“The meaning of religious freedom, I fear, is sometimes greatly misapprehended. It is taken to be a sort of immunity, not merely from governmental control but also from public opinion. A dunderhead gets himself a long-tailed coat, rises behind the sacred desk, and emits such bilge as would gag a Hottentot. Is it to pass unchallenged? If so, then what we have is not religious freedom at all, but the most intolerable and outrageous variety of religious despotism. Any fool, once he is admitted to holy orders, becomes infallible. Any half-wit, by the simple device of ascribing his delusions to revelation, takes on an authority that is denied to all the rest of us.”
– H.L. Mencken writing on the 21 July 1925 verdict of the Scopes Trial (The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes) in The Baltimore Sun.
William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer for the State of Tennessee, had actively lobbied for state laws banning the teaching of evolution, which he saw as a major threat to the United States. He was mocked by Mencken during the trial, and was embarrassed on the stand by Clarence Darrow (Bryan’s testimony was expunged by the judge). Bryan died 5 days after the verdict was delivered.
Stupidity is contagiousness.