Inherit the What?

Where to begin? OK how about at the beginning? Of the World and frikking everything?

As it turns out I learn from Tristero at Digby's blog, that wingnuts are abusing my fabulous Denver Science Museum to actually teach anti-facts and anti-reason. I could just barf, as this last fall, I along with many education oriented taxpayers I agreed to increase taxes upon myself to continue these great facilities who bring science to the people.

It's still money well spent, on science, yet I find I must point out a few things about these anti-reason-nut-wingers, so here we go. First, let's start with the footage ABC takes in the Denver Museum.

[From PZ Myers Blog, Pharyngula] ...Right there on the wall is a description of radiometric dating methods, for instance, and they turn their back on it.

Yes. They're out there, and frightening as far as I'm concerned.

There's this whole other world thing going on where religious belief is not a big deal as far as raising folks who are science, technology and results oriented, with no creepy cultural Western Bible bias. [Watch it later if you don't have the whole 8:19 to watch it right now, but it's entirely worthwhile and eye-opening]

The above video may come as a shock to some.

But there are those who color themselves under a rubric of common ground to whom the reality of 2020 and beyond is going to be far more harsh. That would be these folks who call themselves Religious Tolerance :

Believers in a young earth might argue that God created our galaxy less than 10,000 years ago, complete with light rays going in all directions from each star, in order that the galaxy would appear to be more ancient than it really is. That is, God created the universe as if it had a history at the time of creation. Also, the above indicator assumes that the speed of light has remained constant. There is no proof that this is true. [Emphasis mine.]

Um, not so fast. By one definition, and others, much less the fact the current physics, space travel, satellite management and chip manufacture depend on the constancy of the speed of light, well, there you go. Dump your internet connection, ReligiousTolerance.org if you don't believe in it. But if you keep it, how come it works? Riddle me that.

The funny thing about scientists, with which I happen to agree, is that they do not need "tolerance" or "Tolerance Websites" on their side. They have these pesky little things called "facts" which really are not amenable to fading into the background. The Chinese and the Hindi nation states won't ignore scientific or engineering facts like these hidebound, religiously blinded American folks will.

Here are some exerpts of one of the comments from PZ Myers blog which pretty much says it for me:

This is what we're dealing with. This kind of crap, peddled as God's Honest Truth, coming out of the mouths of thousands of pastors, parents, and yes, teachers, all over the country. And hundreds of thousands of kids are soaking it up, well along their way in training to ignore science any and every time it suits them. Antibiotic-resistant diseases? Don't exist. Global warming? Scientists don't know what they're talking about.
[...]
It's all part and parcel of the same problem. That's why we get so upset. There are people in this country actively eroding science at every turn in this country, and they have been growing more numerous and more powerful for the last 30 years, and it needs to be stopped. [Emphasis mine.]

And how can this be stopped? That's the actual question that must be answered.

First, "Science Deniers" must be shown to be what they are; igorant of the real world and the way it works.

Second, People Of Orthodoxies must inform their bretheren. By that, I mean people who profess a faith rooted in any orthodoxy, must acknowledge that what they believe transcends what their scriptures say when there is confilct with absolute fact. Any religion informed by science, rather than contradicting it, can only prosper among its faithful. The "Earth Goes around the Sun" is a good place to start for some. It can be augmented by "The Sun Ain't The Center Of The Universe Either." You get my drift.

Getting to Evolution will be difficult for many. Tough.

But the Enlightment of Evolution needs to happen for any intelligent person of faith, of any kind of faith. Evolution is an ongoing fact, and devotees of the orthodoxies, regardless of sect, simply must face the facts and get comfortable with evolution under their skin.

Because that's exactly where Evolution is transpiring, whether you like it or not.

Under your skin.

TAGS: Wingnuts, Evolutions, Anti-Science, Anti-Reason