More on Education

I recently watched one episode of a series of a PBS documentaries on the subject of Evolution, this one titled "What About God." It's only an hour long but it raises a lot of great questions both directly and indirectly. I'll post it at the end of this post so everyone can watch it and develop their own questions and conclusions. Here are some of the issues I found particularly important:

•  To what extent should schooling be a democratic process? In the documentary, they tell of a case where a group of students petitioned to have creation taught next to evolution. They got many students and faculty alike to sign, a shining model of our beloved democratic process. Ultimately they lost their fight, but it far from quieted the religious right. I don't believe democracy has any place in science, at least not in the form of uneducated or unsupported claims. Opinion cannot be appreciated in the sciences no more than should the idea that two plus two equals seven.

• Can science and faith (or a particular faith, Christianity, in this case) be reconciled? Theists, often seem scared of information that contradicts a literal interpretation of holy texts. They'll deny the Big Bang but, funnily enough, enjoy the pleasures of modern technologies based on the physics that demand it. Does the mere existence of these sciences kill God? God seems to only be able to live where there is mystery and science is viewed as removing the mystery. I don't believe that science will ever reveal everything. If anything, the scientific journey of man has done far more to reveal new mystery, more exciting than most of us can comprehend.

• Is there a false dichotomy between Evolution and Creation? A long time ago, the goal was to keep evolution out of schools. Now religious groups mostly seem to want creation taught alongside evolution to "balance it out." To most scientists (all credible scientists that I know of) creationism has no real body of evidence to support it and a vast majority support the theory of evolution. Many creationists try to use "problems" with evolution as a basis for creation being taught along with evolution, essentially equating it with a matter of opinion. Saying, "you find holes in creationism, we found some holes in evolution; they essentially have the same scientific value," puts the two on equal scientific footing in a lot of susceptible minds. Even if their claims against evolutionary theory were valid (which they are not), how would that justify putting another shoddy theory beside it? Would it not be more scientific just to write WE DON'T REALLY KNOW on the board and move on to the next subject?

• Is the problem with religion-driven-delusion or is it a failing of the way science is taught to our youth? Are religious answers making more sense to students than scientific ones or is it something more akin to brainwashing? Is science teaching not connecting in a meaningful way with students? I'll leave these questions open ended and open to discussion.

Education, Man

If you know me or have even briefly glanced at the other sections of this site, you might know that education holds some importance to me. I've made it a goal of this philosophy to achieve some pretty lofty things. Among them is free high quality education for all people. Barring any catastrophic collapse of our current global political system, this won't happen at once. In fact, beyond the issue of it being free, America (as well as other countries) is struggling to even produce high quality education. A film that is currently in production (And could actually use some help with funding over at their KickStarter page. The goal of $10,000 is reached, but I doubt they'd begrudge some extra money for distribution or marketing [Plus $25 gets you a DVD copy of the completed film, so it's like you bought it and helped get it made!(sorry for this absurdly long parenthetical mess)]). It concerns the state board of education in Texas and highlights how ridiculous and real the antiscience threat is in our public education system.

Heres a trailer for it:


Standing Up To The Experts from Magic Hour Entertainment on Vimeo.

Rethinking Capitalism

Capitalism has a bad reputation among some folks and a sort blind devotion from others. It is no secret that many suffer as a consequence of the system (though suffering isn't exclusive to this economic system) but a sentiment has grown among even the great fans of the system that most people are in some way swindled by the system. Leaders of business are called everything from cut-throats to crooks. Eventually, you have to ask why there is such a vitriolic divide between business and consumer. Mostly it is the result of an easily manipulated public and a business sector that eagerly jumps at finding a new way to manipulate that naivety. This has resulted in a very unhealthy relationship between producers and consumers.

A healthy relationship must be one of mutual benefit. Something like this simple model would do: The business provides something of real value for the community (product, service, jobs) and the community provides the business with patronage. It's a sustainable model and a healthy one. Businesses should not be trying to trick people into squandering their wealth and I really wish we as people could see through it. Anyway, Harvard professor Michael Porter can explain better and in more detail.