Ignorance is Evil

Ignorance is killing us. I don't mean in the extermination of our species kind of a way. I'm referring to the proverbial lead pipes and plates killing Rome kind of a way. The darkness of ignorance will forever doom us to a world inhabited by all knowing soothsayers and priests who hand down their rulings and condemn us to a reality of war, divisiveness, and subjugation. Like some dethroned ruler, they seek to have their absolute power restored.

As I grow older (and I'm only 38) I've seen a lot of ridiculous nonsense coming from the forces which, through the control of the transmittal of knowledge on its most basic levels, kept humanity in a slave-like or outright enslaved state. They desire, with a lust previously only reserved for their most hated anti-deities, the ability to control what others think. They disregard evidence and in its place substitute blind faith with the expectation that everyone should be as they are and do as they say. Is this because of some sort of supposed moral good? Certainly not although they justify it as such. One can argue and make a solid case that to deny anyone of education and true knowledge (not of the philosophical variety mind you) is the greatest crime any entity can impose upon any person or people regardless of their creed, race, or characteristic which makes them “different”. It is an abomination upon the human spirit. It is a disgrace to continually observe this happening in this day and age of the internet, nanotechnology, and advanced computer systems.

I occasionally question whether the true age of reason has passed us by. While we have made amazing leaps in science and our knowledge of Nature, the World, and of the Universe, the forces of darkness, no, evil (yes, evil because evil is a human creation), have remained and tried to force their mind muddling anti-science view upon the populace. What has been happening? Sure, there are a lot of people who have a better understanding of science but, how many people out there really understand science and its basic tenets of the scientific method, evidence, and education? We live in a world where a very high percentage of the population of the United States does not accept the Theory of Evolution. I've heard some reports of as many as 50% do not accept, or outright reject Darwin's fundamental discovery and theory. I would argue that 1% would be too great a number yet we, as a culture seem willing to sit in our own intellectual filth while these poor people continue to be fed outright lies and misinformation by those who have a clear agenda to subjugate the minds of others. What's worse is that this evil predates upon the most vulnerable who have the most to gain through education.

I won't mince words, I am talking mainly about religion but, having said that, there are sects out there which have no problem in accepting aspects of scientific education but they still believe in something which can not be proved and which requires blind acceptance of doctrine. I somehow managed to make it through that maze but I think that has more to do with me, my parents, and the good fortune of a good education than with much else. There are others out there who might have the spark to be the next Einstein or Darwin yet they are shackled to fanatical thinking given to them by horrible and demonstrably false teachings. Carl Sagan wrote in The Demon-Haunted World that if one was to take the Bible literally, the Earth is flat. The fundamentalist believe the Bible is infallible and is the word of god. We know the Earth is anything but flat and we have the pictures to prove it. Not only that, the ancient Greeks proved it with basic mathematics and geometry. If you know the Earth isn't flat, are you not going against the will of god? And, if that is the case, does the evidential proof of this spheroid planet which we call home cast serious doubt upon what many call the “god hypothesis”.

The 150^th anniversary of the publication Darwin's The Origin Of Species has just past us by and the forces of darkness, again, were out trying to enslave us all. Idiots like Kirk Cameron were handing out modified versions of Origin of the Species which included a highly anti-scientific preface which, amongst other things, claimed Hitler was one of Darwin's greatest students. Garbage. Pure and simply put, this preface is undiluted propaganda with only one intention – to confuse the innocent who may not know any better. To top it off, they also removed chapters from the book. Not only are they intellectually devoid of any reason, they lie through their censorship for, you see, they removed the salient portions of the book which explained how Darwin came to his conclusions. This practice is commonplace to these people and it has been seen in the past. When anyone tells you that they have divine knowledge or you need to follow them for any reason – question their motives. Examine their evidence – not their conviction.

Science allows us to challenge those in authority and their beliefs – the very things which they fear the most and yet the science education in the United States is becoming an enormous joke. Children and college students alike are taught to memorize facts and not to think critically. The very fundamental underpinning of science – the scientific method – is only another fact to memorize. Which comes first theory or hypothesis? For this, I fear, we are doomed to more superstition and more mindless strawman arguments like that for the “crocoduck” or the banana as the “perfect” food for humans (because it fits so conveniently in one's hand). Have Mr. Cameron and Ray Comfort (the other idiot involved in the Origin of the Species scheme) ever entertained that the banana is the perfect vegetative sex toy? Something in me thinks not. I doubt they'd want the idea that the angle of the penis to the body is strangely similar to that of a banana held a certain way if a woman wanted to masturbate with it. Regardless, both arguments are equally specious. The difference is that the yellow dildo theory is only made in jest.

I have a very young daughter and she will be taught to think for herself and to question those around her. If not enough parents teach their children likewise, we certainly will slip backwards to a time where the church or some other authoritarian regime rules our lives. There is hope but I think it will come from outside the United States. There are pockets of us here and there and some of us are louder than others but we also have the Pentecostal and Fundamentalist religions to deal with. They will continue to try to snake their way into our Boards of Education to dilute science and, therefore, critical thought. No, I think the forces of good will come from the countries with robust science education programs. For a country that saw the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, and Carl Sagan and opened its arms to Albert Einstein and Nicoli Tesla I fear we are regressing away from reason.

There is hope and I believe it lays within the internet and its associated mediums. Critical thinkers, Atheists, and Skeptics are coming together like never before. Information wants to be free and the truth, regardless of how hard the forces of evil want it stamped out, will never disappear. We will continue to work and I believe it should be every Skeptic's goal to educate those around them. We may take knocks and the insults of the ignorant but not speaking up implies acquiescence and those who would wish to enslave us yet again need our silence. We must dedicate ourselves to let it be known that there is dissent and that there are facts – not beliefs – which back it up. We must fight for science education at every opportunity we get. We must never tire because to do so means we have given up.  Future generations depend upon us and we upon them. 

Photo by wallyg