Sunday, October 20, 2002
A reply to my yokel critics
Seems like I hit a nerve!
Here are facts readers of this blog might find interesting:
1) I lived in rural eastern Imbler for five years
2) I've worked on a mule ranch as a hand (in close proximity to "cowboys")
3) My high school had two major cliques-"Mormonites" and "Cowboys" (usually the latter were guys who wore the hats and undersized pants, but lived in town)
4) One of the local towns were notorious for inbreeding (they all did look the same, honest)
etc. etc. etc.
I know "red America," I lived it. Folks were polite, crime was low and everyone knew everyone else. People greeted strangers with a smile and a wave. The trucks didn't foul the country air (not enough people) and guns didn't go off into the homes of neighbors (they were for hunting deer and the practice range, not people). Red America is not a utopia, but I know and appreciate its virtues.
Being an unread yokel who doesn't think much beyond the next can of beer and the looks forward to hunting season isn't something to spit at. Diversity is the spice of life. Conversely, the wild gay culture of San Francisco or the goth scene of Portland have their virtues and add color to this country (and all the other permutations and variations of America).
My comments were meant to imply that I tire of debates that are rooted in foundational principles. My high school didn't teach evolution in biology class because the teacher didn't want to be harassed at school board meetings and have to grade essays that quoted from the Bible. When 75% of the students sneer at the thought of being "descended from a monkey," bringing the topic up is futile and often counterproductive. Anatomy and botany might be peripheral areas of modern biology, but they are subjects that people can study without being swamped by political controversies. I know it sounds depressing, but sometimes you have to cave because of the practical realities of life. Those of us that chose to take AP Biology or knew where the library was didn't have a problem finding out what we needed to know about evolution.
On the issue of "brainwashing." My parents are both Muslims, and though my father has a doctorate in physical chemistry, he doesn't believe in evolution (see below). I have never really believed in God, and always found Creationism laughable. Perhaps I'm projecting my own intellectual independence on other people, but I don't think I'm that unusual. 90% of the human race is prone toward magical thinking, true. Many liberal religious people have strange New Age beliefs that substitute for the Big Man in the Sky while the majority still accept Big Man in the Sky [1]. The other 10% don't need support from the culture, they can distinguish reality from crock with a little effort. The "diamonds in the rough" will find out what they need to know from the Internet and library. As I've said, the vast majority of people will become mechanics, accountants and insurance salesmen. Evolution and the scientific method will have little impact on their lives through their own works, but rather through products that other individuals will create applying a different sort of education and training.
From a practical perspective, allowing ID to be taught in certain localities might actually make it less appealing. It think it will be somewhat like the situation that occurs when fundamentalists govern, their popularity declines as the bankruptcy of their beliefs becomes evident to their former supporters. I read once that someone contacted geologists who had received their undergraduate education at fundamentalist Christian colleges but now had careers in the oil industry. When asked if they still accepted the Creationist paradigm, they either said no, or refused to talk about it on the record.
In my experience many of the educated Creationists are engineers and to some extent physical scientists. My father has never taken a course in biology (his work was in covalent bonding theory), and freely admits he knows little about the field. Similarly, I have spoken to many people with degrees in mechanical or electrical engineering that find evolution implausible. But is it a coincidence that engineers see design in nature? Their occupations are immediate and practical applications of the most basic and reliable scientific theories (mechanics, electromagnetism, etc.), but they do not necessarily study nature itself. Engineers interact with science via human creations. Structure imposed in their world comes from intelligent agents.
I asserted that non-evolutionists tend to correlate with the left half of the bell curve, but I know there are many brilliant people that reject evolution. The software that geologists use to model subsurface geological phenomena (magma convection in the mantle for instance) was designed by a geophysicist who rejects evolution and accepts Flood Geology. He is a Christian fundamentalist who freely admits that without guidance from the Bible, he too would be an evolutionist. This does not negate the fact that the vast majority of geophysicists do not accept Flood Geology (likely on the order of ~ 99%). Though the software was designed in part to show the validity of Young Earth Creationism, most geologists don't use it for that purpose.
As far as intelligence and evolution go, see this poll for some data. The more educated you are, the less likely you are to accept Biblical literalism. Now, the fact remains that a large minority continue to accept Biblical literalism, but let's keep going up the bell curve. A 1996 study by Witham & Larson showed that 40% of scientists with doctorates were theists. If you assume that half of these theist scientists are literalist in orientation (as in the general population), you have 20% who are Creationists. I suspect that this would be the high end number, as religious scientists would likely be more inclined toward theistic evolution rather than Creationism. A follow-up study by Witham & Larson that surveyed Nation Academy of Science members showed that a little less than 10% of them were theists. Again, using the same method, you get around 5% of these being Creationists. This is a rough measure, but I think my point holds, the further you go up the bell curve the less reliance there is on magical thinking, ergo the variations of Creationism.
The cultural elite accepts evolution (which is why few conservative Republicans make a big show of pushing Creationism, though some do). As far as science and technology are concerned, they are the ones who matter. Those in Red America who reject ID and Creationism will be independent individuals, who wouldn't need the coddling and encouragement of the school system. Those "misled" by bogus science almost certainly won't be working in pharmaceutical companies anytime soon in any case. The upside can be that any semi-intelligent student will see how sophomoric ID texts like Of Pandas and People are. Most people don't think about evolution, and associate it with atheism. When faced with the idiocy of Creationism, parents might rethink their opinion of "atheist evolution." It will also close down the whole ID & Creationism industry and might allow scientists to go about their business without having to deal with the nuisance of know-nothings who try to debunk their "theories" as a way to vent their frustration with the lock-out of ID from the mainstream.
In addition, there is the point that local people pay taxes for schools that teach ideas inimical to their values. People have a right to decide what their children believe, no matter how idiotic. It is a free country, and to close your eyes to reality is a choice that should be open to individuals. I understand that parents who accept the mainstream scientific world-view might find this distressing, but perhaps they should wonder if they shouldn't sit down and speak to their children about these issues instead of allowing the school to indoctrinate them. The laughter heard round the world would also quickly induce many school districts with CNN feeds toward second thoughts about pushing ID.
The problem might be the philosophy of the American educational system. It supposedly exists to churn out citizens with common values. Well, it isn't doing that very well at this point. As a libertarian who believes in local control, let's allow a thousand flowers to bloom. Local control can be a nasty proposition in regions filled with easily manipulated under-educated individuals. Ultimately, it might lead to the realization that not everyone's child needs to be educated much beyond elementary school levels, and perhaps the politics could be taken out of public education if it was privatized.
OK, yokels, that's all for now. I'm just proposing a little Zen, break your enemy's back by bending in their direction, get it?
(I'm writing this from a town of 18,000 in the mythical state of Jefferson)
[1] I don't mean to imply that all religious people are so unsophisticated, but as Aquinas noted, the vast majority of humanity will have to take the path of faith and guidance from their clerics.
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