TP O’Mahony: Themes of religion and science still clashing

The argument between evolutionists and creationists is especially prominent in America, but Edwin Poots’ leadership of the DUP has brought it into focus here, writes TP O'Mahony

The new leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Edwin Poots. Creationists have not gone away.

It would take the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind, starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, to make a new generation aware of one of the most controversial trials of the 20th century, and one dealing with themes of religion and science which are still relevant today.

Tracy played Clarence Darrow who defended a young schoolteacher named John T Scopes who was arrested for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925 and March played William Jennings Bryan who prosecuted him.