Thursday, September 27, 2012
Bill Nye about the Truth: “Creation Views Threaten US Science”.
Bill Nye, known as the “Science Guy”, has waded into the evolution debate with an online video (Click here to see the video) that urges parents not to hand down their religious based doubts about evolution to their children. Religion is a leading contributor to our decline in world standings in math and science according to tests conducted here in America. We Americans are slipping consistently in science and math rankings worldwide because we teach erroneous theories. This fact is responsible for a growing loss of employment to our society. We, the job creators, are failing to provide our children the next generation education they can use to get the next generation jobs they need to provide for their own families and futures.
The angels we pray to and the demons we fear are figments of our imaginations, nothing more. Like noises in the night, thoughts of angels or demons can cause anxiety and fear but always remember this; while fear feels real and causes great anxiety, fear can never kill you, and neither will an imagined angel or demon. Fear is a reflex reaction hardwired in humans to make life’s hard choices clearer, quicker and easier to make; fight or flight for example. Nothing could be simpler or more necessary to our continued survival than primal fear, and the ability to get out of harm’s way instinctively and immediately.
Where we have trouble as a very diverse society is trying to live together without reconciling our belief systems with our life experiences and education. We can't help being "a little bit jumpy" (this quote from the movie Starman starring Jeff Bridges) since it is in our nature to spook easily. Smart orators learned thousands of years ago that to control a man's mind all that is required is to implant the seed of fear in him. Feed that fear, control the "antidote" to that fear, and you can very easily control the person.
Religion has fulfilled this role in society for thousands of years. Priests, claiming a direct link to those who control the afterlife, kept ever larger numbers of people in fear for their immortal souls and as a direct result, under their, the priests, control. By the simple expedient of offering a place in heaven a gifted orator could manipulate entire civilizations into doing his bidding for the entire duration of their lives on earth.
Take Christianity for example. The premise behind this religion is very simple. First instill the fear of damnation in everyone and next provide the guarantee of everyone spending an eternity surrounded by hellfire and brimstone should damnation befall them and theirs. Next, provide an "antidote" to spending this eternity in "hellfire" by providing another choice. For admission into an eternal life in paradise all that is required by you is for you to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. Presto, your troubles are over! Come on up! The deal is done forever!
(Psst… Don't forget to leave a healthy donation in the collection plate for your ultimate hook-up before you leave, and be sure to renew your connection weekly.)
Where society is having trouble is in reconciling religion and its roots with modern science. Almost 50% of the people in the United States accept creation as a viable theory to the birth of the universe. Bill Nye, in his viral YouTube video referenced above, states that a belief of this nature undermines the value of science and the true facts in our society. What he is suggesting, in my opinion, is that allowing this false belief about creation to continue to circulate in our society is similar to excusing half the adult population in the United States for believing in Christmas myths and never realizing the truth about Santa.
So what difference does it make how old the people in the United States believe the universe to be? The answer to that lies in understanding the nature of truth. Truth is not some flexible silly putty structure capable of being morphed into any theory desired and subsequently treated as fact. The truth is not something to be manipulated to fit any imaginary set of circumstances.
Discoveries revealing the nature of the atom and the math calculations deriving the speed of light are not figments of our collective imagination. Man really did set foot on the moon. Water has been discovered on planets thousands of light years away. Animals have been cloned in labs. All of man's advances in math, science, medicine, etc. are all based on a belief that one plus one equals two. Each discovery is built upon a real foundation of empirical evidence proven beyond a shadow of a doubt…
Except to those who believe in the theory of creation. The route to a creation believer’s belief is not based on facts, mathematics, physics, astrophysics, or a single bit of empirical evidence. It is based on nothing more than faith. Creation theory is based upon a book written thousands of years ago by dozens of different people over the course of hundreds of years. This “theory” was concocted out of erroneous assumptions and,without factual “evidence”, and this "theory" contradicts every scientific discovery made in the last few hundred years.
Unfortunately, to believe in the 10K theory (this theory states that God created the universe, earth and man within the last 10,000 years or so) requires the holder of this belief to ignore everything that points to a different conclusion. Frankly I find it easier to believe in Santa Claus.
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