The Impotence of Forced Knowledge Ceilings

by Kevin Reed

In 1921 John Washington Butler, a tobacco farmer, was sitting in the Primitive Baptist Church listening to a visiting preacher. The preacher was talking about a woman in his home town in Tennessee. The woman had gone off to college and learned about biology, and when she came back she had stopped being Christian because she had learned about Darwin’s theory of evolution, which he had published about 50-odd years prior in 1859. The preacher claimed that her faith in God had been broken by this new idea.

Photograph of John Washington Butler, member of the Tennessee House of Representatives 1923–27, in 1925 (aged 49-50), as part of the University of Tennessee's W. C. Robinson Collection of Scopes Trial Photographs

As he later thought about the sermon, Butler recalled asking himself if evolution could turn any of his three boys into an atheist, or if it could convert his neighbors’ children into atheists as well. Over the winter he thought about the colleges and how their teachings would likely impact high schools. He didn’t think it was fair that God-fearing people who raised their kids as Christians should have them exposed to evolution in a taxpayer-funded school environment. Then, he thought, the government would be using tax money to encourage people to abandon their faith in God.

Butler ran for office in 1922 primarily on the promise that he would protect children from the “Godless doctrine of evolution,” and won. He sat down in front of his fireplace and wrote out a law, cleverly called the Butler Act, an anti-evolution bill. 100 years ago this week, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of human evolution in public schools. Other states were passing similar legislation at the time.

These acts are obvious attempts to try to use authority as a way to hold down ideas that are backed by evidence, but that clash with views based on faith or dogma. We’re seeing the same thing today with “can’t say climate change,” only recognizing two sexes, word banning in government, and so on. Religion attempting to control science goes back to Galileo and beyond.

So - does using authority to ban evidence-based ideas work?

It likely “works” in places like North Korea where you can’t do or say anything at all, but even there, reality still exists. How does it work in a nation that wants to be a world leader?

After states starting passing anti-evolution bills the 1920s, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) proclaimed they would defend anyone accused of the crime, and the first person who went to trial was John T. Scopes in July of 1925. Scopes couldn’t even remember if he’d taught evolution but took one for the team and went to trial anyway. The ACLU lost and Scopes was on the hook for $100 fine out of the $500 max fine.

Wikimedia: Charles Darwin's 1837 sketch, his first diagram of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837).

This trial began a split between Christian Nationalists and “the government,” and started to make government the enemy. Fear of communism amplified the split, along with a general fear of atheists and increasingly, of science itself because science kept learning things in conflict with the Bible. This divide has only amplified over time and led to what we see today, which is a deliberate, well-planned takeover of the U.S. government by Christian Nationalists. The drive has it’s roots in the Scopes trial, gaining momentum with Brown vs Board of Education (segregation), and the last straw being Bob Jones University vs the United States in 1982 (interracial marriage). This hundred-year accumulation in anger is fueled by the fun combination of anti-science and racism.

As I research and write this, it becomes clear that, in the Christian Nationalist/conservative ideology world, almost nothing has changed in 100 years. About 40% of Americans still believe the Creation story in the Bible! Forty percent! Today we have legislators pushing for more Christianity in classrooms in the form of the Ten Commandments, support for authoritarianism, school-sponsored Bible reading, bringing prayer into schools, state funding for Christian schools, and ongoing opposition to evolution in the form of “Intelligent design” curriculum.

Meanwhile, in that time span, science has advanced across the board, and now humans are modifying genetics, flying around the solar system, building up mountains of evidence in support of evolution, and solving medical problems instead of praying about them. So clearly, attempting to use authority to force a knowledge ceiling doesn’t work beyond keeping 40% of the population so ignorant that they have trouble navigating the complexity of the modern world, to the point where taking over the government’s branches and installing an authoritarian to create a more formal, larger knowledge ceiling seems the more logical choice than actually learning about the things they’re afraid of.

Above: Major scientific advancement over the last century to include the Big Bang, quantum physics, plate tectonics, DNA sequencing, antibiotics, and space travel.

Today, we’re struggling with the same exact attempts to create knowledge ceilings. But today, for example, we know human-caused climate change is an actual real thing. We can measure it, see it, and predict it. We know there are actions we can take to minimize negative effects. But the US government is no longer even allowed to say “climate change.” We can see this hasn’t helped Florida one iota after DeSantis banned the phrase, why would anyone using basic analytical, critical thinking skills conclude that it’s a good idea? They wouldn’t. And the people claiming it’s a good idea are not using analytical critical thinking skills.

We’re facing the same issue with vaccines, medical procedures, and basic healthcare. The government has banned a long list of words that employees or contractors are not allowed to use. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are being erased from government, even though all data points to DEI having positive effects. These knowledge ceilings and restrictions are spilling into business, science, culture, and everywhere else.

We already know these tactics don’t work. There is no reason to think this is a good idea for the USA. Unless you’re a frightened, angry Christian Nationalist. Then these restrictions, along with the dismantlement of all global secular governments, seem like great ideas. Because knowledge is the enemy to that group.

Knowledge ceilings always fail in the long run, because reality is reality. Fire is hot. Reality and science exist whether or not a human being acknowledges that existence.

References:
Famous Trials. John Washington Butler. https://famous-trials.com/scopesmonkey/2097-butler

Wikipedia. Scopes Trial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution?utm_source=chatgpt.com ‘

Pew Research Center. The Evolution of Pew Research Center’s Survey Questions About the Origins and Development of Life on Earth. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/02/06/the-evolution-of-pew-research-centers-survey-questions-about-the-origins-and-development-of-life-on-earth/

Galileo before the Holy Office, a 19th-century painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury