Title: RE: paleonet It just keeps coming, in the US,
Brazil, UK,
The cover story of this week's Time Magazine
profiles the major leaders in the Evangelical movement (mostly in the
US). It is a very interesting read.
My question is this: how much damage does the
impact of religious fundamentalism (i.e. not teaching Evolution
or the Big Bang) do to science (and K-12 education) in the United
States?
One of the scientists quoted in the New York Times article is an
evolution supporter and an evangelical Christian.
Fundamentalists are a subset of evangelicals and not synonymous with
them. Evangelicals central tenet is that they should actively
spread the word of Jesus to pretty much all people that they
encounter. Fundamentalists are the ones who absolutely refuse to
interpret the Bible any other way but literally. Well,
'literally' in their own terms and with their own Bible.
Will it have a negative impact equal to how the space
race of the 60's had a positive one?
The space race was a continuation of the imperialist impulse that
began to mobilize Western governments/economies in the 14th century
with the race to 'the Indies'. As such the Church (only one
then!) was 100% behind it.
In the above sense the space race did not challenge our species
idea of who or what we were, why we were here on this planet or how we
got to where we are. Evolution does all of that. Hence the
objections from some of the religious.
Does this impact anyone else other than the US?
I guess it is the larger picture which interests me
most.
It will have an impact where ever religious fundamentalists (of
any stripe) have the ear of central governments and populate the board
rooms of powerful corporations.
Bill
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William P. Chaisson
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627
607-387-3892