Recent events in Iran concerning attempts to assert that the Nazi Holocaust was a hoax have awakened me to what might be the tiny seedlings of an educational and cultural crisis in our country. Intentional misinformation on everything from the moon landing in 1969, world ecology/global warming, basic world history, astronomy, and AIDS are all beginning to take footholds in world culture.
While the vast majority of Americans are intelligent enough to know better, more and more disinformation is being disseminated (and in some cases believed) as fact to an entire generation of Americans. In the age of the Internet this irresponsible disinformation is spreading like wildfire.
Politicians and religious leaders worldwide are beginning to take liberties with, and in some cases attempting to completely rewrite, common knowledge. Once solid scientific and historical facts are now being irresponsibly branded “theories”, or worse, out and out lies.
This is nothing new; religion has opposed science for centuries.
As far back as the 1700s in American history, there are similar religious zealots who branded all science as evil and a contradiction to biblical teachings. Damage from lightning storms was a dangerous problem in colonial days. The tallest buildings in a town were the most vulnerable. Since the structures had very little metal, they’d usually explode when hit, causing fires that spread to other buildings, threatening whole settlements.
What were the highest spires in those days? Church steeples. To curb the problem, Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, a device that would channel the bolt of electricity harmlessly to the ground. Fanatical Christians began protesting and demanding they be removed from steeples because use of the strange devices was seen as mankind defying God’s will. In other words it was better to condemn something you don’t understand (Franklin’s electrical theory), even if it meant sacrificing your own house of worship. Some preachers even went so far as to blame Franklin for causing an earthquake with his evil invention in 1755!
Southern white children in the late 1800s never stopped referring to Negroes as “niggers” and were taught to think of them as inferior intellectually and nothing more than common farm animals to be owned and traded. Those beliefs were handed down from generation to generation, and only in the last fifty years or so has the American culture in general rejected such opinions. These notions were so ingrained in the southern mindset that laws had to be passed in the early 1960s in order to protect the rights of black Americans to vote, work, and have good housing.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet in Columbus
I just had surgery on my eyes so I might not be able to answer your commnts as timely as I'd like, but trust me I'll get to them...
Jet
2 - Baronius
Jet, wow, so much to talk about!
I understand that you have your nemeses, but you just can't stretch conservative Christianity to include the "fake moon landing" crowd. There is a whole conspiracy subculture, and while some Christians buy into some conspiracy theories, the mainstream (heh) of the X-Filers is scientific. The UFO nuts tend to be atheists, or believe that what we call religion is just a misinterpretation of alien encounters.
You're completely, completely right about the evil of the Holocaust and the Holocaust-deniers. I only wish that it was just a Middle Eastern phenomenon. I admire Germany's willingness to admit to its history. Turkey still denies the Armenian genocide.
More later. (I really hope this article catches on.)
3 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks Baronius, I appreciate your thoughts, however I have seen more than a few TV preachers lately try to deny the science of the moon landings because the moon can't possibly be as old as science clamis it is and still be within theolobical teachings. Even the fox network aired a movie on the subject claiming the moon landing was faked.
It's not just the religious zealots, it's politicians too.
I was inspired by the Iran denials, but it goes a lot deeper,
thanks again for contributing to the conversation my friend.
Jet
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
Oh boy, another science vs. religion article! Only thing left to do is weigh odds on how many comments this one will go. We'd normally set the bar at 125, but this is a Jet article, so the parlay is 205½.
Place yer bets!
5 - D'oh
Excellent article Jet, informative and timely.
Since Bennet isn't around any longer posting sci-articles, it appears BC has missed this article about the findings of some comet samples from Project Stardust.
One excerpt I really like is...
"The organic material, which is older than the solar system, could reveal clues about the origin of life and whether it exists elsewhere in the universe. Because there was some sort of mechanism that spread matter from the inner solar system to the outermost area where comets were formed, the same stuff must have been sprinkled on all the other comets and planets in the solar system.
"So if you need some magic ingredient, some pixie dust to get life to pop up somewhere, we have a mechanism to sprinkle it around," Brownlee said.
Whatever the mechanism, it is likely a universal process that predates the solar system, so the same kind of thing may have happened in every other solar system in the universe, Sandford said.
"There's nothing unique about our solar system in this regard," Sandford said."
Read it twice, and let it sink in, strange and wonderous times are upon us, and not in the fictional "Left Behind" kind of way.
Keep up the good stuff, Jet. All the best hopes for a speedy recovery from surgery.
Suss, I say the thread breaks 250.
6 - Abstruse
"Compare yourself to your great-great-grandfather, and you’d find that you live longer, and you are taller, stronger and healthier."
Not evolution, but a result of a better diet and access to medical care unavailable to him.
"While countries such as North and South Korea . . . . currently making great strides in medicine, stem cell research, computer and electronic technology"
North Korea? A country where people resort to cannibalism due to food shortages cant honestly be called a pioneer in medical research. North Korea has an official philosophy of advocating nationial self reliance (or juche) and therefore still relies on "traditional" remedies like the consumption of dog penis as a cure for impotence. The stem-cell breakthrough in SOUTH Korea was revealed to be a hoax. North Korea's great strides in technology have been the ingenuity they muster to ignore the copyrights of myriad products.
7 - Baronius
Jet, I don’t think I’m asking for too much here. I’ll admit that there are crazies who think they’re following God. Please admit that some people believe in nutty things in the name of science.
UFO’s, crop circles, cattle mutilations, telepathy, Gaia, healing herbs that the AMA doesn’t want you to know about, Bigfoot, pyramid power, Area 51, Diebold, “the real reason they had to silence Kennedy”, harmonic convergence: does any of this ring a bell? These are the theories put forward by secular nuts. If Christianity has to take the hit for some loon denying the moon landing, you’ve got to stand for these people.
I believe that we're so afraid of offending people (right left and center) that we don't stand up for the truth. No one says "you're wrong" anymore, except on the internet, where no one says anything else. Of course, you and I don't agree on what the truth is. Still, I'd rather see kids taught evolutionary theory as fact, if students were taught that truth is different from error. Darwin's got maybe 20 years left anyway.
8 - Jet in Columbus
Matthew, Matt, Mattie, It's getting so hard (forgive the pun) for you to hide your love for me isn't it?
9 - Jet in Columbus
Thanks for your words D'oh, and the encouragement. I'm now a guinea pig for a new eye drug only 6 months out of the FDA. They only want to try it on one eye at a time and it's so new that 6 doctors crowded into the room because they'd never seen it administered before.
We'll see (I hope)
I like your way of thinking and I'll have to do a little research now.
Thanks again
Jet
PS. I think Sussy's jealous. I take the time to respond to my readers, comment count is secondary, I pay attention to the right sidebar under the heading "Most Readers".
10 - Abstruse
"UFO's, crop circles, cattle mutilations, telepathy, Gaia, healing herbs that the AMA doesn't want you to know about, Bigfoot, pyramid power, Area 51, Diebold, "the real reason they had to silence Kennedy", harmonic convergence: does any of this ring a bell? These are the theories put forward by secular nuts."
And you and the rest of the ecumenical religous supremacists are free to rewrite these as often and as much as you wish. When it comes to science however can we agree to keep supernatural causation shelved?
Please do tell, why does darwinian evolution by natural selection only have about 20 years left?
11 - Jet in Columbus
Abstruse, I'm so glad you took the time to leave a word or two on how much you loved the article. You're sweet.
Point of order, you can't get taller than your father due to better medical care.
As for North and South Korea, at least they're DOING something instead of sitting on their hands. True or false, great medical strides are being made outside of the U.S. not in it.
The mention of the Koreas was more toward their electronics, which is where most TVs are made today. When did the last se a "made in the USA" sticker on a TV, Stereo, I pod etc?
12 - Matthew T. Sussman
"I
takehave the time to respond to my readers"Fixed that for ya'.
13 - Jet in Columbus
Baronius, I will give you an absofuckinlootly on that. However I'm not talking about loonies with UFOs I'm talking about a President denying medical knowledge in favor of Jerry Falwell claiming AIDS will only hurt homosexuals. I'm talking about jerks in Iran denying the holocaust happened, I'm talking about Loony preachers claiming George Washington was the Second coming of Christ sent by god to set up a theocracy in the new world.
To shove everything else in with it cheapens the legitimate arguments, and that's not fair.
Like saying all gays chase little boys
Like saying all Jews are cheap and cheats
Like saying all blacks are thieves
like saying all irish are drunks.
It's not fair and it's not right.
I'm sticking to established facts that are being bent to fit an agenda, not UFOs and perverts.
14 - Jet in Columbus
Ah Matt you're making it hard (whoops)for me not to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thanks for fixing that and for caring enough to take the time..
15 - Jet in Columbus
Uh Mr. Sussman, now that all the flirting's done, what did you think of the article? I KNOW I'll regret asking.
16 - Abstruse
"Point of order, you can't get taller than your father due to better medical care"
Myriads of teratogens can act upon the unborn limiting the scope of fetal development. For instance alcohol can cause facial abnormalities brain defects and underweight births not to mention stunted growth. I argue that my mother not drinking during my gestation is directly connected to access of medical knowledge disseminated to the public at large. So, you CAN be taller through medical care.
"great medical strides are being made outside of the U.S. not in it."
Absoloutly, the news from Europe last week was a breakthrough in cancer treament using a "ray-gun" to target unoperable growths.
Always nice to post sources.
And the North korea thing is just a response to my current obsession with the Kim dynasty.
17 - Baronius
Jet, I figured you were talking about Lasick or something. I didn't realize this was a big deal. I hope you don't mind if I keep you in my prayers. Actually, I kind of hope you do mind, and I'll do it anyway. Pfffthhhh!
18 - Jet in Columbus
Thank you Baronius, I do care, but if it'll help, I'll stop. I'm not anti-christian by any stretch of the imagination, but I am against corporate churches and fools putting words in God's mouth.
(:^p~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
19 - Jet in Columbus
Gads Abstruse, do you realize now man links are in this article alone? 20 down and 230 to go Matt!
20 - Abstruse
I was'nt being flipant. In fact I was agreeing with you. Seems you are being a lil bit combative.
21 - sr
Jet, this message will self destruct with a nuke after you read it. The world is in your hands. The village Idiot.
22 - Jet in Columbus
Abstruse I just had my 11th proceedure to save my eyesight, I was being overly defensive, not combative.
Thanks for telling me
Jet
23 - Jet in Columbus
A little hard to make an unborn joke on this subject, isn't it sr?. Thanks for popping in and saying hello though.
Jet
24 - D'oh
Here is another one for you , Jet.
Just another case of reality not matching up with "official" policies.
25 - MCH
"Oh boy, another science vs. religion article! Only thing left to do is weigh odds on how many comments this one will go. We'd normally set the bar at 125, but this is a Jet article, so the parlay is 205½. Place yer bets!"
- Matthew Sussman
Sounds like a cat hissing.