MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on November 18, 2005 at 1:31 pm.

Krauthammer’s piece in today’s Washington Post is worth a read:

Because every few years this country, in its infinite tolerance, insists on hearing yet another appeal of the Scopes monkey trial, I feel obliged to point out what would otherwise be superfluous: that the two greatest scientists in the history of our species were Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, and they were both religious.

* * *

How ridiculous to make evolution the enemy of God. What could be more elegant, more simple, more brilliant, more economical, more creative, indeed more divine than a planet with millions of life forms, distinct and yet interactive, all ultimately derived from accumulated variations in a single double-stranded molecule, pliable and fecund enough to give us mollusks and mice, Newton and Einstein? Even if it did give us the Kansas State Board of Education, too.

Kansas, which claims as its state motto Ad Astra per Aspera (“to the stars through difficulties”), is again teaching its kids theology in science class. That’s great.

Do you remember the good old days when society marginalized ignorant nut jobs? Why must we nowadays suffer these idiots? I cannot understand what motivates this nonsense. How is it that teaching religion as science is in any way good for society? Its motto notwithstanding, I don’t expect that Kansas will produce many rocket scientists in the coming years.

Kung Fu Monkey got it exactly right in this excellent post, which should be read in its entirety:

Seriously. Here you are, Tsui or Sanjay, looking at a new century. A century in which the exponential curve of technology’s rise becomes a sheer cliff. In which only the most intellectually nimble countries, best able to master new information technologies and couple them with manufacturing bases with high levels of technical training, will survive.

And you’re looking at that big bastard across the ocean, the US of A. First to build the Bomb. First to master the secrets of the atom. First to build the semiconductor. First and only tribe of humans who actually put men on the GODDAM MOON, to have stepped on another rock in space. Decoders of the human genome, the VERY BOOK OF LIFE !!! How will we ever stop –

Wow, they forfeit. Cool.

I thought briefly about whether to create a new post category for this sort of thing. “Religious Wackos” immediately came to mind. That’s probably redundant. I’ll just keep the “Science” and “Religion” categories separated.

Filed under: Science, Religion