Scientists mounting an effort against religion
by Hanlon on November 21, 2006 at 2:14 am
I often avoid religious talk, but now and again a story rolls around that just begs me to tackle the issue. Take this, some scientists at a recent summit saying that the world needs to break from the shackles of religion and stick to science more.
Somewhere along the way, a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., which might have been one more polite dialogue between science and religion, began to resemble the founding convention for a political party built on a single plank: in a world dangerously charged with ideology, science needs to take on an evangelical role, vying with religion as teller of the greatest story ever told.
…
“We should let the success of the religious formula guide us,” Dr. [Carolyn] Porco said. “Let’s teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome — and even comforting — than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know.”
What has baffled me for some time is this belief that we as Americans should default our children to Christianity, and then as they get older they can make the decision on their own to defect away to whatever else they’d like. That we should, as in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, first tell them that these stories are real and then whenever they’re older they can change their minds.
This is not only unfair to the children themselves, but it’s potentially hampering the progress of humanity at large. Whatever we’re taught as children will stick with us permanently, and if a child is indoctrinated with the Bible then it will be very difficult to get him away from it. Whatever lessons he’s taught will be there nearly forever and all else will be considered a betrayal of such.
There are those who would consider this a good thing. Instill the values of the Bible in them early so they hold. But this doesn’t give them a chance to decide, we’re telling them what is and what isn’t. What should be done is teaching children their options, and letting them choose what they believe.
Anyone afraid of this is simply afraid that their beliefs won’t be able to stand up against the others. Teach our children evolution, what abortion truly is (not just that it’s “killing babies”), what homosexuals are, the nature of our universe, and the concept of the Big Bang. Teach them the Bible’s answers, teach them science’s answers. Let them decide.
Posted: November 21st, 2006 under religion, science.
Comments
Comment from Hanlon
Time November 21, 2006 at 1:54 pm
You do make a good point, Jeff. I shouldn’t have presented the two as so incompatible. Though I personally sit on the Dawkins-esque log of “just scrap religion entirely”, I realize that there are many people in the world for whom religion is a purely benevolent aspect of their lives.
What I meant to get across was not to instill all of one side into our children, but rather to give them all options and then let the kid decide once they’re older.
Comment from Coyote
Time November 21, 2006 at 2:33 pm
It’s an idealist view (e.g. that the two can be taught with equal importance and then the child can decide later on).. but I’m not sure how realistic it is given the many many different religions out there.
Teach science - OK
Teach religion - OK, but which one? Because these buggers are very definitely diametricaly opposed in some instances.
Comment from Hanlon
Time November 21, 2006 at 2:42 pm
This is true, Coyote. It’s not like we can hand them a big ol’ stack of pamphlets and have them read through. So what then? Maybe keep them away from ALL absolute answers and then present each to them later when they’re intelligent enough to look through and make a decision?
A friend of mine was raised like this. Wasn’t really taught the Bible and the Torah until he was 13. He just learned what they taught him in school and later on his parents decided that if he wanted a religion he could decide which one.
The result? None. He found each of them to be a little on the silly side and stayed agnostic/atheist. So that’s the question: how can you teach your children about both science and religion fairly?
Comment from PenisPreve
Time December 5, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Check out this sweet site I found, I wasn’t sure if it was real at first, but it is! I tried them out and these patches are awesome!!!
Check out the special discounts they have too, I got a real good deal.
[URL=http://www.trytry.info/?220]Click here![/URL]
Comment from fibromyalgia
Time January 12, 2007 at 9:49 am
Comment from Jeff
Time November 21, 2006 at 1:12 pm
While I agree with most of your point, I don’t think that science and Christianity are not as diametrically opposed as your post would suggest. It’s easy to forget, since the hypocrisy of fundamentalist evangelicals speaks so much louder, that there are such things as religious liberal Democrats who embrace science as compatible with faith.
To portray them as such is creating an unfair and divisive polemic no different than that propagated by the fundamentalists.