What do you believe?

The right to think is something we all take for granted. It means that we are allowed to believe in what we want, be it science or God or some other religion. Before I read Inherit the Wind I never really thought about it. Even today some countries still do not allow their citizens the right to think. John Scopes may not have entirely believed in one thing but he stood up, for our sake to try and give us the right to believe what we want. I do not necessarily believe evolution but that is the whole point of what he did. Thanks to him I can decide what I want to believe after I learn the different sides. He taught evolutionism because he wanted the kids to know that there is not only one theory on how the world was created and because the kids there could not choose what to believed. They never heard of evolution because the only side taught in school was the bible. I disagree when Brad says the right to think was not challenged since then. We do not entirely have the resources to make decisions on what we believe even if we do have the right to think. Because of the separation of church and state we do not learn about the bible or creation in school so there is nothing to oppose the theories of evolution that is mandatory to learn. It leaves kids who were never taught differently only one way of thinking. In Inherit the Wind, Bert Cates (a.k.a. John Scopes) taught evolution to a class, in a town full of religious people. He was arrested and his trial showed how that law was restricting our freedom of thought. The butler act states that nothing opposing the bible may be taught in a classroom and this law does not allow evolution to be taught. Thus we do not learn what other people think and can not choose for ourselves what to believe. Bert stood up to that law to show everyone how the law prevents us from knowing all the different opinions on things including, but not limited to, the beginning of the world and man kind. Like Taylor said, if John Scopes did not stand up to that law, our freedom to believe what we want to would not be present. He is part of the reason we can believe what we want and learn the different opinions in the world.