21st Century?
05Feb06
Sometimes, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear we were living in some bizarre dark age.
Want to be outraged? Read Phil Plait’s latest blog entry.
12 Responses to “21st Century?”
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Maybe we never left the dark ages. Maybe we were on the verge of doing so, but stuff like this keeps dragging us back in.
It’s so disheartening. Few things leave me at a loss for words.
We’ve come so far — right here, right now, our species has the benefit of knowing more about the universe than at any time in history — and we still have chains like this ’round our ankles.
Hi,
I maintain the Space Blogroll, which lists as many space- and astronomy-related blogs as I can find. There are 113 blogs now listed on the Space Blogroll; I just added yours today. If you would like to display the Space Blogroll on your blog, you can find the necessary code here:
http://robot_guy.blogspot.com/2005/11/space-cadets.html
If you know of any space blogs not already on the blogroll, please email me with “Space Blogroll” in the subject line and I’ll see that you blog you refer gets added.
My father is a religious zealot and when I was taking Biological Anthropology (aka Human Evolution) in College (at the young age of 40!) he would leave religious paraphenalia all around my house stating the “evils” of not believing in creationism.
The first day of that class, I will never forget what the Prof said, “This is not a Religion class, so we don’t discuss any personal beliefs or intend to disuade you from your existing beliefs. This is Science’s Theory backed with empirical evidence, Science’s best guess, as to what happened and how we got here.”
Sorry Dad, I am more like Mom and have a scientific view of things. Slightly off topic, I know, but the thinking is along the same lines. It’s archaic - plain and simple.
Wow. That must have been tough to deal with.
Thankfully I was fortunate to have never suffered religious indoctrination. I’m eternally grateful that my folks never attempted to fill my head with such things, nor drop me less-than-subtle “reminders”…
Want to see what others are saying? Phil has compiled a list of other sources commenting on these develompents.
A.Reader:
As a kid I was extremely curious, and for a time took an active interest in religion. In time (around 1981 in fact, I was barely 10 at the time) I was becoming overwhelmed with an over-abundance of doubt stemming from numerous contradictions between the religious teachings and what I could observe and read.
The proverbial nail came from reading and digging into the story about Babel, and then seeing Columbia rise from it’s launchpad on it’s maiden flight. Let’s just say that for an already doubting 10 year old, that just didn’t add up
It is dishartening to see zealots get teir way, not just in the ‘West’ but pretty much in all cultures these days.
And the depression didn’t become any less after watching BBC’s Horizon : “War on Science”. Händels Sarabande seemed like an appropriately lofty tune to cheer me up after that.
Asbjorn
I have similar recollections, but my memories go back to Apollo launches.
My mother was a noted Geologist/Scientist/Educator. I was being tugged both ways. My motto, thanks to Mom, has always been to remain open minded, accept new discoveries - but don’t hesitate to challenge them or attempt to disprove them “scientifically” if I could. You can’t discuss science with a religous zealot, “It’s their way period”. (key word “discuss”). It makes no sense, to me, that some deity waved a majic wand 6,000 years ago and viola! the universe and all things living were created.
There I go straying again … Wolverine, sorry for ranting on your nickel, I should be doing it on my own blog, I have very strong opinions and views on this topic - in sync with BA/You/Science Community, but I am not nearly as qualified …
No worries, rant away.
On a positive note: Deutsch has resigned. Good riddance.
Ed Minchau: thanks for the inclusion!
Happy Wednesday News - I knew that guy wasn’t a “real” Aggie!!
this is old but i thought it deserved comment, because it seems like things have gotten interesting in the last couple years, with the vatican and other governments, I think we will see some big changes in the next few decades