This is the first really potentially controversial thing I've ever posted, but here it is anyway. So most people know this about me (and if you don't it's probably because I don't call you a heathen for not agreeing with me), but I believe in God. I do consider myself a Christian and I do pray. Often. So when I explain myself here, I would like you to understand where I'm coming from.
I am a month away from receiving my Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry. Now before you start complimenting me, this isn't about my awesome ability to apply the scientific method to my every day life. Nor my awesome ability to apply alliteration in my literature. I'm wondering about this whole "only 30% of teachers teach evolution enthusiastically in schools" thing. Firstly, my biology teacher in high school was Christian. She also was once hilariously convinced that a jackelope was real. (And who wouldn't want to believe in a rabbit with antlers?) But off topic. My point here is that believing that life on our nifty little planet (and, statistically speaking, others) was not simply a fortuitous accident is a far cry from saying "Poof! And then there were people!"
Now, the last thing I want is for people to be start a religious (what I am going to loosely call) debate. My point is not that your faith or beliefs are wrong. I only would like to mention that we have long prohibited the faculty endorsed prayer in schools, since we believe it infringes on a student's right to practice whatever religion they chose. So then how is it that we are somehow alright with passing a law that says that we can "supplement" our sciences with Judea-Christian Creationism? Although I might need to amend that to include Islam, since I'm nearly certain they (we?) all believe in the same God, and thus the same origin story. So that's three religions that believe in Creationism. Out of how many?
Just off the top of my head, here are some more: Hindu/Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, Wiccan ( at least, I'm pretty sure people consider it a religion), not to mention the Native American religions we can't remember the names of.
Frankly, I don't care what you believe. You can believe that Hello Kitty is your spirit animal for all its worth. I don't have to agree with you. Or think you're anything more than a tween kindergoth, but hey, that's just what I believe.
My point is that our country has decided that not only are we accepting (try not to choke from laughter), but also that we teach our children in a purposefully secular way, as to not cater or advocate any side in particular. So to pass a law that allows for the teaching of unproven "facts" in a class that prides itself on data and probable and reproducible observations frankly just doesn't make sense. In the scientific community, you aren't allowed to say that something is true unless some guy on the other side of the world can look at your procedure and see the EXACT SAME THING. I would love to compare it with baking, but let's be real here, people: Some of you could burn water.
America produces so many scientists that we don't actually have enough job positions for the amount of graduates we create. And yet we want to downplay the importance of science and discovery? I mean, 97% of scientists believe in evolution, and nearly no one else does. Renaissance thinkers (who, by the way, were all either Catholic or kept up the guise that they were Catholic) believed that in order to understand God we first had to understand his creation: the Universe. Their pursuit of biology, physics, magnetism, gravity, and so much more was completely fueled by a desire to become closer to God. Which is the opposite of what we seem to be telling the youth of America.
Frankly, I think that ignoring science is a slap in the face to God. It's like, "Look at this beautiful amusement park I made. I put in all the bells and whistles just for you. If you want, take a look under the curtain. It's actually quite impressive. I'm very proud of it." and then we just say "No, no. It's fine. There's no curtain. We're just gonna go over here and ride the tea cups." If God did everything on purpose, and we're not supposed to question anything (ourselves included), then WHY did he make us CURIOUS??
It's baffling, really. How people can stand there and NOT want to know what keeps their gears turning. We really do beat the wonder out of children. They ask all the right questions: Why do we look different? Why does my heart beat? Why do some people need glasses? What happens if I stick finger in this light socket? Granted, not all of these inquiries are good, but that is EXACTLY what science is about: Why? Basically, all scientists are 6 year olds who are NEVER satisfied. Seven people in the last 150 years have killed themselves over thermodynamics because they couldn't figure out why. I'm not advocating for that level of enthusiasm, but you get the idea.
The ironic thing is that all of people ( I know Christians especially do) think of children as perfection. Sure, they're little monsters sometimes, but they are what we were supposed to be before the selfishness of the world starts wearing us down. And then we sit here and try to change them into bigger monsters just like us. We beat the science out of them because we don't feel that way anymore. I don't know about you, but I want the world to be more like Star Trek, with a little bit Farscape thrown in there for good measure.
I realize that this has evolved (see what I did there) into something I hadn't originally intended it to be, but the hypocrisy of the situation is flabbergasting. Either we teach our children the secular ways of the world in secular schools, like we said we would with all of those Supreme Court rulings about equality and freedom of religion, or we decide we want to have a national religion like (I dare say it) most of the other countries out there (at least most, if not all, of the European nations we often aspire to do). Now since we all know the latter won't happen, what with the First Amendment and all, we should do what we said we would in the first place and keep our science and our public school secular. Just pick one. Honestly, what bothers me most is that we can't seem to make up our minds.
Just so we're clear, here are the headlines: (1) Science is good. Fun even. (2) Be whatever religion you want to be. We're not allowed to care here. (3) Make up your FREAKING MIND, America. And finally, (4) That's just me.
