds views on this matter) :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8322781.stm
I think this is more than enough for now. I can only finish by highly recommending Inherit the Wind, it is still showing in London and it is a wonderful play. Kevin Spacey plays Henry Drummond (based upon Clarence Darrow) and was truly brilliant – but it is unfair to highlight only Spacey because each and every person on the stage put in a wonderful performance.
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