A brilliant exposition and analysis, Joe. Few people can pull this together the way you have. Many thanks for your significant investment in time and effort.
Many thanks, Marc, for your kind thoughts and your continuing interest. Sharing my thoughts with those of similar mind is among my greatest sources of satisfaction.
So true, Joe! I'm no scientist, but I accept Darwinism and science broadly because they are logical. To the extent that religion teaches uncritical faith, it enables charlatans like Trump to win power with claims and even policies that defy logic.
I await a study on how fundamentalism and those religions that preach biblical literacy have suppressed critical thinking in the population as a whole. No doubt people who embrace irrational ideas in one cognitive domain can retain rationality in others. But the conservative religious sector of the population is so large, and their beliefs held so passionately, that one needs to conclude that their irrational mindsets have spilled over to inform the cognitive disabilities of the American people overall. I had an acquaintance years ago who taught African-American studies at the Bronx High School of Science (notice "Science.") He recounted to me that a majority of his students affirmed creationism and disavowed evolution. He concluded that their ministers were more influential in shaping their beliefs than their teachers. We may conclude that what pertains to Blacks pertains to whites in the pews as well.
A brilliant exposition and analysis, Joe. Few people can pull this together the way you have. Many thanks for your significant investment in time and effort.
Many thanks, Marc, for your kind thoughts and your continuing interest. Sharing my thoughts with those of similar mind is among my greatest sources of satisfaction.
Joe, do you remember John Hoad’s infatuation with Intelligent Design?
You have captured one of our country’s core challenges.
Keep reading, keep thinking, keep sharing.
Thanks
So true, Joe! I'm no scientist, but I accept Darwinism and science broadly because they are logical. To the extent that religion teaches uncritical faith, it enables charlatans like Trump to win power with claims and even policies that defy logic.
I await a study on how fundamentalism and those religions that preach biblical literacy have suppressed critical thinking in the population as a whole. No doubt people who embrace irrational ideas in one cognitive domain can retain rationality in others. But the conservative religious sector of the population is so large, and their beliefs held so passionately, that one needs to conclude that their irrational mindsets have spilled over to inform the cognitive disabilities of the American people overall. I had an acquaintance years ago who taught African-American studies at the Bronx High School of Science (notice "Science.") He recounted to me that a majority of his students affirmed creationism and disavowed evolution. He concluded that their ministers were more influential in shaping their beliefs than their teachers. We may conclude that what pertains to Blacks pertains to whites in the pews as well.
So sad!
Remarkable review of the Scopes Trial and its aftermath.
Many thanks, Jean, for sticking with it and your affirmation.