Expelled
I just watched the super trailer for Ben Stein's new movie Expelled (coming Spring 2008). It looks really, quite interesting. I think I might actually go see it if it's playing in Las Vegas. He takes on the centuries old debate between Science and Religion, and why it is that in a free society, we allow "free speech" in almost every other facet but this. To question Darwinism (and Global Warming caused by CO2 for that matter - how DARE we?!) is tantamount to heresy in the world of Acceptable Science. People lose their respect, their credibility and sometimes even their livelihood for saying that, "Maybe, JUST MAYBE Darwin didn't have it all right, or the whole picture." (queue screams of astonishment.) What's most upsetting about the whole thing is that there are many more who have a belief in God and His hand in the world we live in than those who believe we came from mud, yet the minority is somehow able to persecute majority and get away with it: in schools; in corporate practice; in social environments. You can question everything else - including religion - but not science - or rather the (queue the booming un-embodied voice) Acceptable Science Community. ( I realize that pretty much everything in science is technically up for debate. The social pressure to accept the Acceptable Science is pretty darn overwhelming though. The Acceptable Science Community goes further than just scientists . It leaks into the media, schools, among other parts of society)
How did that happen?
Probably because we're afraid of not being politically correct. I mean, that would be just SCANDALOUS! (queue shrieks of disgust)
I myself had to learn about Darwin's theories in school; and I learned them so I could pass the tests. I don't deny that evolution doesn't happen at all, I just don't think we came from mud. With everything else biological I studied, I had a hard time seeing how it could all happen by chance. I'm also pretty attached to the idea that my life has a purpose beyond random chemical reactions. Still, even in my small town Utah high school, questioning the Theory of Evolution in class was inappropriate; we were all pretty much silent when it came to any debate on the subject. And so it is all across the country - the world even.
Most of us aren't comfortable being the one that sticks out, whichever side of whatever issue you want to be on or talk about. To a great extent, that is what has allowed society to become what it is. People stay quiet in the name of being tolerant (or in the name of being spared ridicule, or worse). The problem is that you can become so tolerant that nothing means anything anymore because it's all relative. Unless you're talking about science, of course. We all know that we can count on our science textbooks today to be completely reliable 100 years from now!