Rough Beast, Slouching
Apparently, according to a poll, more Americans believe in supernatural woo than believe in evolution. Sigh.
We know nothing and can’t think critically any more. Our school systems teach politically correct manners and proper sensitivity to the “other” but it has been left up to churches to teach thinking skills. And their bread and butter isn’t in people thinking. It’s in people not thinking.
That very large majorities of the American public believe in God, miracles, the survival of the soul after death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Virgin birth will come as no great surprise. What may be more surprising is that substantial minorities believe in ghosts, UFOs, witches, astrology, and the belief that they themselves were once other people. Overall, more people believe in the devil, hell and angels than believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.
We are sold junk science at every turn and folks aren’t equipped to filter for themselves, apparently. I know, I know. Fifty percent of the population is below average. But damn. The fact that evolution only edges out creationism in this poll is depressing. The whole world is becoming more fundamentalist.
Parents depend on the schools to teach skills like thinking but the schools are more concerned with whether or not Johnny feels bad that he was left out of kickball so we’d better ban recess. Kids who learn nothing in school turn in adults who know nothing. They go where they are led. And what is leading them is television shows purporting to discover ghosts, churches and anyone who can give them answers in concrete, easily understood black and white terms. Doesn’t matter if the answers they get are patently unbelievable - as long as they are delivered with conviction.
I guess little future John Conner will have his work really cut out for him. On the other hand, he could well end up as President of the World after defeating Beef Supreme in a cage match. Raise intelligent kids who can think for themselves and they’ll rule the world one day because no one else will be able to operate the appliances.
Via Hot Air
Tags: Life
You don’t “believe” in Evolution. Evolution is a scientific theory, and currently I think it’s the most rational and likely one to explain how life on earth got to the point it’s at. But the whole point to science is evidence and testing theories. If it helps, I don’t “believe” in gravity, electricity, or this chair I’m currently sitting in. I do however believe in Justice, Honor, and Freedom. There’s things I know for a fact exist, and there’s things I really hope exist, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Now I get it, I know what they’re saying: People are dumb, panicky animals who would rather worship the fire than learn how exactly it works. But you already know this; you’ve known this for years. To expect people to behave rationally and not ascribe phenomena they don’t fully understand to supernatural entities…Hell, that in itself is quite a leap of faith.
I think Hub from “Secondhand Lions” said it best:
Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.
Oh, I’m not saying that people should not believe in things that have no proof. Abstracts that can’t have hands laid on them inspire people to noble acts. And I’m not saying people are not basically good. They are. They are just easily led.
And beliefs in abstracts also inspire people to horrendous acts.
And we are not making things any better by not teaching critical thinking skills in schools. By teaching squishy things, we make squishy people. Squishy has its place, but so does hard. And at the risk of exposing my geek cred here, we are becoming a people of alternate Star Trek universe. Where Captain Kirk couldn’t make any decisions because all that was hard and non squishy had been pulled out of him.
We have to have a balance and more and more we are abdicating our responsibilities in cultivating that balance in our children in favor of the easy route.
It’s well and good to believe that good will always triumph over evil. But without action, it won’t. I’ll throw another quote back at you:
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself – John Stuart Mill
Those ideals are noble and the beliefs worth believing. But without a people possessing the spine to stand up for them, they mean nothing.