To be certain of our facts—or as certain as we can be in an uncertain world—we often need to question, track back, and cross-check. To avoid error requires a bit of simple mental discipline, but adopting the proper thinking habits doesn’t take a genius IQ or even a lot of work, and can save us from looking foolish.We offer the example of the creationists who thought they had found an ally in the legendary attorney Clarence Darrow, because of a remark attributed to him by an article in the Yale Law Journal. The Darrow “quote” was repeated countless times, year after year, in books, articles, speeches, sermons, and even newspaper stories. But there’s no evidence Darrow ever said it.Darrow was the lawyer who in 1925 had defended John Scopes against the charge that he had broken Tennessee law by teaching Darwinism. Supposedly, Darrow said it was “bigotry for public schools to teach only one theory of origins.” Creationists argued that banning the teaching of their religiously based ideas in public schools was “Scopes in reverse,”
