Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Scopes Monkey Trial - Ep 135
1.6k Plays9 months ago
Staying with our “Old School Classics” theme, this week we enjoy the fine wine that is the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. We also have the extra added bonuses of a discussion on creationism and a quick review of the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind. What a deal!
Transcripts
For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/pseudo/135
Links
- Why Evolution is True Blog https://whyevolutionistrue.com/
Contact
ArchPodNet
- APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
- APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
- APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
- APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
- Tee Public Store
Affiliates
- Motion: https://www.archpodnet.com/motion
- Liquid I.V.
Ready to shop better hydration, use my special link https://zen.ai/pseudoarchaeology to save 20% off anything you order.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Pseudo-Archaeology
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You are now entering the pseudo-archaeology podcast, a show that uncovers what's fact, what's fake, and what's fun in the crazy world of pseudo-archaeology.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the pseudo-archaeology podcast episode 135 and tonight the scopes monkey trial. What's up with that? All right. Nice to see everybody back. And by see everybody, I mean I'm saying some stuff and nobody's around and I'm talking at 2 a.m.
The Scopes Monkey Trial Overview
00:00:51
Speaker
So, uh,
00:00:53
Speaker
What should I talk about? Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to talk about because you get no vote. Just like recording into a microphone by myself. I mean, too bad, man. Talking about the scopes monkey trial. And so.
00:01:11
Speaker
Why do I want to do the scopes monkey trial? It's because I think it came up last time for like just a moment, you know? And as I was talking about last time's episode, whatever it was, you see, I just, I do these all the time, man. You know, I'm just, I just work for you people and it's constant and it's just never ending. And I'm like, when did the scopes monkey trial come up last? I don't even, I don't even remember.
00:01:42
Speaker
I just know it was episode 134. What did I what did I even talk about last time? I don't even. It's sad, it's sad anyway. It came up for a second and I was like, oh, yeah, scopes monkey trial. And so today I thought I would just kind of expand on that. It's it sort of goes with my.
00:02:07
Speaker
current focus on some of the old school classics, you know, when I talk about some of this, you know, stuff that's been around for a long time.
Key Figures in the Trial
00:02:17
Speaker
So, OK, the setup with the Scopes Monkey Trial is this happens in 1925. It happens in the summer of 1925. So, hey, we're almost 99 years ago.
00:02:32
Speaker
And it's called the Scopes Monkey Trial because there was a teacher named John Scopes, right? And this happens in the state of Tennessee.
00:02:44
Speaker
His teacher, John Scopes, is basically teaching evolution to his students. And he's breaking Tennessee law because Tennessee at the time just had this new act come in called the Butler Act.
00:03:03
Speaker
And the Butler Act said, and you guessed it, that you can't deny Genesis and the Bible in your teaching. You must teach that and you can't teach evolution, basically. So, of course, you can see you can see the major litigation possibilities here, because as we all know, we have the First Amendment, right? Separation of church and state. So you're supposed to be able to just
00:03:33
Speaker
teach evolution, teach science. But according to this new act, this sort of extremely religious right act that they had just passed in 1925, that you couldn't do that and you had to make sure the Bible got due diligence. The part about the Scopes of Monkey Trial, I bet a lot of you have heard this name before. You go, oh yeah, Scopes of Monkey Trial, evolution, whatever. But I find some of the lesser known aspects of it
00:04:00
Speaker
really interesting, like the trial itself is staged. And what I mean by that is it's still a real trial. It's not a fake trial, but so the, you know, the person is really on trial and there's a real judge and there's a real judgment. And John Scopes would have to abide by whatever that real judgment is, like his, you know, his citizenry is in jeopardy in this real way. But
00:04:30
Speaker
The trial is staged in terms of it was pushed like John Scopes. Was like. Pretty sure he taught evolution, but but big names and big people wanted this trial to go ahead, so like the ACLU, American Civil Liberties.
00:04:53
Speaker
Union, right, got in basically got in touch with John Scopes and were like, hey, if you indeed say that you did this, we'll defend you. They had one of the most famous defense lawyers of all time, Clarence Darrow.
00:05:10
Speaker
like said he would defend him on the side of the prosecution. This guy William Jennings Bryan was going to do it. William Jennings Bryan was a former presidential candidate, you know, known for sort of being this conservative right wing kind of person. And on top of all of that, the little Tennessee town
00:05:34
Speaker
was going to get like a big boost of like tourism, basically.
Media Impact of the Trial
00:05:41
Speaker
Right. And this little town is Dayton, Tennessee. So Dayton, Tennessee basically gets this big trial to come in. And this is crazy, you guys. This is really
00:05:52
Speaker
a major moment just in terms of how we in American culture learn about famous cases. It's the first case to ever be broadcast over the radio, right? This is 1925. This is before television and all that kind of good stuff. So it's a media madhouse, right? It's just this massive story that while, again, the trial is real, it's like trumped up and made way huger.
00:06:19
Speaker
Then it otherwise would have been these all-star lawyers really there. They're litigating the really litigating culture right there litigating not only the law in terms of can you teach evolution or not there sort of litigating that higher sort of.
00:06:37
Speaker
pro or anti religious stance, pro or anti First Amendment. You can see how this would be boosted way up beyond kind of the reality of the case. So the case starts. And they go through the whole thing. H.L. Menken, who I'm guessing most of you have not necessarily heard that name, kind of a famous essayist and writer.
00:07:04
Speaker
But he was one of the many in the media who covered the case. He was very much pro John Scopes, right? He's pro the defense. And so he wrote things that were very pro defense and were very anti prosecution. So kind of on the pro evolution side, being such kind of
00:07:26
Speaker
maybe an acerbic or creative writer, just his writing could really turn public sentiment over time. And as as the trial progressed, and I think it went on like.
00:07:41
Speaker
A week or so week and a half that that kind of length, right? This isn't something that dragged up for months and months. I think increasingly the Tennessee town and all the people who were kind of pro the Butler Act looked increasingly kind of foolish and backwards. Right.
Outcome and Public Opinion
00:08:01
Speaker
So by the end of the trial,
00:08:04
Speaker
What happens is, and I think I think a lot of people don't even realize this necessarily. John Scopes was found guilty. He was found guilty of teaching evolution. Right. So his fine now, since there was no precedent, it was just like this new law to sort of be like, yes, we're very pro-bible, but they're like, I don't know. What do you do once you litigate this?
00:08:32
Speaker
John Scopes ends up having to pay a hundred bucks. That was the judge's judgment, right? A hundred bucks, John Scopes. And I think in today's money, that's like, oh man, I don't know, maybe 1800 bucks. That's, isn't that amazing? Right. A hundred bucks in 1925 is around $1,800 of buying power today, which I don't want to pay 1800 bucks, but
00:08:59
Speaker
If I'm part of a huge litigation like that, even if it's kind of for show, I'm still it's weird, you know, like if I was John Scopes, I would still be feel kind of weird. I'm like, man, I'm on trial. John Scopes, of course, did this largely because he believed in the teaching revolution and he he wanted to get this. In front of the eyes of America, kind of as well. But still, I don't know, I'd be worried. So so he had to end up paying 100 bucks.
00:09:27
Speaker
And of course, in terms of losing his case, the conservative right saw that as as a win because they did win, but they didn't win in terms of public opinion. So really quickly there, I would say public opinion overall was very pro John Scopes and anti the Butler Act and
00:09:55
Speaker
the aspects of Tennessee that put that in the first place. Another interesting wrinkle to this is William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer for the prosecution, several time presidential candidate. He died five days after the trial was over.
00:10:13
Speaker
He had kind of become the figurehead of this movement a little bit. He dies right after. So they kind of lose their their head. They kind of lose their their leader a little bit. And that only hurts their their situation. So ultimately.
00:10:32
Speaker
with the Scopes Monkey Trial, you get kind of an opening for really the rest of the 20th century in terms of being able to teach evolution, you know, science, that side of things, kind of keeping the First Amendment standing and not have any real
00:10:54
Speaker
Inroads against that until much, much later. So it really does set precedent for at least the next 50 years, if not really the rest of the 20th century. So it is important in terms of.
00:11:09
Speaker
Again, how the general public kind of allows us to let it go right for a long time. So even if somebody is very orthodox religion, they still kind of know, oh, well, but according to the state, you know, according to federal law, you just teach evolution.
Evolution vs. Creationism in Education
00:11:26
Speaker
So very important when we come back. But what does this mean in terms of the modern movement of creationism?
00:11:36
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the pseudo-archaeology podcast episode 135. Can you believe it? And we are discussing the scopes monkey trial. And by we are discussing, I mean, I'm talking into a microphone at two in the morning by myself. It's a lonely world in a podcasterville, my friends. And see even right there, I messed up. I went the pod pod podcaster.
00:12:07
Speaker
It's tough, man. It's tough. So we see what that the Scopes Monkey Trial has really set a precedent for the teaching of evolution. And I had said that. It had kind of set the stage for the rest of the 20th century, but. I think we all know that there's kind of always been a push
00:12:35
Speaker
Against evolution, there's kind of been an anti-evolution streak in America, you know, in terms of just teaching scientific fact because of kind of the religiosity of certain aspects of our country. But we kind of get saved at the 11th hour by the First Amendment in the 1970s and really into the 1980s, where you feel you have the rise of the religious right.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I remember seeing some of this as a little kid, right, that that that push that kind of religion comes on TV of televangelists and so many people in America kind of believe in that, like.
00:13:16
Speaker
anti-evolution, anti-Charles Darwin, you need to teach the Bible. So you have a rise of a movement that we can call creationism, but there's so much more to it. Creationism is just simply the idea that all life on earth is created by God. If you believe that life on earth is created by God, you're a creationist in the most basic sense. Now, there have been various
00:13:44
Speaker
people and movements over the times that are constantly trying to push this into schools, constantly trying to masquerade as how somehow creationism is science. They'll call it creation science. Right. And why?
00:13:59
Speaker
This fits into this podcast so well is it's total pseudoscientific crap every time. Right. Other ideas that go with creationism, you guys might have heard of intelligent design. That's another one. You'll hear creationism, creationism, science, intelligent design. Right. It's the same thing, though, every time. All it is is
00:14:24
Speaker
we believe that God created the world and you need to teach that in biology class. Like that's what this is. And they're always taking some other way with it. They're always trying to get around the first amendment and the first amendment always stops it, stops it at the 11th hour because there's separation between church and state, right? You're not supposed to teach one religion's outlook in terms of their mythological origins, origin story, right?
00:14:52
Speaker
And when you're dealing with like, it can solve the same. Creationism, again, is the basic idea. Okay, life's created by God. Intelligent design, they always go like, look, man, life is just too complicated. It's impossible to make that just from evolution. What do you mean this came from a single cell now, right? Heard that again and again. I have to say that I haven't felt
00:15:19
Speaker
the creationism push so bad in the last handful of years. It used to be much worse, like 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I feel like people who push that are kind of gone on to do different things. Will it be back? I'm sure. Never ends, you know.
00:15:36
Speaker
But I haven't had to be on the defensive that much. Like I would say for I've been teaching full time for like 20 years and almost every semester I'll teach a biological anthropology class. And when I first started, this would be like 2004, 2005, 2006, right?
00:15:54
Speaker
I was way more conscious of new earth creationists. That's another, that's another term that goes with this new earth creationists, meaning that you believe the literal translation of the Bible in terms of when the earth started more on that in a minute. I was worried about that in class. I could feel it. If I talked about evolution, how the class and a big portion of the class would get kind of like icy, you know, you can feel that when you're lecturing, but
00:16:25
Speaker
Again, in the last, I don't know, decade, I haven't really felt that. I'm sure there's people out there who still have these beliefs, but it's just not, it's like no big deal, you know, which is nice. Again, you know, let's be honest, it'll be back. What is a new earth creationist? A new earth creationist is someone who believes what Archbishop James Usher said.
00:16:49
Speaker
Look how much I screwed that up. It's what Dasha Bush Disha Basha said. Archbishop James Usher, right? This guy was the Archbishop around, oh man, it's around 1650 A.D. Give or take, I could be a little off there, but it's in that vicinity.
00:17:07
Speaker
And he, through a very meticulous read of the Bible, was like, the earth started on October 23rd, 4004 B.C., right? And in fact, not just October 23rd, 4004 B.C., but October 23rd, 4004 B.C. at 9 a.m., right? And so that is, according to an extremely literal read of the Bible,
00:17:33
Speaker
the Earth is just over how old are we this year? See, 4004 BC. So we're 6,028 years old. Good for us. Just a quick 6,028 years since the beginning of time, since the beginning of the Earth. Now you can see just by the
00:17:55
Speaker
huge amount of scientific data that that's ludicrous. Right. That would mean the dinosaurs. All of that happened in the last six thousand years, which is just it's laughable. We can have a laugh at that because it's it's idiotic. It's the dopiest, you know, like one nice thing about being a human. Is we record things and we learn things and we can learn things to teach the next generation.
00:18:23
Speaker
And we're at a point in this human drama where we know the Earth is millions, billions of years old. We know it. We can prove it like all kinds of different, all kinds of different ways, you know, and it's easy and it's just no big deal.
00:18:41
Speaker
And we can move on to even more difficult questions. Right. So in terms of the age of the earth, newer of creationism is a cartoonish joke.
Debunking Anti-Evolution Arguments
00:18:52
Speaker
Right. It's it's so far beyond. So the arguments, though, that that constantly come up, you know, is that first to try and get this into schools. And by going, hey, look.
00:19:08
Speaker
We're just one idea of many. So we just want to be in there with everyone else. You know, why are you so close minded? How often have we heard this, my friends, on the pseudo archaeology podcast? Right. That's the classic. Like, look, I'm not saying that aliens necessarily built the pyramids, but it's one good possibility along with the other possibilities. Why can't we teach that, you see?
00:19:33
Speaker
That's how you get in stuff that has no basis in anything. The same old idea, same old arguments. I've heard these so many times or that the intelligent design thing. Right. We're we're just too complex. It's impossible. You hear stuff like, how do you make a 747 from nothing? You know, that that kind of thing. Like all this stuff is just an ignorance of how evolution works. You know, evolution is so
00:20:03
Speaker
Once you learn it and look at it, it's so elegant in how straightforward it is. It's simply like, look, this is how life on Earth grew and changed over time. It was a reaction to its environment. The babies that could deal with the environment lived, the babies that couldn't deal with the environment died, and then the babies that lived had babies of their own.
00:20:25
Speaker
Slowly, slowly, slowly changing what creatures were like because the good traits made it and the bad traits didn't. There you go. Right. You'll hear arguments like, hey, where are the intermediate fossils?
00:20:40
Speaker
meaning where the fossils between one creature evolves to a new version of itself, we have intermediate fossils all over the place. But with these people, as soon as you tell them that and show them that, they just flatly refuse to consider facts.
00:20:59
Speaker
Right. Remind you of anything? Sure. Every Graham Hancock argument we've ever had. It's exactly the same, my friends. What's so funny starting this podcast, all I had to do is rev up my same old anti creationism batteries. You know, it's the same. It's just I've heard this stuff my entire career. If you want places to go in terms of what are some great examples of things like intermediate fossils, what's a great way to explain how
00:21:29
Speaker
How evolution works, I recommend. A book called Why Evolution Is True. You'll never guess what Why Evolution Is True is about.
00:21:41
Speaker
It's by this author named Jerry Coyne. He's great. I love this book. It came out in 2009. I require it. It is the required book for my biological anthropology class. He's so good because I'm sure Jerry has had to deal with this stuff his entire career, just like the rest of us. So he's ready with the rebuttals to all this.
00:22:06
Speaker
Some of my favorite examples in the book is he does whales. He looks at the evolution of whales, how they were land mammals at first, and then slowly over time evolved into whales, something so far away from what they were like before. And he goes through how they spend more and more time in the water, kind of a hippopotamus kind of thing.
00:22:30
Speaker
But he shows all the intermediate fossils. It's great. What a great sort of scientific show of evidence and data and taking this serious, you know, but also an extremely good writer. It's really well written, you guys.
00:22:48
Speaker
I highly recommend Why Evolution Is True. And it's the best one. Jerry Coyne also has a kick-ass blog post that he does. I'll try and put a link to that underneath today, but so good. I have such respect for that dude. He's great. I would also angle you towards your friend in mind, Richard Dawkins. He wrote The Greatest Show on Earth, also that came out in 2009. You're like, why did these books come out both in 2009?
00:23:16
Speaker
Is there a secret alien controlling us all to force these books in 2009? No. That's the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. So a lot of kind of evolution stuff. You know, good time to sell a book. Go for that. It was smart.
00:23:34
Speaker
Now, The Greatest Show on Earth, I love Charles Dawkins. Charles Dawkins. I love Richard Dawkins. I love Richard Dawkins. The Greatest Show on Earth, I like as well. It's excellent. And boy, if you read both of these, you'll know evolution, my friends. But The Greatest Show on Earth has more of an edge to it. It's not quite as good like for students because there's kind of an anti-religious edge in The Greatest Show on Earth.
00:24:02
Speaker
And that can be a bit of a turnoff. Now, Dawkins is such a good writer that it's fun to read. But if you have somebody who just wants to learn evolution and they're just kind of like, hey, man, I just want to know about this stuff. I vote why evolution is true over The Greatest Show on Earth just because it it just feels more relaxed and a bit more neutral, even though it
00:24:29
Speaker
It's not. It tells you evolution in a very step by step manner, but it doesn't have as big of a chip on its shoulder. So if you're between the two, why evolution is true will win out. When we return back to Scopes Monkey Trial one more time with the movie Inherit the Wind.
00:24:51
Speaker
All right, welcome back one last time to the pseudo archaeology podcast episode 135 that started with the scopes monkey trial and went on towards talking about creationism and all that kind of good stuff. And where are we going to end up? We're going to end up, I think, by talking about the movie Inherit the Wind. But first, I want to say two more things that I forgot. The last segment should have said it then, but I didn't.
00:25:19
Speaker
Why do people still even listen to this? I don't know. Where's the professionalism? I wish it was here. So two things. One, the other argument that, of course, we always get against evolution is, you know, evolution is only a theory.
00:25:41
Speaker
Whenever somebody says that, all they're doing is showing their scientific ignorance and their ignorance and evolution in general, right? And when somebody says it's only a theory, it's just...
00:25:54
Speaker
Again, they're ignorant in what the term theory means. Now, theory every day, if we're just using it in our everyday speak, it means a guess. You know, well, I have a theory about that. I don't know. I think they left around four o'clock. It's just it's just a sort of a toss off guess. That's just how it's used in everyday language. There's nothing wrong with that. But theory in science is an explanation, right? It's a tried and tested explanation.
00:26:23
Speaker
And so if you have a theory for something, it is a serious, well thought out explanation. And that's what evolution is, you know, so far. I mean, Charles Darwin published in 1859, ever since 1859, no serious. Counter argument to evolution, you know, it's been standing an awful long time, my friends. And one more thing.
00:26:52
Speaker
before we do our final little discussion on the movie in Here at the Wind. I taught at a religious school once about a decade ago and I was really worried. I had to teach evolution, which is like hilarious, right? I'm coming in to teach evolution and I'm like, oh my God, are they gonna toss me out? Are they gonna burn me at the stake? Are they gonna do strange unknown to me rituals? But in a total vote up for them,
00:27:22
Speaker
I had to go to like a meeting, like whenever you get hired as a new professor, and I just, I just taught like two classes there and that was it. But you go to a meeting where they kind of show you the ropes of the school, right? The new, your newly hired faculty. They're like, oh, here's where the faculty room is. Whatever. Here's the bookstore. This is how this works. This is how you add students on your computer. What, you know, they go through all the stuff.
00:27:47
Speaker
One thing they did, again, this is a religious school, which I thought was great. They specifically took a moment and they were like, and you guys out there who are teaching any of the harder sciences, we want our students to know science.
00:28:02
Speaker
So you need to do what you're supposed to do. If you're teaching chemistry, you teach them chemistry. If you're teaching them biology, you teach them biology, right? And I thought that was so great, right? That's evidence of a school and the people who happen to believe in the religion in that area having a real solid spine. They understand, they understand the bigger picture.
00:28:28
Speaker
And I just, I was so impressed by that, right? That's a way how a religious school becomes very impressive to somebody who's not religious. You just follow the law and more than that, you're thoughtful for your own students, you know, and you want them to learn the real stuff. So I was always really impressed by that religious school. I thought that was great.
00:28:50
Speaker
Now, finally, the movie Inherit the Wind, what's up with that? OK, the movie Inherit the Wind is specifically about the Scopes Monkey trial. Funnily, they they changed the names of the main characters like William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, right? The two lawyers, these are real people. They changed their names, but it's obviously about the Scopes Monkey trial.
00:29:13
Speaker
This movie comes out in 1960 and it's based on a play, Inherit the Wind from 1955, from like five years earlier. The movie's in black and white and it's just basically a courtroom drama. What it is.
00:29:27
Speaker
It has Spencer Tracy in it and one of his kind of one of his, you know, closer to the end roles. He's older in it. Gene Kelly's in it. For any of you who don't know who Gene Kelly is, Mr. Singin in the rain himself. Right. Known for dancing. He is in a non dancing role. Spencer Tracy is going to play Clarence Darrow, who's the the ACLU lawyer.
00:29:50
Speaker
defending John Scopes. Gene Kelly basically plays the H.L. Mencken character, the writer, right? The reporter who's watching this whole whole thing unfold. And I swear, Gene Kelly kicks ass. I just got to say he does great. Like you're like, I'm like, wow, man.
00:30:12
Speaker
Not only are you a supremely talented dancer, but you take the dancing away. You still are a kick-ass actor. So good job, Gene Kelly. Spencer Tracy, of course, always does great. Most of the other actors you probably won't recognize in any real way. Harry Morgan, who was Colonel Potter in MASH.
00:30:33
Speaker
This is, of course, about 10 or 15 years before the TV series MASH. He plays the judge. And so you'll be like, hey, it's Colonel Potter from MASH. And he's he's the judge. Now, it's funny when I watch this movie about once a decade just to kind of remember and reminisce and.
00:30:53
Speaker
If you're 18, watching this movie, certain aspects might be kind of too slow for you. Certain aspects might be kind of too cheesy for you. Just the fact is it's in black and white. You're gonna be like, what? This isn't realistic. But you guys, it's a solid movie. Like, I can recommend it now. It does, again, it's 1960. We're talking to things like 64 years old.
00:31:20
Speaker
And it suffers a little from the time there's early on in the movie, they just it follows the case, you know, and it's very honest to its source material. So it's a it's a pretty damn good follow of the true history of of the Scopes Monkey trial. Of course, it's not perfect. Of course, they change things in order to make it more interesting. Of course, they move things around. Like if you wanted to be a real stickler, you could be like, this isn't quite right. Like overall, they make
00:31:49
Speaker
the reality a bit hotter, if that makes sense. Like if if you're in drama. It's always about making your scene a bit hotter. And what they do here is they change certain historic events just to make the story more taught and a little bit more exciting. Like they're going to they have William Jennings Bryan die in court. Right. In reality, he died five days later after his travels all over.
00:32:11
Speaker
And we don't know for sure if the trial really had anything to do with his death. But of course, in the movie, it's right after he's, you know, kind of given a big speech, he has a big fat heart attack and dies, you know, and that just makes it more exciting. So I'm not here to say that it's an absolute tick by tick perfect recreation of what happened, but then it would be a documentary as not a documentary. I think the weakest parts are sort of sometimes early on some of the kind of
00:32:37
Speaker
some of the religious pontification and some of the things the local people say just feels a little outside of what we would consider kind of how real real people talk you know today like i don't know if they would really talk like that but i gotta tell you guys if you can kinda get through the first part of it
00:32:56
Speaker
It gets pretty damn good. And there are some great just basic dramatic scene work in there, especially near the end, all of them. But a couple of Spencer Tracy's things, a couple of Gene Kelly moments, a couple times, especially near the end between the two of them, just killer scenes for the sake of scenes. Like, I swear to God, you guys, I was watching this thinking like,
00:33:18
Speaker
If I was a drama major and I had to do a scene with a partner, I'm like, man, I take a couple of these closing scenes from Inherit the Wind. They're they're just they're like taught dramatic scenes. Like, man, this is how you write a scene, you know, just super watchable.
Cultural Impact: 'Inherit the Wind'
00:33:38
Speaker
So I recommend it. I understand if early on you're like, this feels kind of cheesy, it feels kind of dated. Just kind of stick through it because there's some great drama happening in there.
00:33:48
Speaker
You know, one thing I remember about watching this, I watched this. With my dad, I think it just happened to be on TV when I was a kid, but let's say I'm 12 and.
00:34:02
Speaker
It wasn't like this special date with my dad or something. It just happened that we were sitting on the couch and this came on. Then it was just sort of one evening. It was just the two of us, I think. I don't think my mom was really watching. I think my brother was doing something else watching this movie. My dad, you guys, was the
00:34:20
Speaker
biggest, staunchest atheist of like all time. Like you think I'm an atheist? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm I'm an open arms kumbaya. Let's all group hug compared to my dad. My dad was just like Mr. Science. And I swear what's so funny is I I watched a couple of scenes from Inherit the Wind earlier today.
00:34:50
Speaker
And again, everything's earlier because it's now like two 30 in the morning for me. Why don't I get up earlier and record on time? But anyway, I'm I watch some scenes and especially the last scene just to refresh myself and remember it because I was like.
00:35:08
Speaker
I think I've watched this with my dad and I'm pretty sure the last scene goes like this. And I made sure in the very last image, Spencer Tracy picks up a copy of Charles Darwin's book.
00:35:21
Speaker
Right. And he picks up a copy of the Bible and he sort of looks thoughtfully at both origin of species and the Bible. Then he kind of slaps them together because they're both books and they're both around the same size. Right. And he kind of has a look of like satisfaction, both that his case went well for him and that he is a religious believer who is still sort of happy to defend the teaching of evolution.
00:35:50
Speaker
And when the books were slapped together to make it look like there was some sort of evenness to it, my dad was just like, oh, God. Because the idea that the Bible would even be in the same room as origin of species, my dad was just like. And.
00:36:12
Speaker
I love that about my dad, man. That was great. So funny. I will say, though, that there is some truth in my dad would even have to deal with it. And he might even strike me down tonight, you know, because I'm even telling you guys this, but.
00:36:27
Speaker
Realizing that the number one belief system in America is both a religious belief system and science and what your average person in America and we think of ourselves as so religious and in some ways America is, but in some ways it's it's relaxed because although we may have a religious mindset, everyone knows how an iPhone works. You know what I mean? Nobody thinks an iPhone works on dragons, blood and potions.
00:36:55
Speaker
except when you're really mad. But we understand, we understand you plug it in, there's a battery in there. So we're very scientific minded in the same breath. And so your average person, yes, will believe in religion.
00:37:09
Speaker
and may even believe in aspects, the most basic aspects of creationism like that the world was created by God, but they believe in evolution. They believe that the earth is 4.6 billion years old. They believe in dinosaurs. They believe in all that kind of stuff. And really for them, they just go like, hey, life on earth itself is godly. It is of the supernatural. It's an amazing thing. And they believe that maybe the
00:37:35
Speaker
the power and influence of God came in when the first cell finally evolved onto the scene. And I think we can all be cool with that, right? That's a way of kind of putting both of those belief systems together. I have no problem with that. My dad has a problem with that. And so that's how the Scopes Monkey Trial has helped us up until today. And with that, I'll talk to you guys later.
00:38:06
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the pseudo archeology podcast. Please like and subscribe wherever you'd like and subscribe. And if you have questions for me, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, feel free to reach out using the links below or go to my YouTube channel, Kinkella teaches archeology. See you guys next time.
00:38:27
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.