The Role Of Evolution In Inherit The Wind

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In Inherit the Wind, because the teaching of evolution was outlawed in schools, the people of the town and nation feared the knowledge and preferred remaining ignorant. The case revolves around right and wrong, simply and completely, right? Wrong. It is merely a factor in the grand scheme of things, because there are so many things that go into determining if something is morally correct, just as Drummond believes. “Realizing that I may prejudice the case of my client, I must say that "Right" has no meaning to me whatsoever! Truth has a meaning—as a direction. But one of the peculiar imbecilities of our time is the grid of morality we have placed on human behavior: so that every act of man must be measured against an arbitrary latitude of right and longitude of wrong—in exact minutes, seconds, and degrees!” (I,II,74). …show more content…

The question of an individual’s beliefs quickly turned into a question of freedom. Not only is not allowing evolution to be taught in school an act of willingly keeping people ignorant, it also allowed a select few to be in control of an entire nation’s thoughts. When there are a small number of people who control the media or what is said about certain subjects—then they are able to use their power to manipulate their judgment, just as Brady stated in Inherit the Wind. “I've seen what you can do to a jury. Twist and tangle them. Nobody's forgotten the Endicott Publishing case—where you made the jury believe the obscenity was in their own minds, not on the printed page. It was immoral what you did to that jury. Tricking

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