"Inherit The Wind" Book/Movie

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Denise_Shae

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Good morning everyone. Pax Vobiscvm.

I hope I’m posting this in the correct forum.

My 15 y/o daugher (who attends public highschool), is required to read, “Inherit The Wind”. A book that’s based on the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, in which a Tennessee highschool teacher was arrested and tried for introducing Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to his students.

I purchased the movie, unbeknownst to my daughter, and the way the Christians were portrayed was quite disturbing. They were presented as being ignorant, fanatical and illiterate.
And, of course, the defense attorney and journalist were portrayed as intelligent, rational and logical.

My concern is this: My daughter, who attended Parochial elementary school, is not as grounded in her Faith as I had hoped she’d be.
She can be easily swayed into accepting Darwin’s Theory.

If possible, I want to sit down with her and explain the Catholic Teaching regarding Creation and the beginning of man BEFORE she has to read this book.

I believe in the Bible and the story of Genesis, however, I’m aware that when the Bible says the world was created in Six Days; it wasn’t, literally, six 24 hour days.

Along with a book report, her class will be discussing this book.
Her English teacher wants to encourage the students to think for themselves, and I have no problem with that, whatsoever.

Would someone please let me know the Church’s Interpretation of Genesis in regards to Creation and how Adam and Eve came to be? Also, is there a name for it?

I looked up “Creationism” over at New Advent, but that didn’t seem right to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and God Bless you all.

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise
 
I’m not touching the evolution vs. creationism thing with a ten foot pole, but I do want to add that I DO NOT KNOW why schools would use Inherit the Wind when talking about the Scopes trial. I am currently discussing the trial in an upper-level college course and the way that movie presents it is patently ridiculous. A lot of the things in that movie never happened, or at least did not happen that way. In short, it’s a revisionist caricature and not much more.
 
Tell her to read it.

But—! Along with it, she also has to read Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe.

Use caution, though, and don’t let the teacher know she’s reading Behe. If the teacher a hard-core Darwinist, her reaction to this book will likely resemble the reaction of most hard-core Darwinists, and she might blow a gasket and hurt herself.
 
The Bible was written to reveal religious truth, not history, not science but Religious Truth. The book of Genisus tells us that God created the world. As Catholics we are not restricted to interpret it that God created the world in 6 literal days (as you mentioned) or that he didn’t use evolution to create the world. The religious truth is that God created the world and all mankind came from one man and one woman.

Your story reminds me of when my son had sex education in public school. I talked to him about it before he had the class and explained that the school would probably teach some things that I did not agree with. Sure enough, the public health nurse got up in front of the 13 year olds and told them how they could come down to the public health office and purchase condoms for a cheap price. My son came home appaulled that they were teaching that it was ok to have premarital sex. We had a great discussion about what the world teaches and what is right in reality.

Your daughter will be exposed to many things you oppose. In my personal opinion it is a good opportunity to discuss your contrasting views and make her aware of those views and why you believe differently. Much better for her to be exposed to those views while she is under your influence and you can direct her rather than be surprised by it later on and not know how to respond. My son turns 19 today. He is a great defender of the Catholic faith because he has had to defend it all the way through high school.

This book is just the tip of the iceburg - find out what else is going on in the high school and open up the discussion.
 
Sure enough, the public health nurse got up in front of the 13 year olds and told them how they could come down to the public health office and purchase condoms for a cheap price.
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That’s a disgrace.

The school, as well as many others, take the position that: “If they’re going to have sex, they should at least be protected”.
I’ve heard that statement ad nauseam.

God forbid, they’d teach our young adults to practice self-discipline and abstinence. Sheesh!
As Catholics we are not restricted to interpret it that God created the world in 6 literal days (as you mentioned) or that he didn’t use evolution to create the world. The religious truth is that God created the world and all mankind came from one man and one woman.
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But is there a difinitive Church teaching on the subject?

Thanks amills, and God Bless you.

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise
 
Hello Wolseley, and thank you for your reply.

I’ve never heard of Darwin’s Black Box or Michael Behe. Does the author refute Darwin’s book, “Origin of the Species” and other Agnostic/Atheistic beliefs about how the Universe was created?

By the way, I know for a fact that this teacher is not religious man. My daugher overheard something he said and repeated it to me.

God Bless!

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise
Wolseley said:
Tell her to read it.

But—! Along with it, she also has to read Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe.

Use caution, though, and don’t let the teacher know she’s reading Behe. If the teacher a hard-core Darwinist, her reaction to this book will likely resemble the reaction of most hard-core Darwinists, and she might blow a gasket and hurt herself.
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Hi Tarwater,
I’m not touching the evolution vs. creationism thing with a ten foot pole,
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Believe me; the last thing I want is a debate about this. I only want to know how the Church interprets Genesis, so I can enlighten my daughter.

Thanks and God Bless.

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise
 
“Intelligent Design” – Is that what the Church teaches? I came upon that term as I was looking up “Darwin’s Black Box” on Amazon, and that sounded awfully familiar to me.
But when I went over to New Advent, it wasn’t listed in their Encyclopaedia. (Which I thought was a bit odd, since they do have Creationism listed.

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise
 
Ma’am,

I would add that faithful Catholics are permitted to believe in evolution, within a specific range- the “catch” being that in the beginning everything was ultimately created from nothing by God, and that at some point something called the special creation of the soul occured.

“[T]he teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions . . . take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God” (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36)
 
Thank you, Tarwater.

Oh, and please call me Denise. “Ma’am” makes me feel really, really not-so-young, anymore. Yes, I’m being politically correct in not using the “O” word. 😉

God Bless!

In His Most Sacred ❤️,

Denise - Still young at ❤️
🙂
Tarwater said:
Ma’am,

I would add that faithful Catholics are permitted to believe in evolution, within a specific range- the “catch” being that in the beginning everything was ultimately created from nothing by God, and that at some point something called the special creation of the soul occured.

“[T]he teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions . . . take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God” (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36)
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Haha, will do. I say it to girls younger than me too, though. I was raised to be a good South’ner 😉
 
Denise,

Something to draw a serious distinction between is the scientific theory of evolution (for which there is considerable scientific evidence) and the atheistic philosophy of evolution (for which there is no evidence whatsoever). If Darwin, Huxley, and their group had announced “We all know that God created us, we’re just trying to fill in the details of how He did it,” there would have been no problem. Instead, they tried to push the atheism along with the science.

The Catholic Church does not require any belief regarding the scientific theory of evolution. She does require that we believe that Adam and Eve really existed because that is the basis of the doctrine of original sin. There is no requirement to believe that Adam and Eve were created instantaneously, though; it is quite possible (likely, even, I think) that God breathed His spirit into some hominids to change them from animal to human. There is no scientific evidence regarding this one way or the other, and so there can be no objection to it on scientific grounds. (There are a lot of pseudo-scientific objections, but the people who lodge these objections are going beyond their data.)
  • Liberian
 
There is no necessary conflict between the Catholic doctrine of creation (that is, that God is the Creator of all things that are not God) and the scientific concept of evolution. The so-called “warfare model” of the relationship of faith to science was introduced in the 19th century, and has dominated the public mind ever since. However, it represents a serious distortion of both religion and science.

That being said, I highly recommend two books, both by the same author:

Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial & America’s Continuing Debate Over Science & Religion (Harvard, 1997) [ISBN 0-674-85429-2]

_____, Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library, 2004) [ISBN 0-679-64288-9]

The first book won the Pulitzer Prize in History, and is well-known as the best, and most accurate, treatment of the Scopes trial in print. The second text is a fascinating little history of the idea of evolution, again the best in print.

Also, I would recommend this book to every Catholic:

Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God & Evolution (HarperCollins, 1999) [ISBN 0-06-093049-7]

Hope this helps, and happy reading.

Don
+T+
 
That being said, I highly recommend two books, both by the same author:

Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial & America’s Continuing Debate Over Science & Religion (Harvard, 1997) [ISBN 0-674-85429-2]
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Denise,

I wanted to second Ed Larson’s book on the Scopes trial. That’s actually the textbook we’re using for it in that class I mentioned.
 
www.creationevidence.org also might be helpful .

Had watched a program on Nova a while ago ( forget the title and such ) ; it was about some peculiar geographical formations in the western U.S and how scientists had thought tha it probably took many thousands of years to form ; now more recently , evidence showed how the whole massive changes could have happened in a very short time , related to the force of the water flow and built up energy of the glacier flood, supercooled water remaining as water and not ice , setting off the glacier dam to break etc: etc: , fascinating for the way it proved much of the conventional ideas on these matters as not fixed in stone !

Hope young people would find both science and faith enriching each other. There is account in O.T ( Sam.5&6) about the Ark of the Covenant among the Philistines,with them coming down with probable epidemic of bubonic plague and in turn making golden mice , to send off as reparation ! Have heard that the connection between plague and mice was thus surmised in middle ages from this incident and used to control the epidemic ; unsure if the spiritual meaning was also figured out !
 
Two posts were right on the money on this and I would like to make it even simpler. The Church teaches that God created mankind (that is required belief), how he did it, the Church leaves to science. There is no conflict between the Church and science since God created everything and it is up to us to figure out how it was done. Therefore it is ok to read the book or see the movie, remembering that Hollywood takes lots of liberty in details to make it interesting. Also remember that evolution is a theory.
 
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