Continued:
Probably the first time that religion was brought to the forefront in politics in a manner that really captured America’s attention was when politicians were denied their wafers in mystical ceremonies. Politicians who represented their constituencies were denied this religious “benefit?” because those constituencies views weren’t acceptable to a “supernatural spirit being” the church claims to represent, a being who is not even a naturalized citizen.
History has taught us the effects of rampant religion in politics. If people believe they are doing “it” for God, they will do anything.
Some examples:
President Bush was correct when he labeled his excursion into the Middle East as a “Crusade”. I believed he absolutely believed that he would bring “freedom” and “democracy” to the Middle Easterners. He was convinced he was on a “mission from God” that could not possibly fail. His administration carefully crafted a scenario that would take us into the Middle East with the approval and support of the American People, by any means necessary. After all, this was a “crusade”. He expected the people there to welcome us with parades and flowers for this liberation.
We now know that they hate us for invading and destroying their country. The first two things they did were create a constitution that made “Islam” the national religion and declared that all laws are now based on Islam. The second thing was to destroy their own Christian population. Bush’s choice was to fight the very people he has come to liberate or the genocide of the Iraqi Christians. Which did he choose?
What has been the effect of religion in our educational system?
Most primary and middle schools no longer teach many of the sciences. Only the most basic. Things like, the earth is round and the earth travels around the sun. Very simple concepts.
No “deep” excursions into anything that touches on evolution including, biology, physiology, botany, paleontology, plate tectonics, astronomy, geology, “earth history”; and why not? Schools just don’t have the funds to fight the religious in courts. The pockets of the religious are deep if they believe they are doing “it” for God.
Look at the most recent example. Millions, possibly tens of millions spent to prevent gays from marrying. The vast majority of those that money came from will say they don’t know any gays. Have no gay friends. Those gays don’t impact their lives in any way, yet their marriages were “saved”. In religion, you don’t need things called facts. People will do anything if they believe they are doing it for God.
What is taught in middle school in other countries is only taught in college in this country. And not in every accredited college. In evangelical Christian colleges, only a very basic course in evolution is taught as an “elective”, otherwise they couldn’t get accreditation. Nearly all are rated tier 4, the lowest rating you can get and still be accredited. Tens of thousands of students that would normally be attending college are going to these institutions of lower learning.
Science today is met with skepticisms and suspicion. Many religious believe that scientists are in it only for the government grants. The most obvious and recent was the political football about money to study “fruit flies” and what a waste it is:
""""cientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for..nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.
The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.""""
What is the benefit of education? When people at political rallies call out for “jobs” or when politicians talk about “jobs”, what jobs are they talking about? Every single “job” in the US can follow a path back to science. Even working on an automobile assembly line, where does the design for that automobile come from?
Many on the right believe there is a divide between technology and science. That somehow they are not connected. Those on the right believe that scientific papers that pass peer review are actually being accepted on the basis of “politics” and that “peer review boards” are made up of liberals with a political agenda. They have no understanding how that works. What’s worse, they refuse to understand.
When people’s lives are built around “belief”, once that “belief” has been established, it is very difficult to change. They live in a world of absolutes, black or white, right or wrong. There is no room for compromise.
Now here comes the obvious question, “Why don’t scientists fight back? After all, aren’t they so intelligent?”
The reason is quite simple. To become a respected scientist takes years. Because our lives are so short, scientists are very dedicated. They may not contribute until they are 50 or 60 years old spending all those years just learning. A 10 year old can earn an Academy Award. A 9 year old can have a number one record, or paint, or play the piano.
The average age is 67 for those that win the Nobel award in economics. The youngest average is for physics where the average age is 52. Then, there is the John Bates Clark medal, passed out to the best researcher 40. You see? No 9 or 10 year olds.
Just to show how little the right understands science, there are those that believe there are pre teen scientists on the level of Nobel Prize winners.
The bottom line is that scientists simply donÂ’t have the time to attempt the change the closed minds of those who believe science itself, is a religion.
To be continued.
