Counting Backwards

Dave G. has often expressed consternation over the fact that we seem intent on re-fighting the Scopes Trial. I'm no longer so confused. People are so insecure with their core beliefs they can't stand to have them challenged. It's too bad too.

I had to learn about Facism, Stalinism, and National Socialism, all in junior high civics and history classes. Then, in high school I had an economics class that had the audicity to teach me all about the magic of the invisible hand, a theory which is less verifiable than evolution - though accepted(alas, nowadays even by me) as being true enough. Oddly enough, no one complained that in my economics class we also ought to be taught about Marxism, and I went to high school in California! When I asked about it, I was told "go study Kapital on your own damn time!" I guess in those days it was safe to assume that education on subjects that were unpleasant or contrary to one's worldview would only serve as helpful.

But times they are a-movin' backwards. People are such wimps now that if they are taught something with which they disagree, they're afraid...Well, I'm not sure what they're afraid of, but there doesn't seem to me to be much in the way of explanation other than that.

But lo, a solution beckons! Instead of insisting that creationism be taught with biology, or that evolution be abolished from schools, or non-scientific mumbo-jumbo be taught, how about adding "Christian Theology" as an elective alternative to natural biology? That way "balance" is served, as well as choice. Parents who want their children to be educated will be served, and parents who want to subject their children to daily repitition of what they hear on Sunday will be served too. The problem there, though, is eventually in the interest of "balance", they'll probably have to teach "Islamic Theology" as well. I don't personally see that as a problem, but those whiney folks who don't like evolution will probably whine even louder about that.