Rapid Response: Inherit the Wind

There are few political topics of ethics and morality as relevant today as they were in 1925 as the debate over evolution and Creationism. Stanley Kramer’s “Inherit the Wind,” a film adaptation of a play based on the real life events of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, has aged remarkably well because of it.

The film is accurate in every detail except the names of the main players. It tells how a town arrested a teacher in 1925 for teaching evolution, revered a presidential candidate serving as the prosecutor as a prophet and demanded him hung for spreading his atheist teachings and disputing the holy word of God. The Baltimore Sun sent a reporter and a famous lawyer to defend the teacher, and a battle between the right to think and the belief that faith is more holy than thought raged on. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Inherit the Wind”