The Science of Stupidity

The Science of Stupidity

This morning I read of a school in Tacoma, Washington, right here in the US of A that has retracted its decision to show “An Inconvenient Truth”, the documentary by Al Gore about the effects of global warming and human-created climatic change, to its students as part of classwork. Apparently one student’s parent, not surprisingly a fundamentalist Christian who has kids ranging literally from 20 years of age to a few weeks (I am not making this up), has whined that they don’t want their child seeing the film because it is too “one-sided”, among other vitriolic excuses. Before I even get into the unbelievable pig-headed stupidity of that viewpoint, let’s first look at the selfish inanity and churlishness of this parent’s demand.

The man claims first of all he’s protecting his child from what I suppose he deems to be the “theories” of scientists, etc., etc. Now, whether or not his fears are well founded, let’s first discuss his motives:

• If he doesn’t feel his child should have to watch it, which I suppose is his right as a parent, then why doesn’t he:
  A. Arrange for his child to leave the classroom for the time that the movie is being shown and also have the teacher arrange for any test questions or other mandatory class activities pertaining to the content of the movie be replaced with other generally class-related materials. This is easily done.
  B. Arrange for his child to miss that day of school and, as above, be required to do some other kind of innocuous but reasonably comparable class work to make up for the time. During that time the parent is free to brainwash his child in any way he sees fit.
  C. Allow the child to watch the movie but, as a strong parent, ask the child about the film and have a discussion as to why he, as the parent, does not agree with certain (or all) of its points and “theories”. But this would smack of actual responsible parenting and he doesn’t want anything to do with that.
  
  
• Isn’t it obvious that this man is flat-out using his child to inflict his own backward and degenerate viewpoint on everyone else? Two HUGE flaws in his purported motivations are thus:
  A. He is not only trying to change the curriculum for his child, but changing it for ALL the other children by forcing his own standards on the entire class. This is, clearly, what he wants to do and I’d love to hear his answer as to how his forcing the rest of the class NOT to see the movie is any less oppressive than if his child were “forced” to watch it. In fact it is clearly far more oppressive because he is opposing the school’s choice on one person, his child, whereas his efforts will affect dozens of children at least.
  B. As I have mentioned above, it could easily be arranged that his child not be required to watch the film and, thus, problem solved.

Now, let’s address the mammoth stupidity of this man’s view. First off, isn’t it so typical that the more bird-brained and uninformed a person such as this fellow is, the louder his voice and the more vehemently he pushes his opinions? The more obstinately he defends his views no matter what sort of facts are thrown at them? In fact, all the more despite the facts? An example is the constant attack on science as ‘controversy’ or ‘theory’. These people believe in a god because a priest and a 4000-year old book told them to, but they don’t believe the facts that science has provided…they want more proof, apparently, but are never willing to accept ANY of the proof offered.

I know of lots of things of which I am not an expert. Let’s pick one: Physics. I know a few basic principles, but even those few I surely don’t understand the way that anyone who has studied them has. But what if I disagree with the little that I have heard? Should I just go crash the nearest physics class, steal the mic from the lecturer and start spouting a bunch of imbecile negativity dressed in righteous indignation? What kind of an ass would I be? Well, I’d be the precise sort of ass that this fellow in Tacoma, Washington has proven himself to be.

He doesn’t believe in science, he believes its all hooey deliberately and carefully constructed to attack his dearly-held principles and teachings from the Bible. Yea pal, the rest of the world’s got nothing better to do that spend billions of dollars and billions of man hours over the last several centuries in order to debunk religion for nothing else but the sake of being able to say “I told you so.”

You don’t believe in science? Fine, that’s your prerogative. In my opinion it’s foolish, but that’s just my opinion and I would expect no one to take it for gospel (thus displaying the difference between us). But he expects us to change our lives to suit his opinion. He expects the rest of the world to sit up and take note that he and his child are being oppressed by the evil scientists! Yes, the Christians suffer so much in this country, this country where their minority representation of only 80-plus percent of the entire population keeps them pinned down by the neck. Must be terrible for them. But, you wanna say that science is mularkey? That’s your decision, but if you want anyone to believe you, here’s what you must do:

• Get rid of the following: Your television, microwave, refrigerator, computer, DVD player, and hairdryer, your wife’s vibrator that she hides under the nightstand…your car, your cell phone and your land-line phone. That air purifier in your bedroom and the satellite dish out back next to your SUV. You gotta give that back too, it’s horseback for you my friend…or by foot. Wasn’t that how the Israelites traveled? Shouldn’t that be good enough for you? Give back all your medicine, even the ibuprofen and children’s Motrin. Take the air conditioner and the furnace (along with the thermostat), your kids’ Xbox and in fact just about everything in your house including lamps, alarm clocks, stereos and all of the plumbing and wiring. Not even a ceiling fan for you, my friend. That’s electromagnetic energy powering those blades…and can be considered ‘science’.
  What else is there to do? You want to attack science as a fallible and unreliable, godless source of wisdom, but you don’t mind taking advantage of it when it suits your creature comforts, now do you? I mean, I heard the way you took your gripe to the school board was via an e-mail. Now, last time I checked…that’s science.
  
  Some more:
  
  
• No more trips to the hospital for you. Treat your children at home, make up your own remedies or see if there are any in the bible. You could apply leeches and linseed oil for a fever, and if one of your kids breaks a leg falling out of a tree house you’d better just saw it off before septicemia sets in. See how long your family survives (the guy’s got seven kids and, presumably, a wife) without modern medicine.
• You can’t watch television anywhere for any practical purpose or pleasure. Ever. This includes weather reports and news, or even Christian television stations. Because there’s nothing quite as hypocritical as televised creationists attacking the evils of science on a national broadcast. This same principle applies to radio, too. Sorry.
• No airplanes or busses, automobiles, motorcycles or motorboats. This includes steam ships. If I remember correctly Samuel Clemens was derided by, among others, the Church for his silly experiments with “steam power”.
• Cook only with a wood-fired oven.
• No toothpaste, band-aids, or cleaning products other than hand-milled soap. In fact, you really can’t use ANYTHING made in a factory.

Anyway, I think even this guy would see my point here. Science, a word used as an umbrella term for any kind of study outside the teachings of the bible (which is, oddly enough, mostly witchcraft, fear-mongering and stern discipline), is a part of everyone’s life in good and bad ways. But like anything else we use, it is not the element which is to blame but the hand which wields it. Science was not, as was the bible, invented by humans, but rather something which humans have for millennia been trying to understand and harness, nothing more. Science is a constant search for understanding, whereas fundamentalist religion is the exact opposite: it is the teaching that understanding is not important, it teaches that in fact understanding is counter-productive and intrinsically sinful. That understanding is not what God wants us to do but rather that we are meant to be mindless sheep following tenets written down for us thousands of years ago. Even when those tenets tell us to hate each other. To kill and rape each other, and to devastate the wilderness….which brings me back to Al Gore’s “evil” documentary.

If that’s what you believe well, it’s your life. I won’t come in your house and tell you not to believe it. But don’t come into my house or anywhere else you’re uninvited and force your beliefs on anyone. I don’t want to hear any patriotic crap from you either, nothing about your “rights”, because they’re the same as my rights! America is not your land. It never was. “In God We Trust” was added in the 1950’s, it was not part of any of the original founding fathers’ documents. America was founded so people could be free from religious persecution or any other kind of persecution. To worship in their own way or, perhaps more importantly, not at all if that was their choice. Now you want to change what other people think because you’ve made up your mind, quite deliberately based on opposition to the facts, that your view is best.

Shame on you for pretending that you’re only trying to protect your child. That’s a naked lie and now you’ve brought your child into your lie. I hope your God will forgive you.