3 posts tagged “religion”
Freakonomics Q and A with Frans De Waal:
Q: Does religiously motivated rejection of evolution (e.g. creationism) ever get in your way when working?
A: I don’t experience this kind of resistance in science, in which evolutionary theory is obviously the dominant paradigm. Creationists sometimes try to create the impression that lots of scientists have their doubts about the theory, but I have yet to meet such scientists. I’d be surprised if more than 0.1 percent of active research biologists have such doubts.
When I came to this country, over twenty-five years ago, I was amazed that creationism was still taken seriously, and assumed that it would blow over. It never did, of course. I can’t help but look at it as a left-over of a medieval mind-set unresponsive to overwhelming counter-evidence.
At the same time, I must say that I don’t think the recent wave of God-questioning rants have helped much. They have polarized the issue, whereas in my mind it is eminently possible to look at religion as a collective value system and at science as telling us how the physical world operates. Even though I am not religious myself, I think the conflict between science and religion is unnecessary and overblown.
Does it seem right that we give the Pope a 21 gun salute?
In October, one of the first-years wrote about "The Myth of Sisyphus." Recently, one of the second-years posted about the futility of trying to reform the system of education in this country with something like Teacher Corps. I added some comments, referencing Sisyphus and including an example of how creationism is now being mandated by various school boards as proof that the system is broken. This morning I read that Oklahoma, where my mother hails from (my grandfather was in the oil business), has approved a law that protects creationism. To quote from the article:
My Groups
-
Mississippi Teacher Corps Updated: 7 days ago
-
Peace Corps Updated: Nov 28, 2007
-
Mississippi Teacher Corps (host) Updated: May 15, 2007
