Ask the Scientists…
I learned a long time ago not to argue with my wife about matters of science. Science is just one of those courses I avoided in school. Maybe it was because my high school Chemistry teacher managed to suck any joy there ever was out of science. Maybe I just didn’t have the brain for it. I’ve always done better in English and Social Studies and that is why my school primarily puts me in those classes to support students.
We have seen this story in the comments on previous posts, so I will not belabor it here. A private school in Florida has chosen to bar teachers that have been vaccinated from working with students. I’m not much of a scientist and even I know that is the dumbest thing anyone has ever heard. That is until you hear the reasoning for doing it. I can just imagine the kind of teacher they get for their 30K bonanza of a salary.
Instead of poking fun at these people I decided to ask a serious question. How can we adapt our science curriculum to help our students and future voters not fall for junk science and alternative facts. The scientist in the house had a very simple answer to the question. The answer seemed simplistic to me and yet I went back to my mantra I mentioned in the first sentence. I should not argue about matters of science.
Her answer was one word. Christianity. Both of us are cradle Catholics and yet we somehow came down on the more liberal end of the Christian world. Mind you, she is more politically conservative than me, but I think she’s more fed up with the interference from the Christian community into science and the natural mistrust that is there.
You can’t paint anti-vaxxers with the same brush, but most come in with a Christian mindset. God will protect them. Of course, the irony is palpable. Much of the Old Testament is a recorded faith history of the Hebrew people. Included in that are the kosher laws. As a general rule we don’t follow those laws anymore, but these people seem to have a lack of historical understanding of the purpose of those laws. They discovered that certain foods or combinations of foods led to more deaths. Kosher laws were meant to protect them.
That is at least partially built upon the basic tenets of the scientific method. They made observations and changed policy and practices to fall in line with what they observed. Of course, we’ve learned more since then, but it was very much ahead of its time and built nearly entirely on science and not faith.
The funny thing is that God is not supposed to be in our public schools. Yet, we tend to avoid subjects like evolution almost entirely because it would tend to offend. The teaching of science becomes particularly problematic when knowledge itself becomes political. Experts become scorned and replaced with those without credentials on YouTube. Biologists with PhDs like my wife are replaced with celebrity anti-vaxxers like Jenny McCarthy and Rob Schneider. I know which one I will be listening to.
Nick,
1From reading your columns I would say you made a great choice marrying your wife – – rather than Jenny McCarthy or Rob Schneider.
I also get the impression your wife knows what she’s talking about.
I don’t doubt some of her ideas are based on her “religious” beliefs, but it’s crazy to me how many parents go along with her actions. At least not all of them as the story below covers.
What some mentioned is the cult like atmosphere at the school led by the owners.
Parents unload on ‘insane and dangerous’ pro-Trump couple running the Florida anti-vaxx school – Raw Story –
https://www.rawstory.com/parents-unload-on-insane-and-dangerous-pro-trump-couple-running-the-florida-anti-vaxx-school/
2My wheelhouse here.
Your wife is right. Cradle Catholics, indeed.
Get the kids when they’re very young, and as Dawkins says,
“evolutionarily gullible and accepting.
Teach them that Mystery Authority is Supreme, AND
as a result they will accept garbage such as:
Adam and Eve
Noah and the Whale
Evolution, and therefore, Science, is wrong.
Morality is given by some Mystery God, whom you
can know nothing about.
Priests are pure.
Original Sin is caused by Eve.
God watches everyone, all the time, reading your mind.
Go to YouTube. Grab a beer and watch Christopher Hitchens.
Or Sam Harris.Or Aron Ra.Or Richard Dawkins. Or CosmicSkeptic.
Religious Education is Child Abuse. It makes AntiVaxxers,
3Bigots, and all those things that flow from refusal to think.
I’m sure religion played some part in the way these people ran their “school” but they were definitely Trump conspiracy nuts. Wrapping shoes in Saran wrap at open house, window shielding to keep out 5G death rays, and the goal of creating “emotional ninjas”, whatever that means. The owners did all this and more and now teachers and parents are concerned? Give me a break.
4Isaac Asimov had a lot to say about such things. Among them:
“And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.” — and —
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.” — and —
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
… among many others…
5@BFSMan Asimov was a biologist, too. We should probably listen to them…
6People believe what they want to believe and no empirical evidence–or even logic–will convince them. Take the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines: People are arguing that they were made “too quickly” and haven’t been tested enough. They are forgetting, or never knew, that the research behind these vaccines have been going on for 8 years. That’s why they were able to be developed so quickly. Not to mention that they were tested on tens of thousands of volunteers.
However, I am preaching the choir here.
7I would absolutely agree with everything you wrote here except for the use of the term “Christian”. There is a difference between “Christians” and “Fundamentalists”; that’s how a nice Catholic girl can grow up to be a scientist.
Growing up in the Deep South, I have been keenly aware that many Fundamentalists are so stuck in the Old Testament they really aren’t that familiar with the Christian bits. And as someone who is particularly fond of the bits printed in red, that has always offended me.
8‘Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.’
Albert Einstein ~ Inspirational, Education, Learning
Most of what I do now involves Einstein’s simple lesson: E.G., How to train a cat’s fear / aggression response to stop biting, (still studying that lesson) ~ consulting the urban dictionary as well as my desktop dictionary ~ Thesaurus ~ Apple ~ Wikipedia sources and fave quotations.
The GOPutz’es never gave a to the putrifying pumpkin’s wall even now as it yields to the elements. They’ve constructed massive fortresses, each and all around their collective bigotry and ignorance. Their extinction weighs on one’s patience.
9Are any of these people aware that the current Pope has a Masters degree in Chemistry?
Lord knows (irony) that the Catholic Church has no shortage of both theological and secular problems, but they seem to have learned generations ago that the way to reconcile their religious believes with science is not to simply reject science. In this at least they have their act together.
10Alan, I was surprised at one time to learn that the Vatican has an observatory in AZ doing real science.
11http://www.vaticanobservatory.va/content/specolavaticana/en.html
Alan @10
nit picky, I know, but National Catholic Reporter took to the time to respond to the idea of “The Pope has a Masters degree… in Chemistry” [sorry … bad flashback to Mr. Science broadcasts]
“Numerous press reports are saying that Pope Francis has a master’s degree in chemistry, including one that incorrectly cites me as a source. Sorry, it is not true.
“It is true that Pope Francis studied chemistry and worked as a chemist prior to entering the seminary. But Jorge Bergoglio never graduated from university prior to entering the seminary.”
12