In Theory
Watched Penn & Teller’s “Bullshit” several weeks ago on the subject of teaching creationism (or “intelligent design”) in public schools. One of the arguments is that creationism is a valid theory that deserves to be taught alongside evolution, in order to let students consider both possibilities and make up their own minds. Penn brought up the subject of the Raelians. You remember them, don’t you? A cult-like organization that claimed to have cloned a human being a couple of years ago, and which maintains that the origin of human life on earth is actually space aliens. In other words, we are the descendants of space aliens who planted their “seeds” millions of years ago. Mockable? Absolutely. But why doesn’t it get the same credence as creationism, or even evolution, in public schools? If the stated goal of the religionists is to present both sides as plausible theories, then why shouldn’t the Raelians theory also be presented? Because it sounds completely wacked-out and crazy? Well, that’s exactly how creationism sounds to atheists (and other non-religionists).
You have a good point, david. It does seem to me, however, that there is such a plethora of theories of origins out there that it would be quite impossible to teach all of them. I mean, every civilization with ancient roots has a “diety” creation story of sorts… I think narrowing to to 2 distinct viewpoints, while it may not give the subject a full spectrum view, will at least open the kid’s minds to different viewpoints, or at least the knowledge that other views exist.
Good point Levi!
The only problem I have with Penn & Teller’s take on this is that they themselves have a somewhat, um, wacked-out view toward all matters religious; not that there’s anything wrong with that (!), but when they take on a topic they’re not so emotionally invested in, their arguments are better supported. Too often their religious segments –in my view– consist largely of Penn frothing at the mouth and calling the religious people names. Neither compelling nor entertaining.
Eh, maybe I’m not watching closely enough, but I haven’t really noticed much of difference in the emotion of religious versus non-religious episodes. Then again, I’m more inclined to agree with their religous views than their non-religious views.
I think what it more pertains to is what created “Life, the universe, and everything” (the answer is 42) You have one theory stating “intelligent design” and one theory of evolution.
Intelligent design saying something made all this. Evolution stating that nothing made this, it just happened, lucky us.
So you’re “space alien” argument still would fall under both, something intelligent made the “aliens” or thank goodness evolution turned out the way it did. The basis is to teach that something we cannot fathom created everything around us, or to some extent created it, or that we are just lucky that things turned out the way they did with evolution.
Now at the same time you say no to creationism in schools because “it sounds completely wacked-out and crazy”, you are saying it’s okay to push evolution on members of our society that believe in creationism. But from your point of view, I guess that’s okay, isn’t it.
Well, in the feng-shui episode, they used hidden cameras to show that the consultants didn’t follow any standard procedures for that thing they were claiming was a science; in the Nostradamus episode they showed how the leading Nostradamus author just quietly updates his books when the guy he figured was the anti-Christ turns out not to be it (Khomeini. No? Hussein. No? Bin Laden!); but when it came to the episodes in which they lampooned Christianity, I noticed a lot more of Penn just making snide comments and odd looks at the camera than actual argument. I’m not thin-skinned about my religion, and have laughed quite a bit at some of the religion-based threads on fark, but I find P&Ts religion episodes to be quite lame compared to their rational take on other topics.
Hmmm. I’ll have to pay more attention whenever I watch my season 1 DVDs again and when I finish season 2 in the next couple days.
Also, are you just talking about episodes dealing with Christianity, or religious issues in general? I would consider something like the mediums episode religous and that one was pretty solid. The Ouija board episode, the new age episode in season 2, and the ghost segment on the DVD come to mind as pretty good and deal with religious issues. The Bible episode wasn’t that bad either, though I thought it could’ve been better.
Well, after looking at the episode guide, the only one that seems to fit that I’m sure I’ve seen is, in fact, the creationism one (maybe I’ve seen some of season two, but I hadn’t thought so). And my opinion is still that rather than rationally discussing how creationism doesn’t work as a field of study in science (a point with which, by the way, I agree), they mostly just showed tape of someone talking about creationism followed by a snide comment. Not convincing, except to someone who already agreed with them.
I’ll agree with you that the creationism episode wasn’t very good, especially compared to other episodes.
Yikes. I gotta stop posting from two different computers with two different names and autofill enabled. Yes, I am Raving Norseman, too.