In a small town not too long ago the right to question the established authority and belief was put on trial. One man was ready to defend Darwin’s theory on evolution and the right to think for oneself and question established dogma. The country held its breath during the trial known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial”. The play, "Inherit the Wind," written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, fictionalizes the Scopes Monkey Trial. The play explores the theme of the right to question authority and think for oneself through the trial of a Tennessee teacher who taught Darwin’s theory of evolution in violation of a law that mandated the teaching of creationism as set forth in the Bible. Darwin’s theory of evolution states that all living things are descended from a common ancestor. The differences among living organisms, according to Darwin’s theory, are the consequences of mutations that gave an advantage to the mutated organism to live and breed. As a result, the offspring of the mutated organism evolve and thrive while the non-mutated line slowly die off. This is often called natural selection. In contrast, creationism speaks of a supreme being having created all living organisms as we now see them without any evolutionary development. In Inherit the Wind, the creationism is that set forth in the Bible, the belief that God created all living things in six days. The clash between these two ideas sets the stage for the broader issue of one’s right to think for oneself and question established authority. In the play, Henry Drummond is the lawyer who is hired by the Baltimore Herald to defend the teacher, Bertram Cates. Drummond personifies the belief that people have the right to think for themselves and question established dogma if need be. Drummond supports everyone’s right to think for himself, even if we do not agree with his or her beliefs. This is made clear in the following exchange between Drummond, the Judge