How to churn out more scientists.
Wow. How long has it been since I posted up here? Don't answer that... I know it's been several months. I've been busy ok? You try squeezing in free time while taking care of a 4 month old, a 9 year old, and a hurting wife (stupid freakin' arthritis)... plus cooking. It ain't easy I tell you. Still, I do find time to get online, and I remembered that hey, I have this LJ thing I was writing stuff on. And some friends of mine who used to read it. Maybe it might be a good idea to give them more stuff to read. Maybe.
So anyways, me back, at least for now. Hopefully for a longer period this time, but still, least for now. And what better way to come back than with a disgruntled rant on one of our many stupid cultural quirks!!
I'm sure you guys at one time or another have heard comments about how America has fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to science. These days, lots of other countries produce way more scientists than we do. For a country that prided itself on being on top of the scientific community for a while, this has to have been seen as a major setback. So call experts seem to be at a loss as to why this is going on. I've heard a lot of reasons, like a dwindling lack of interest (duh... why not trying to explain why that is? Oh, you don't know...), lack of funding in schools for better science education programs, too much outdated information in schools, and so forth. I've also heard lots of interesting sounding solutions, such as a push to try to make science look cooler to kids... ok, that one cracks me up. Science is already cool... it allows you to blow things up in labs, mess with dna, explore the vastness that is the cosmos, and other amazing stuff. If you can;t make this stuff look interesting, you're messing up at your job.
Strangely enough, whenever I heard discussions on this, usually on some radio show on NPR, or some little thing on TV, I never seem to hear anyone actually give the obvious reasons why the US seems to be having a problem with getting future scientists out there. Lots of other entertaining hypothosies are given, but they just never seem to want to come out and say what really could be the hold up. Or maybe they truly don't know. Well, I think I know what it is, and if you guys know me, you know I'm not afraid to say it in the least.
I can think of two major reasons why we're not popping out more scientists these days: (1) cultural hatred for smart people, and (2) religion.
The first one should be easy to see. For years, hell, decades even, there has always been this strong American love for the athlete, the jock, the Barbie doll type girl. If you look good, if you can catch a football, you're America's number one son (or daughter). But if you'd rather have your head buried in a quantum physics book instead of in a sports helmet, you're looked down upon and called lots of names like nerd or geek. This is deeply rooted in our culture, right down to the small town level. Think about how strongly the local high school football team is supported by a whole mid-western town say, but about the chess club or the local science group you'll hear nary a peep. Interestingly enough, we seem to be the only country that does this. Other nations hold their smart kids up high. Here, we tend to champion the guys with the big muscles or developing the big breasts, not the ones exercising the big brains. This is something that more and more people are noticing, and thankfully, seem to be willing to start talking about... at least more recently these days. It's not being said much, but more about it is being said than say, several years ago.
Now, the second one should also be easy to spot, but strangely enough I have yet to find anyone who is able (or willing) to point this out. But it should be fairly obvious to the observant citizen that religion is playing a big part in how many people get into the field of science. And with our rather large religious right messing around with politics (something that according to the law they have no business doing) and with the school boards, this is looking to be a continuing problem that has no real signs of being solved anytime soon.
Idiot religious zealots have always had problems with science, since it tends to make a mockery of their superstitious beliefs. The real big debate going on right now is the whole fight between the theory of evolution, and the sham theory of so called "intelligent design". Yes, I called it a sham theory. It's not a real theory at all, it's just some BS these goons have thrown together in order to find some way to make their garbage seem sensible and give it a longer shelf life. Smart people won't fall for it, but we seem to have a shortage of those types here.
Let me spell it out to these cretins: a theory is something that has been tested, tested, and retested to the point that it has proven to be highly probable. Things don't just start out as theories, they start out as something called a hypothesis. Remember that term from elementary school science class? When we were doing those science fair projects?? You start out with a hypothesis, then you work on it for a bit, run some tests, set up experiments, to see if your hypothesis has merit. If you can prove it does, then it becomes a theory. Now, just because something is a theory doesn't mean it's a straight fact, true, something that these nuts love to say when they try to disprove evolution in favor of their fairy tale version of how things showed up around here. But what it DOES mean is that there is a very, very, VERY good chance that it is true.
Intelligent design doesn't even begin to fit this criteria. It has not been presented as a scientific hypothesis, because it was not meant to be thoroughly studied or tested. You can't conduct controlled experiments on them, nor can you have an intelligent, academic discussion on it. The reason why you can't should be obvious: this is something based on faith. Faith doesn't deal with facts, it deals with beliefs. Science isn't concerned with belief, it is concerned with facts. It is concerned with what you can actually prove, what you can see, hear, taste, smell, and feel, in some way or another. If you can't prove it, it has no scientific merit. PERIOD.
Intelligent design has no business being taught in any self respecting science course. There is not a single true academic organization that supports it; all the groups that do are religious in nature, though some try to pass themselves off as legitimate academic sources. They aren't. Don't be fooled.
Still, this crap is being pushed on schools by brain dead parents and zealots to be part of the curriculum, while others are pushing for evolution to be taken out. This is a pretty big scientific subject for them to be fucking with, especially since it's something they don't know shit about (you know, I really think these people should be banned from having access to modern antibiotics, since those medicines were made to deal with bacteria that is constantly EVOLVING... something that these idiots don't believe in). But they are brazen enough to do it. These are the same people who don't want us digging deeper into things like biology (stem cell research, for example), quantum theory (after all, God did it all, this quantum stuff is just a bunch of humbug), and the like. And they continue to push hard to stop any advancement into these scientific fields, all in a time when politicians are catering to them, all under the banner of another religious cretin who just happens to be our president.
And people are wondering why we're not producing more scientists???
If America wants to get back on track with the rest of the world when it comes to science, it course of action is pretty obvious: Start culturally championing the kids who actually have some brains around here, and keep those religious zombies out of the school boards. You'll be amazed with how much progress those two steps will take you.
So anyways, me back, at least for now. Hopefully for a longer period this time, but still, least for now. And what better way to come back than with a disgruntled rant on one of our many stupid cultural quirks!!
I'm sure you guys at one time or another have heard comments about how America has fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to science. These days, lots of other countries produce way more scientists than we do. For a country that prided itself on being on top of the scientific community for a while, this has to have been seen as a major setback. So call experts seem to be at a loss as to why this is going on. I've heard a lot of reasons, like a dwindling lack of interest (duh... why not trying to explain why that is? Oh, you don't know...), lack of funding in schools for better science education programs, too much outdated information in schools, and so forth. I've also heard lots of interesting sounding solutions, such as a push to try to make science look cooler to kids... ok, that one cracks me up. Science is already cool... it allows you to blow things up in labs, mess with dna, explore the vastness that is the cosmos, and other amazing stuff. If you can;t make this stuff look interesting, you're messing up at your job.
Strangely enough, whenever I heard discussions on this, usually on some radio show on NPR, or some little thing on TV, I never seem to hear anyone actually give the obvious reasons why the US seems to be having a problem with getting future scientists out there. Lots of other entertaining hypothosies are given, but they just never seem to want to come out and say what really could be the hold up. Or maybe they truly don't know. Well, I think I know what it is, and if you guys know me, you know I'm not afraid to say it in the least.
I can think of two major reasons why we're not popping out more scientists these days: (1) cultural hatred for smart people, and (2) religion.
The first one should be easy to see. For years, hell, decades even, there has always been this strong American love for the athlete, the jock, the Barbie doll type girl. If you look good, if you can catch a football, you're America's number one son (or daughter). But if you'd rather have your head buried in a quantum physics book instead of in a sports helmet, you're looked down upon and called lots of names like nerd or geek. This is deeply rooted in our culture, right down to the small town level. Think about how strongly the local high school football team is supported by a whole mid-western town say, but about the chess club or the local science group you'll hear nary a peep. Interestingly enough, we seem to be the only country that does this. Other nations hold their smart kids up high. Here, we tend to champion the guys with the big muscles or developing the big breasts, not the ones exercising the big brains. This is something that more and more people are noticing, and thankfully, seem to be willing to start talking about... at least more recently these days. It's not being said much, but more about it is being said than say, several years ago.
Now, the second one should also be easy to spot, but strangely enough I have yet to find anyone who is able (or willing) to point this out. But it should be fairly obvious to the observant citizen that religion is playing a big part in how many people get into the field of science. And with our rather large religious right messing around with politics (something that according to the law they have no business doing) and with the school boards, this is looking to be a continuing problem that has no real signs of being solved anytime soon.
Idiot religious zealots have always had problems with science, since it tends to make a mockery of their superstitious beliefs. The real big debate going on right now is the whole fight between the theory of evolution, and the sham theory of so called "intelligent design". Yes, I called it a sham theory. It's not a real theory at all, it's just some BS these goons have thrown together in order to find some way to make their garbage seem sensible and give it a longer shelf life. Smart people won't fall for it, but we seem to have a shortage of those types here.
Let me spell it out to these cretins: a theory is something that has been tested, tested, and retested to the point that it has proven to be highly probable. Things don't just start out as theories, they start out as something called a hypothesis. Remember that term from elementary school science class? When we were doing those science fair projects?? You start out with a hypothesis, then you work on it for a bit, run some tests, set up experiments, to see if your hypothesis has merit. If you can prove it does, then it becomes a theory. Now, just because something is a theory doesn't mean it's a straight fact, true, something that these nuts love to say when they try to disprove evolution in favor of their fairy tale version of how things showed up around here. But what it DOES mean is that there is a very, very, VERY good chance that it is true.
Intelligent design doesn't even begin to fit this criteria. It has not been presented as a scientific hypothesis, because it was not meant to be thoroughly studied or tested. You can't conduct controlled experiments on them, nor can you have an intelligent, academic discussion on it. The reason why you can't should be obvious: this is something based on faith. Faith doesn't deal with facts, it deals with beliefs. Science isn't concerned with belief, it is concerned with facts. It is concerned with what you can actually prove, what you can see, hear, taste, smell, and feel, in some way or another. If you can't prove it, it has no scientific merit. PERIOD.
Intelligent design has no business being taught in any self respecting science course. There is not a single true academic organization that supports it; all the groups that do are religious in nature, though some try to pass themselves off as legitimate academic sources. They aren't. Don't be fooled.
Still, this crap is being pushed on schools by brain dead parents and zealots to be part of the curriculum, while others are pushing for evolution to be taken out. This is a pretty big scientific subject for them to be fucking with, especially since it's something they don't know shit about (you know, I really think these people should be banned from having access to modern antibiotics, since those medicines were made to deal with bacteria that is constantly EVOLVING... something that these idiots don't believe in). But they are brazen enough to do it. These are the same people who don't want us digging deeper into things like biology (stem cell research, for example), quantum theory (after all, God did it all, this quantum stuff is just a bunch of humbug), and the like. And they continue to push hard to stop any advancement into these scientific fields, all in a time when politicians are catering to them, all under the banner of another religious cretin who just happens to be our president.
And people are wondering why we're not producing more scientists???
If America wants to get back on track with the rest of the world when it comes to science, it course of action is pretty obvious: Start culturally championing the kids who actually have some brains around here, and keep those religious zombies out of the school boards. You'll be amazed with how much progress those two steps will take you.