Almost 100 years ago we were in a place where some states were banning books and making laws on what should and shouldn’t be taught in schools. Maybe the best known was the one in Tennessee known as the Butler Act. Granted you may not know it by its name, but you do know it or of it by the ACLU’s challenge to it via a school teacher named John Thomas Scopes, generally known as The Scopes Trial. You may know it as well in its fictionalized version in the movie; Inherit the Wind starring Spencer Tracy.
Via Wiki:
The Scopes trial, formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case from July 10 to July 21, 1925, in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in any state-funded school.[1] The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant.
Origin:
State Representative John Washington Butler, a Tennessee farmer and head of the World Christian Fundamentals Association, lobbied state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws. He succeeded when the Butler Act was passed in Tennessee, on March 25, 1925.[5] Butler later stated, "I didn't know anything about evolution ... I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense." Tennessee governor Austin Peay signed the law to gain support among rural legislators, but believed the law would neither be enforced nor interfere with education in Tennessee schools.[6] William Jennings Bryan thanked Peay enthusiastically for the bill: "The Christian parents of the state owe you a debt of gratitude for saving their children from the poisonous influence of an unproven hypothesis."
Notice Butler’s admission that he knew nothing about evolution, but based his act on rumor and hearsay.
One of my favorite all time scenes from any movie is Spencer Tracy’s rant on fanaticism and ignorance:
What we all should learn from Scopes or the movie it inspired is the vigil against fanaticism and ignorance is constant. There are those who benefit from keeping the masses at war with one another. Pitting religion against science isn’t new and we’re a long way from the Utopian vision Gene Roddenberry had of society in Star Trek.
Remember this quote attributed to Napoleon; Religion is the only thing that keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
I should note that this post was inspired by Carol Ellison’s post Here's a Dozen Great Movies Every Progressive Should Watch.