Religion and Science: The charge is primed for a future confrontation
At last, I got time to blog on what I wanted to blog all weekend and the Internet connection is being very cooperative.
So, blue has finally replaced red in the Governor mansions, House of Representatives and the Senate. Well, many are rooting for change in government policy both domestic and foreign but I’m still doubtful given the weak majority the Dems hold in the Senate. After all, the Dems didn’t win, the Republicans lost. About the only thing I’m cautiously optimistic of is a future change in policies concerning federal grants for biomedical research (esp. stem cell research), more effort done on tackling global warming (they can’t do any less than what they are already doing) and to a lesser extent space exploration. As for having the guts to send in more troops to stabilise Iraq so they can bring them home faster, I doubt they have it. North Korea and Iran? It’ll just continue to drag on as usual. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.
I’m starting to be convinced that the beginning of the end of Pax Americana may have arrived. It wasn’t the military failure in Iraq that convinced me, nor the diplomatic failures on Iran and North Korea, and definitely not the economy with its growing budget deficit. It was something more dangerous that all these things combined together. If it is left to continue, it may just be the final nail in the coffin.
So, what earth shattering piece did I read? A home-schooling special by NewScientist titled ‘Preach your children well’. It chronicles the growing number of children that are home-schooled, currently numbering roughly 2.5 million (figure from NS chart) out of 55 million students enrolled in both public and private institutions in the US (figure from US Dept. of Education). That amounts to roughly 4.5% out of the elementary and secondary student population (the figure doubled in the past 3 years alone, so it could be at 9% by 2009). What’s wrong with home schooling, you may ask. After all, religious schooling is usually conducted in a home setting. For me, as long as the subjects are being taught proficiently I don’t have any qualms with it. A person’s religious beliefs are entirely up to themselves, but I’m not questioning their rights either.
My problem is this: Faced with humiliating failures in the legal arena to instate ID into state education, the creationist supporters are quietly working in another legal arena in campaigning for home-schooling and thus undermining science education in the country. If they can’t have ID being taught in schools, we’ll teach it at home as the reasoning seems to imply. Now you see where it’s going. No wonder why American students have declining competitiveness in math and science subjects. Remember, America is founded in part for political and religious freedom. Furthermore, it is the leading nation in innovation and high-end technology today, the foundations of its dominance in world affairs. This unjustified melding of religion and science will, IMO interfere with the very foundations of the country. In short, America is atrophying from within. It might sound like scaremongering, but the science community has been worrying about it for quite a while now. If more and more students go into creation science, what is going to happen to science and the policies that dictate federal research in the future?
Enter Patrick Henry College. It is a college tailor made to cater to these home-schooled students. Apart from creationism, they also focus on political and legal debates consistent with their aim of preparing "leaders who will fight for the principles of liberty and our home-school freedoms through careers of public service and cultural influence". Snicker at them if you would, but after you read their accomplishments, you will sit up and think twice. Just because they are misguided on science doesn’t mean that they’re stupid either. I’ll quote directly from NS:
By 2004, PHC students held seven out of 100 internships in the White House, a number even more striking when one considers that only 240 students were enrolled in the entire college. Last year, two PHC graduates worked in the White House, six worked for members of Congress and eight for federal agencies, including two for the FBI. "Patrick Henry is something to worry about because these kids end up in the administration," says Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, which campaigns against the teaching of creationism as science.
Home-schoolers are drawn to PHC partly because of its political connections and partly because, unlike most Christian colleges, it boasts high academic standards. Besides the focus on creationism, much of the curriculum is dedicated to rhetoric and debate, preparing students to fight political and legal battles on issues such as abortion, stem cell research and evolution. The technique is effective. For the past two years, the college has won the moot court national championship, in which students prepare legal briefs and deliver oral arguments to a hypothetical court, and has twice defeated the UK’s University of Oxford in debating competitions. (emphasis added)
So, President Bush might not be an aberration but instead he might just be the first of many who would pander to evangelical interests. Of course, you might argue that it’s because of the Bush Administration and the elephants’ dominance that the PHC students are getting internships. Point taken, but I think they might be around at ‘The Hill’ for quite some time after Mr. Bush is gone (the Commander in Chief might be on his way out, but the Republicans on Capitol Hill are far from it) If you’d think that it’s the US’s problems and not ours, it’s not quite so. Those students are reading stuff like "All of the scientific evidence gathered indicates that there is no danger of a global warming disaster"(emphasis added) in their books (read the accompanying article below the main article). These people are learning ‘facts’ that are thought up just because some people feel that it doesn’t fit with two millennia old books that would be considered a great fiction story (I’m not meaning to insult, but I’m being honest) if it were to be first published today, overturning many years of rational thought, theory and experiment. Imagining what they could do when they hold office is going to be something that can keep all of us awake at night.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not that optimistic in expecting God to be there to fix things when the Earth goes down the drain.
