Isaac Asimov, I salute thee!

[giza]

Well, those wacky religious people are trying to teach creationism in school again. I read through the comments on the Slashdot article, and someone pointed out that this has been going on since the early 80s. In fact Isaac Asimov wrote an article about it way back then. It was called The 'Threat' of Creationism. I thought this passage was particularly striking:

There are numerous cases of societies in which the armies of the night have ridden triumphantly over minorities in order to establish a powerful orthodoxy which dictates official thought. Invariably, the triumphant ride is toward long-range disaster. Spain dominated Europe and the world in the 16th century, but in Spain orthodoxy came first, and all divergence of opinion was ruthlessly suppressed. The result was that Spain settled back into blankness and did not share in the scientific, technological and commercial ferment that bubbled up in other nations of Western Europe. Spain remained an intellectual backwater for centuries. In the late 17th century, France in the name of orthodoxy revoked the Edict of Nantes and drove out many thousands of Huguenots, who added their intellectual vigor to lands of refuge such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Prussia, while France was permanently weakened.

In more recent times, Germany hounded out the Jewish scientists of Europe. They arrived in the United States and contributed immeasurably to scientific advancement here, while Germany lost so heavily that there is no telling how long it will take it to regain its former scientific eminence. The Soviet Union, in its fascination with Lysenko, destroyed its geneticists, and set back its biological sciences for decades. China, during the Cultural Revolution, turned against Western science and is still laboring to overcome the devastation that resulted.

As we now, with all these examples before us, to ride backward into the past under the same tattered banner of orthodoxy? With creationism in the saddle, American science will wither. We will raise a generation of ignoramuses ill-equipped to run the industry of tomorrow, much less to generate the new advances of the days after tomorrow.

We will inevitably recede into the backwater of civilization, and those nations that retain opened scientific thought will take over the leadership of the world and the cutting edge of human advancement. I don't suppose that the creationists really plan the decline of the United States, but their loudly expressed patriotism is as simpleminded as their "science." If they succeed, they will, in their folly, achieve the opposite of what they say they wish.

There are two major problems I have with teaching creationism, or any kind of religion in school:

1) As stated above, discouraging learning in our schools is just plain silly. Burying your head in the sand and saying, "The Bible says this happened, and that's all there is to it. (Amen)" does a huge disservice to our society and our children. It prevents people from doing their own research, their own critical thinking, and *gasp*, drawing their own conclusions based on the available evidence. Now if what you really want is to raise sheeple who will never question your authority, then maybe it's not such a bad idea.

2) It seems to me that the creationists are trying to teach some variant of Christianity, as laid out in The Bible. Well, what about the other religions? What about Hinduism, Muslim, Greek Mythology, and Norse Mythology? Are those religions less important? Shouldn't they be taught too? I suspect that the same people who like to say "freedom of religion" really mean "freedom of OUR religion".

Comments

[sleepingwolf.livejournal.com]

Science versus Norse Creationism (http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly041229.htm)

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

They don't just want to teach creationism...

The hearings in Topeka, scheduled to last several days, are focusing on two proposals. The first recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations.

That's right: they want to alter the definition of science itself to include religion.

Crazy crazy crazy.

[halex.livejournal.com]

This is why I love the "time theory" it's basically a theory that allows creationism and darwinism to co-exist. While are work I really don't have the time to give much detail about it, but would love to talk with you about it because it's rather interesting :)

[drleo.livejournal.com]

Alright! Unnatural explanations!

[tailen.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting to see the development of religion through the ages. First it was many gods. God of weather, god of sand, god of the sun, god of the moon, god of the earth, god of harvest, god of biscuits, god of running around and jumping.. etc.. etc..

Once you knew what god were responsible for your misfortune, you just had to find the right kind of goat and slaughter it on the right day and hope for the best.

Then science came along and started explaining why it rained, why the sun rose, why the crops failed, why people got sick and so on and so forth. Areas that religion had explained previously.

It eventually condensed into a single god with power over all. I guess keeping track of them all was getting too arduous for the common man who had to work for a living too.

We're now at a stage where science has a lot of working theories for most of what happens around us, but it's still a constantly developing process. The real issue, however, is that Creationism isn't the root of the problem, it's just one of the symptoms.

Even the mere idea of introducing something like Intelligent Design into a science classroom and getting it accepted by the school boards is clear evidence that religion is succeeding in overpowering reason in society.

Education ought to be the single most important thing in the entire world. It ought to be the sole purpose of a government. If you educate the youth of the nation well, you simply solve a lot of problems that the government is using more money fighting.

Whether or not each human being has a physical/genetic limit of intelligence is debatable, but if you make the optimal environment for a child to learn in, surely you can cut away a lot of the crime and misery in a society by producing citizens with good mental and social skills.

[colugino.livejournal.com]

Didn't they ban religion in the world? Oh, wait, sorry, that was just the schools :-)

Sorry, either way makes no sense to me, but the world coming from a bang as opposed to the theory that there is some invisible guy (that's never been on Jerry Springer or Oprah I may add!) in the sky holds more water with me. Plus the whole gay thing has me a bit off on religion anyway so whatever.

But don't you get it yet that this country is not based on rational thought. You aren't allowed to have a mind or draw your own opinion. That's why we have George W to tell us what to do and lead us to salvation.... HALLALUJAH!!!!!! (I'm sure I spelled that wrong LOL)

P.S. Good One Tailen

[colugino.livejournal.com]

LOL Tailen on the Eddie Izzard theory of religion! :-)

Religion in school

[fc-greyfox.livejournal.com]

I happen to be one of the few that would have loved to see religion in school.. so long as it was taught as comparative religion, and not "this is the way things are. Believe it or stay here (and then in Hell) forever!" I'd have really enjoyed learning the similarities between the most prevalent religions currently found throughout the world, as well as some of those from times long past. Unfortunately, I've yet to see a textbook, medium, or institution anywhere in the States that has a truly unbiased view.

Re: Religion in school

[giza.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it... I do have vague memories in 8th grade of studying Muslim in my Social Studies class. We talked about Mohammed and the 5 Pillars and all of that stuff. And when I was in 7th grade, we studied Greek Mythology.

Hmm, maybe I just went to school in a really liberal district.

[khakiwolf.livejournal.com]

Heh, ignoramus is such a cool word. I'm going to try to use that word in a sentence today. =)