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More idiocy
Mar. 24th, 2006 03:43 pmVia ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sclerotic_rings, a letter to the editor:
"The theory of evolution does not and cannot explain so much about the universe that we know. For instance, when and how did water evolve? How does it happen that gravity can hold us to the Earth, and at the same time allow us to step up without any trouble? How did it happen that the Earth is spinning at the exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement?"
Unlike, Pharyngula, I don't believe that religion is necessarily detrimental to science; there are plenty of religions out there that either restrict themselves to propositions outside the sphere of science (e.g. much of Buddhism), or are willing to admit fallibility and adjust their world-view when the evidence demands it. But there are certain branches of religion that are rooted in ignorance, foster ignorance, and view science only as something to be mutilated and distorted into whatever shape best fits their agenda.
A couple of people recently pointed me at a very depressing article here, in which the Arkansas Times discusses schools that have been intimidated into refusing to teach evolution to students, or acknowledge science that disagrees with young-earth creationism: "I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old." Small wonder that people like the correspondent above come out of school so clueless about science, and then go out to perpetuate that cluelessness.
It's not just science, either. In Colorado, music teacher Tresa Waggoner - a mother of two and church liturgist who had recorded two albums of Christian music - was pushed out of her job for trying to interest children in opera by showing them a short video clip of sock puppets singing selections from Faust. For mentioning the use of 'trouser roles' in opera, she was called a 'lesbian promoting homosexuality', and obviously it's been too long since I last saw Faust because I can't remember where it mentions abortion.
I am not hostile to religion; I hope I've made that clear in previous posts here. But I am intensely hostile to ignorance, when it's dressed up in religious garb and when it's not.
sclerotic_rings, a letter to the editor:"The theory of evolution does not and cannot explain so much about the universe that we know. For instance, when and how did water evolve? How does it happen that gravity can hold us to the Earth, and at the same time allow us to step up without any trouble? How did it happen that the Earth is spinning at the exact rate that keeps us from feeling that movement?"
Unlike, Pharyngula, I don't believe that religion is necessarily detrimental to science; there are plenty of religions out there that either restrict themselves to propositions outside the sphere of science (e.g. much of Buddhism), or are willing to admit fallibility and adjust their world-view when the evidence demands it. But there are certain branches of religion that are rooted in ignorance, foster ignorance, and view science only as something to be mutilated and distorted into whatever shape best fits their agenda.
A couple of people recently pointed me at a very depressing article here, in which the Arkansas Times discusses schools that have been intimidated into refusing to teach evolution to students, or acknowledge science that disagrees with young-earth creationism: "I am instructed NOT to use hard numbers when telling kids how old rocks are. I am supposed to say that these rocks are VERY VERY OLD ... but I am NOT to say that these rocks are thought to be about 300 million years old." Small wonder that people like the correspondent above come out of school so clueless about science, and then go out to perpetuate that cluelessness.
It's not just science, either. In Colorado, music teacher Tresa Waggoner - a mother of two and church liturgist who had recorded two albums of Christian music - was pushed out of her job for trying to interest children in opera by showing them a short video clip of sock puppets singing selections from Faust. For mentioning the use of 'trouser roles' in opera, she was called a 'lesbian promoting homosexuality', and obviously it's been too long since I last saw Faust because I can't remember where it mentions abortion.
I am not hostile to religion; I hope I've made that clear in previous posts here. But I am intensely hostile to ignorance, when it's dressed up in religious garb and when it's not.
