Religious Fundamentalism

This image is of a political cartoon satirizing the Scopes Case and is from the
magazine Evolution: A Journal of Nature. It highlights all of the implications upon
religion and particularly religious fundamentalists. The Scopes Case was a
controversial trial where a schoolteacher was tried for violating the Butler Act, a law
that made teaching human evolution illegal. Scopes was found guilty but later had
the verdict overturned. This cartoon is poking fun at the trail and the ridiculousness
of it. The cartoon implies that evolution is obviously true, but the fundamentalists
cannot even see this basic fact.

Clues that convey this particular topic are the forms of the cartoon. The
man pictured is a primate, and a caption below says, throttling the schools, as if
to highlight that schools are being held back by fundamentalists. Also, the caption
carries a notion of sarcasm with its hypothetical question of, Have You? This
cartoon clearly shows the divide between religious fundamentalism and other
secular sciences. It more importantly highlights the scientists point of view, that
fundamentalists arguments are absurd.

Historically, this rift was long in the making. Beginning in the 1900s public
education became more and more prevalent. Before this era, most schooling was
private and what was taught was not regulated nor was it held to any standard. But
during this time, education had largely been influenced by religious institutions, one
of which led to the passage of the Butler Act. As the sciences advanced, much of
previously accepted religious knowledge was rendered irrelevant. This conflict in
the making was bound to occur with the differing beliefs of both parties. This led to
the hostile atmosphere and division of peoples during the 1920s; that of secular
science and fundamentalist religiously influenced science.

The Scopes Case was a landmark in educational progress. It showed that
there would be standards of education that would be upheld, and things could not
be freely taught. The initial response of a guilty verdict could be seen as a violation
of the CDV justice, as it was not fair that the court ruled against him and ultimately,
even more unfair that the Butler Act even existed to prohibit true scientific teaching.
However, the overturning of the verdict clearly upheld the CDV of liberty, as it
showed that people had the freedom of choice of what to learn, whether it be
believing in religious fundamentalism or secular science.





Sports in America

This is a picture of the Homestead Grays, one of the first baseball teams part
of the Negro National League. This picture was taken in Forbes Field, Pittsburgh
around 1923.

One clear clue of the social conditions of the 20s was that all these players
are African American. Segregation was still rampant during this age, and it was
extremely prevalent in sports. This picture is a reflection of that segregation and
inequality.

The 1920s was a very tricky time. The Civil War was fading into the horizon,
yet racist attitudes persisted. Various forms of economic and social oppression
pervaded African American lives due to much of the racist ideology still held by
prominent political leaders and economic figureheads. Sharecropping and the Black
Codes were some among many. So it was only natural that sports, along with all
other things, be segregated, leading to this African only baseball team part of the
Negro National League.

This picture is significant because it provides a stark reminder of the extent
of segregation. It is a clear violation of the CDV of equality, as these excellent players
were set aside, regardless of the talent they possessed, simply because they were
African.