Archive for February 18th, 2007

Science knowledge in America

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

Good news, everyone!

A new study shows that Americans of 2005 (28%) are much more likely to understand science articles in the news than Americans of 1988 (10%). The study’s author says that the major reason is that more colleges have basic science courses as an entry requirement.

I’ll buy that line of argument. Put more people through basic science courses early, and at least some of it will stick. More people with some scientific knowledge is certainly a good thing. But there’s one little problem – there’s also the issue

that people are giving increasing credence to pseudoscience such as the visits of space aliens, lucky numbers and horoscopes.

Why?

One problem, [Carol Susan Losh of FSU] said, is that pseudoscience can speak to the meaning of life in ways that science does not.

What, does no one read Carl Sagan anymore?

I’m not sure I buy that belief in pseudoscience is up because of some sort of search for the meaning of life. Wasn’t that need just as real in the past as it is today? I might be inclined to buy into the idea that, since pseudoscience is all over the web, people are more exposed to nonsense than they ever were previously.

As silly as I think astrologers and people who claim to talk to the dead are, I don’t worry about them that much. Why? Mainly because most practitioners of pseudosciences like astrology aren’t seeding school boards with candidates to try to sneak astrology into the science classroom.

But there’s one pseudoscience out there whose practitioners can’t keep their mitts off the science curriculum. Creationism.

Back to the article …

[…] there also has been a drop in the number of people who believe evolution correctly explains the development of life on Earth and an increase in those who believe mankind was created about 10,000 years ago.

(emphasis mine)

To believe that the world / mankind was “created” six to ten thousand years ago, you have to throw away the foundations of almost all the sciences. Fundamental facts and theories in chemistry, physics, geology, biology, etc. are simply incompatible with the young Earth viewpoint.

And the numbers of these people are growing? That’s a frightening thought!

Posted in Science education, The culture wars | 2 Comments »

Peach nuts

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

In South Carolina, we might send nutty people to the psychiatric wards for treatment. But the ones who are incurably insane? The ones who have no hope of ever living in reality again? We send them to the State House.

We are not alone in this practice.

Let me introduce you to Georgia representative Ben Bridges.

The Anti-Defamation League is calling on state Rep. Ben Bridges [Republican, of course] to apologize for a memo distributed under his name that says the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools because it is a religious deception stemming from an ancient Jewish sect.

The memo, sent to lawmakers across the country over Bridges’ signature, tells readers to go to fixedearth.com, which is probably the third most insane site on the whole Internet. Here’s a sample (original here) of the content of the site Ben Bridges apparently wanted lawmakers to see. I’ve removed the formatting to save your sanity.

From those years on through Newton’s mathematical inventions and overloaded gravity theory…through lawyer Lyell’s factless Uniformitarian Geology…to Darwin’s mythology (which gave wings to Marx’s and Freud’s and Dewey’s deviltry)…to Einstein’s Cabalistic Relativism and Zionism…to LeMaitre’s and Gamow’s and Penzias’ Big Bangism…to Extraterrestrialist extradinaire Sagan’s programming of NASA’s computers…to Goldin’s controlling philosophy for the Space Program which he officially named the “Origins Program” and defined as “a search for man’s cosmic roots”…

…From all of this and a hundred more examples from Copernicus to Wickramasinghe and back, the “restructuring of mathematics” into an “art form”… the recent fraudulent use of computer-programmed communications technology… the development of near-instantaneous tele-communications worldwide…have all worked together to progressively shrink the world into today’s virtual Global Plantation. In this environment, news, academia, and other media-managed outlets continually bow the knee to the Evolution and Big Bang Idols while simultaneously dumbing-down whole populations with moronic entertainment drivel laced with amoral and sexual perversion themes and punctuated with violence and horror….

On the other hand, near total censorship of information and entertainment upholding Christian values and Biblical teachings is in effect in the schools and everywhere else where belief systems are molded and were once reinforced in once Christian nations. This combination of forces that has nearly destroyed the Biblical foundation of the best parts of Western civilization is rooted and grounded in the mythical evolutionary Origins fundamentals imposed upon the world by “science falsely so called” (e.g., “Hitler, Stalin…”). This false science Idol has birthed and now nurtures the Kabbalist mythology a 15 billion year evolution of the universe, the earth, and all life forms including mankind. This Idol has almost succeeded in making its “creation scenario” the foundation of all “knowledge” which determines modern man’s behavior in all areas of life.

On second thought, it’s probably not enough to remove just the formatting to save your sanity. I apologize; the text alone is enough to induce migraines. 🙂

Bridges, after he was caught distributing this hateful nonsense, denied having anything to do with the memo. Of course, it came from his office – over his signature.

The two sites on the Internet that are more insane than fixedearth.com?

Enjoy!

Posted in Politics, The culture wars | 1 Comment »