6 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Did You Hear the One About the Theologian at the Zoo?
David Mamet's July 10 op-ed on the Scopes trial play ('Political Theater Makes Bad Drama,' July 10) reminds me of a joke about a German theology professor who, while visiting the zoo, saw a troubled gorilla, pacing back and forth with a Bible in one hand and Darwin's writing in the other. 'What's bothering you?' the professor asked. 'I cannot decide whether I am my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother,' the gorilla replied.
Neither book refutes the other. Good Christians and troubled gorillas can benefit from reading both if they understand that the books deal with different topics. Both use reason and foundational assumptions to explore different issues. When public schools attempt to characterize religious issues as if they conflict with settled science, they overstep their bounds.
