Why does the "theory" of "Intelligent Design" provoke such anger in me?
The latest installment in my "Idiots are taking over the world" series.
For those not familiar, the theory of "Intelligent Design" is basically today's opposition to the theory of Evolution. This so-called scientific theory is being pushed into public schools by religious zealots. It's exactly like creationism, except they've removed the word "god" and given it a new name.
The whole idea, admittedly, sounds at first entirely plausible. Certainly, some complex things (like cars) are built by intelligent designers. And evolution sounds so implausible. When you imagine a single celled organism (which few people ever bother to do), and then you see a cat or a rabbit, you have a hard time imagining how one turned into the other, entirely on its own. It's difficult to imagine the countless steps involved to get from one to the other, over a period of a billion years. Heck, it's hard to imagine a billion years. Heck, let's step back even further - it's hard to imagine a million years. (sidebar: It's sad that so many people don't even know the difference between a billion and a million. Both words are interpreted as "a lot". Perhaps this has something to do with our government budget being completely out of whack. "We spent $89 million on tsunami relief, and $89 billion on bombing Afghanistan flat." The inequality is completely overlooked, because, well, people skip right to imagining what they would buy with $89 million.)
Anyway, here is the part that makes me angry. Just because something is difficult to grasp doesn't mean it's not true. Yes, you have to actually sit down and study and think for quite some time. Otherwise, the idea that "man evolved" seems even less plausible than "the universe was sneezed from the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure, fully formed, man included" (OK, that's Douglas Adams' made-up god, but to me it's no less ridiculous than any other creationist theory).
What angers me is the people who are too lazy or scared to even listen. They either don't listen because learning science takes effort, and they find the 3-word explanation of "God did it" far less strenuous. Or, they don't listen because pulling creationism out from under their belief system would make it collapse like a house of cards. If creationism is wrong, then Genesis is wrong (if taken literally, anyway), then the Bible contains serious errors and cannot be the word of God. I am not insisting that people abandon religion (although that would be nice), how about just taking the Bible a bit less literally? There are actually good ideas in there, if you don't get caught up in all the miracles and smiting.
How about not forcing your religion (and your ignorance) into public schools? Just because you've deprived yourself of a science education, please don't ruin it for everyone else. OK, I admit this comes from someone who went to a science and technology high school. I found it a joy to learn stuff you could actually use to make predictions. You can use physics to predict where a thrown ball will land. It actually works! You can use biology and evolution to predict what kinds of fossils you will find in certain rocks. It actually works! The theory of Intelligent Design can't be used to predict anything at all. As a scientific theory, it's absolutely useless. It's only use is to numb your mind to make the questions go away. It's quite effective for that. And the people who claim that it's science are actually being listened to, in the politically-correct interest of "equal time". And this is what really pisses me off. Ignorance is winning.
For those not familiar, the theory of "Intelligent Design" is basically today's opposition to the theory of Evolution. This so-called scientific theory is being pushed into public schools by religious zealots. It's exactly like creationism, except they've removed the word "god" and given it a new name.
The whole idea, admittedly, sounds at first entirely plausible. Certainly, some complex things (like cars) are built by intelligent designers. And evolution sounds so implausible. When you imagine a single celled organism (which few people ever bother to do), and then you see a cat or a rabbit, you have a hard time imagining how one turned into the other, entirely on its own. It's difficult to imagine the countless steps involved to get from one to the other, over a period of a billion years. Heck, it's hard to imagine a billion years. Heck, let's step back even further - it's hard to imagine a million years. (sidebar: It's sad that so many people don't even know the difference between a billion and a million. Both words are interpreted as "a lot". Perhaps this has something to do with our government budget being completely out of whack. "We spent $89 million on tsunami relief, and $89 billion on bombing Afghanistan flat." The inequality is completely overlooked, because, well, people skip right to imagining what they would buy with $89 million.)
Anyway, here is the part that makes me angry. Just because something is difficult to grasp doesn't mean it's not true. Yes, you have to actually sit down and study and think for quite some time. Otherwise, the idea that "man evolved" seems even less plausible than "the universe was sneezed from the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure, fully formed, man included" (OK, that's Douglas Adams' made-up god, but to me it's no less ridiculous than any other creationist theory).
What angers me is the people who are too lazy or scared to even listen. They either don't listen because learning science takes effort, and they find the 3-word explanation of "God did it" far less strenuous. Or, they don't listen because pulling creationism out from under their belief system would make it collapse like a house of cards. If creationism is wrong, then Genesis is wrong (if taken literally, anyway), then the Bible contains serious errors and cannot be the word of God. I am not insisting that people abandon religion (although that would be nice), how about just taking the Bible a bit less literally? There are actually good ideas in there, if you don't get caught up in all the miracles and smiting.
How about not forcing your religion (and your ignorance) into public schools? Just because you've deprived yourself of a science education, please don't ruin it for everyone else. OK, I admit this comes from someone who went to a science and technology high school. I found it a joy to learn stuff you could actually use to make predictions. You can use physics to predict where a thrown ball will land. It actually works! You can use biology and evolution to predict what kinds of fossils you will find in certain rocks. It actually works! The theory of Intelligent Design can't be used to predict anything at all. As a scientific theory, it's absolutely useless. It's only use is to numb your mind to make the questions go away. It's quite effective for that. And the people who claim that it's science are actually being listened to, in the politically-correct interest of "equal time". And this is what really pisses me off. Ignorance is winning.
posted by Jeff at 5/03/2005 02:45:00 PM
2 Comments:
Its science from the same people who want the FDA to prohibit sperm donors who have had gay sex in the last 5 years.
It would seem these policymakers are afraid of the "gay gene" being spread. Don't these fundies keep saying that homosexuality is a choice, and that you can overcome it with prayer? That's the advantage of being an ignorant bigot, you can simultaneously hold two mutually exclusive beliefs!
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