The right to think is a concept I have never really thought of because I have always viewed the right to think as a natural occurance, like Spencer said. It would be nearly impossible to completely control everything you think about and don't think about. However, along with the right to think is the right to express those thoughts and opinions, which has been questioned countless times in history, like Kristen said.
In the book Inherit the Wind, the main theme is the right to think, which Drummond fights for in the defense of Cates. Throughout the play, Drummond mentions that every person should have the right to think and have their own opinions. He claims that God seperated humans and every other animal on Earth by giving humans the ability to think. He also adds that humans have continued to advance and become smarter, and by enforcing the Butler Act you stop some of the advancement in knowledge. In the end, Drummonds main argument is that everybody should have their own opinions about topics such as creation, and that the state should not be stopping these new ideas to be taught in schools.
In history and even today, there is and has been penalties for expressing your own opinions. In the book Inherit the Wind, Bert Cates violates the law by teaching evolution to his science class. In this case, he is penalized for expressing his own opinions. Again, throughout history this has been a debated topic, and the right to express your own opinions has been limited in many different cultures.
In my opinion, I think every human should have the right to think, and I think that right should never be taken away. However, I think that it was not right for Bert Cates to teach evolution and force it upon school children to learn this against there own will. I believe that opinions should be freely expressed, but there are appropriate times and places for opinions to be expressed, and the classroom is not one of those places, especially if taught against a student's own free will.
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