The Evolution Wars, Revisited By PHILIP M. BOFFEY
The classic legal battle over evolution is the Scopes "monkey trial" of 1925 - or, perhaps more accurately, "Inherit the Wind," the 1960 movie about the trial. In the movie, the character representing the legendary trial lawyer Clarence Darrow, played by Spencer Tracy, obliterated the character played by Fredric March, representing William Jennings Bryan, the fundamentalist three-time presidential candidate and staunch opponent of evolution, on the witness stand. In real life, Darrow lost the case (the verdict was later overturned on a technicality), but the film was a stirring evocation of the importance of teaching evolution and of keeping religion from interfering with science.
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