On enabling folly

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." -Herbert Spencer

Culture's Influence on Science

"At the present time there exist upon the earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the islands of the Pacific; the American Indian; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan and the Eskimos; and finally, the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America."

-from George William Hunter's Civic Biology, the book that the ACLU deemed worthy of teaching in the Tennessee school system, prompting the Scopes Trial. I wonder how the ACLU feels about this passage today. Interesting how William Jennings Bryan (the democrat, mind you) gets the lion's share of the blame for bigotry when Scopes and the ACLU advocated the above.