Inherit the Wind - Prompt 7: The Title

   The Biblical creation of man, as in Genesis 2:7 begins with “...the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth.  He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” However, before God created man, in Genesis 1:26, “...God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’”  To whom was God speaking, for God quoted himself?  Perhaps, God was speaking to the animals, for man can be said to be part animal and part God.  Man inherited God’s breath but was still formed from the dust of the earth, the dust of the animals.  Very Darwinish. The title Inherit the Wind symbolizes the amalgamation of the Biblical theory of creationism with the scientific theory of Darwinism.  Through free thought and speech man becomes a thinking “being” of intellectuality, spirituality, and morality.  Just like the wind, man inherited these.  However, the inheritance of intellectuality, spirituality, and morality can become abusive just like wind’s ferocious form, the tornado.  The tornado twists and turns, devouring a cathedral, yet it cannot destroy an idea.  But, wind also has a gentler force, a force that is still impactful but not destructive.  It carries the seeds that germinate into plants, clouds that produce nourishing water, and the perfumed aromas that awaken the senses in man.  Intellectuality, spirituality, morality. 

   Drummond was a religious man – he was able to quote excerpts from the Bible and speak in great detail about its concepts – that is why he appreciated the biblical beauty of the theory of creationism together with the scientific logicality of the theory of Darwinism.  He knew that for progress to continue, religious and secular thought was not an either/or situation – it was a combination of the two.  Man was not just scientific or religious.  Man was made from dust and breath – man inherited the wind.  And so, “Drummond slaps the two books together and jams them in his brief case, side by side.  Slowly, he climbs to the street level and crosses the empty square.” (Act 3, page 129)

        - J. A. Kind