Friday, April 24, 2009

H.L.Mencken on how to handle superstition

The web site http://tinyurl.com/dg4z3t gives a quote from H.L. Mencken while he was reporting on the Scopes"Monkey Trial" in 1925. Here is that quote:

"Once more, alas, I find myself unable to follow the best Liberal thought. What the World's contention amounts to, at bottom, is simply the doctrine that a man engaged in combat with superstition should be very polite to superstition. This, I fear, is nonsense. The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame."

A perfect description of how creationism should be treated.

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