The Agnostic Lawyer

Clarence Darrow Explains His Disbelief in God, Christianity, and the Bible

De: Clarence Darrow

Narrado por: Jack Nolan

Before there were the famous books of Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, and Harris on atheism, there were Clarence Darrow's brilliant witty essays on his disbelief in God, Christianity, and the Bible. This book contains several of Darrow's most witty and penetrating essays on his non-belief. Highly entertaining.

As Dr. Andrea Diem-Lane explains: "When Spencer Tracy, playing Clarence Darrow in the movie Inherit the Wind, takes the Bible in one hand and On Origin of Species in the other and clasps them together side by side to illustrate how science and religion can work together, one is led to assume that Darrow was indeed a theist evolutionist. But was he? Hollywood's portrayal of him in this classic film is obviously suspect. Instead of supporting theism, Darrow's own writings clearly show his strong support for agnosticism (literally, "not knowing"). This philosophical position - the argument that one cannot know ultimate or metaphysical truths or even whether there are any - fits in line with the teachings of Socrates, Hume, Darwin, Einstein and many other philosophers and scientists today. Science is inherently agnostic. As a discipline it tends to only investigate those claims that can, in theory, be tested and proven. Indeed, Karl Popper, a well-known philosopher and historian of science, has stressed that for something to be of scientific merit it must be potentially falsifiable. In other words, science doesn't work by proving itself right, but rather by demonstrating where, when, and how it can potentially be wrong. In this way, it can actually correct prior assumptions and make further testable hypothesis, which can either withstand rational scrutiny or be shown to be lacking in sufficient evidence. When a metaphysical (above or beyond the empirical world) claim is made, however, there is usually no way to test it and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that such a thing actually exists. Believing it to be so is insufficient in the realm of science."

©2008, 2016 MSAC Philosophy Group (P)2016 David Christopher Lane

Of Historical Value

This collection of articles and speeches is of historical value, if nothing else. Darrow was, of course, passionate upon this topic. I am not sure I agree with all his contentions. Many of them are much better expressed by Dawkins, Hutchens, etal in more recent times and others are just superficial. However, many others are as strong today as they were when he first articulated them and show the foundation for his "examination" of William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial and the meticulous work that went into that endeavour. I am not persuaded that Darrow's agnosticism shouldn't have given way to atheism, but he would have resisted that almost as fervently as christian fundamentalism.
I enjoyed the debate (albeit one-sided), even given the repetition from time to time of some of the arguments and examples between respective papers. Nolan does a good job capturing Darrow's nuance of speech. At times I could make him out as Darrow, standing on a glorified soap box between the parting cigar smoke, preaching to the audience. Occasionally there is a glitch in the production/recording, but by and large it is passable.

Clarence Darrow has a wit that .

There is a sentiment that goes, “read old books, because when you find anything in them that’s still true, you can be sure it will always be true.” Clarence Darrow’s wisdom not only holds up, but his wit has held up too.

Excellent Collection of Essays

Clarence Darrow was a brilliant attorney whose most famous case was defending John T. Scopes in the 1925 State of Tennessee vs Scopes trial aka "Scopes Monkey Trial. Darrow went head to head with William Jennings Bryan in the case involving the Tennessee Butler Act which forbade the teaching of evolution in state funded schools. We didn't want our kids knowing that humans evolved from lower forms of life, after all. Darrow is a hero amongst atheists and agnostics for his performance in this case and also publicly expressing his secular views. Sadly, this creationism vs. evolution debate is still a thing 100 years later even after science has settled this matter.

The Agnostic Lawyer is a collection of some of his essays from back in early 20th century in which he takes down Christianity, the Bible, the Lord's Day Alliance, and a number of other specific beliefs such as the soul and eternal life. (The Lord's Day Alliance was a group of Christian churches working together to lobby for Sunday rest laws -furthering the intrusion of religion in society at the time.) As one would expect, Darrow's arguments are presented eloquently and this was a very satisfying listen for fellow non-believer. He doesn't pull any punches in his arguments regarding the absurdity of numerous biblical claims and religious beliefs.

Parts that stood out to me was his long commentary about the impossibility of eternal life and his explanation of how the Christian church relies on its members to not eat fruit from the tree of knowledge in order to maintain the grip on its flock. It thought this was especially fitting as the scientific knowledge in the last 100 years has reduced the god of the gaps to a minuscule sliver, which continues to shrink daily!

The secular perspectives Darrow shares in The Agnostic Lawyer were more uncommon and not as publicly expressed as now due to the then power and influence of the Church but I'm sure he influenced people interested in knowing the truth. He, like the great Robert Ingersoll, was an important secular orator of his day and both of them were predecessors of the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins.