Day 349: The Extinction Of The Critical Mind

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” — Marie Curie

Today, Anya Kamenetz, her fiance Adam and I spent an hour walking around my neighborhood, the Lower Garden District. While Adam took lots of pictures, Anya and I discussed the biggest problems facing a part of New Orleans that fared relatively well after the storm and flood. Anya was pretty devastated to see the empty lots that once held the Coliseum Place Baptist Church and Coliseum Theatre, and Adam was sincerely taken aback at the vacant spaces and rich-poor disparity apparent even in uptown, riverside neighborhoods of Orleans parish.

The couple struck me as very sweet and unassuming for young and successful New Yorkers. Both have visited New Orleans many times, especially given that Anya is from here and her parents still live Uptown. Tomorrow, they head down to Iberville, where even I don’t yet have the stomach to tread (Bay St. Louis, Waveland and a small part of Plaquemines Parish were enough for me). I wish them all the best.

As we walked by my house, Adam saw a car parked on the street with an FSM bumper sticker on it. He turned to me and asked, “That’s your car, isn’t it?” I nodded and asked how he knew. He said it was a very educated guess. What, is there a mark on me somewhere from when I was touched by His Noodly Appendage and converted to Pastafarianism? [If you (mom) haven’t the foggiest about what I am talking about, see here.]

Geologist –> evolution –> FSM. Good guess.

For a few days, I’ve been thinking about the findings of a study on evolution vs. creationism around the globe.

[This] comparison of peoples’ views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America’s low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close, said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist … yet , these are the same people who are purportedly at and fully support ideological war with fundamentalist terror-mongers here and worldwide. So, it’s not a war against fundamentalism, but whose brand of fundamentalism is better. Takes one to know one, right?

Granted, not all in favor of military action against terror (which, I know, has its own questionable connotations) are fundamentalist Christians. However, our ruling political party shares and espouses a lot of the same beliefs, that:

a) promotes the notion that fundamentalist Muslims are wrong while their Christian counterparts are right,

b) provides political fuel for campaigns based on issues of Christian morality, and

c) tells me that American students will not be encouraged to receive sound science educations, even though it’s what we desperately need to gain a global competitive edge, if it encourages a certain political mindset.

Questioning is no longer encouraged and, at the civic level, dissent is equated with the mark of the terrorist. I, for one, do not wish to witness the extinction of the Critical Mind in relation to learning, the government and each other. So, what do we do?

During one of our marathon email rounds, I presented this to Julie, the paleontologist and High Priestess of science education. “Can’t say that I’m surprised at Americans’ growing disrespect for biology,” came the reply. “But, man, would I love to pull their access to medical care.”