Book club selection courtesy Zach. Session held June 7, 2026 at Zach's place, our first in-person meeting since February 2020. Useful book.
Focus is on the 1925 Scopes "monkey" trial. Good rundown of the trial, lead-in, follow-up. Kind of odd - the town seeks out the trial for publicity/civic growth. Celebrities on both sides who tend to make it about themselves or their pet beliefs.
William Jennings Bryan is old; I associate him moreso with 19th century presidential runs and the "cross of gold" speech.
I think author could have condensed this! Parts felt repetitious.
Interesting, timely (evergreen, really) things to think about.
Things that struck me:
* What about creation itself? Assume evolution is basically correct (as I do) - that doesn’t take us back to the very beginning. So how did it all start?? Who set off the Big Bang (or whatever)? Is this purely scientific? If not, then what? Seems relevant to a book devoted to creationism, but not mentioned.
* Fundamentalists picked on for as long as I can remember; an easy target and certainly some odd beliefs. But beliefs of other groups can feel the same way - taken on faith or tribal loyalty, not science. Harder to see when it's your own tribe.
* 2020 quote from CDC honcho showing up on sixth anniversary of Floyd fiasco - “In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.”
* NPR tweet: “Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests. ‘White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19,’ they wrote.”
Other recent/current beliefs. IQ and SAT are racist and not predictive. No differences in traits among groups. Everyone would perform the same if given the same opportunity. A man can be a woman if he says he really wants to be. Etc.
* Who decides what is taught? Big topic in the book. For the mainstream government school, majoritarianism seems the right approach. But what if you are a progressive in a fundamentalist district and this leads to your child being taught creationism? Anti-vax? What if you don’t subscribe to progressive beliefs and your school is teaching that there is >2 genders, that a man can turn into a woman? What if the school is teaching that 1619 Project is actual history? Apologizing for white privilege? Climate doomerism?
* There never can be a great answer - somebody has to decide curriculum and some others will be unhappy.
* Plato and the guardians.
* Best available protection seems to be that nobody should be trapped - vouchers. Yes there will be fraud and ridiculousness - but it cannot be worse in aggregate than what the government schools are delivering. Let the parents decide.
* In government schools - the teacher's words are not a freedom of speech issue. Somebody decides curriculum, and the teacher teaches.
This book mostly written from perspective that fundamentalists are the problem. How to explain the persistence if not growth of fundamentalism?
Try abortion (mentioned late in the book), is science enough to explain commencement of a person's life?
Afterword told me this book was written years ago. Would be very much off track if written now.
