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PostPosted: 12/21/10 7:13 am • # 1 
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Excellent commentary and stellar last sentence [emphasis/bolding is mine] ~ Sooz

IGNORANCE COMES WITH CONSEQUENCES.... Gallup released a new national survey the other day, noting public attitudes on the origins of life. The results weren't exactly encouraging.

A 40% plurality of Americans seriously believe that humans were created by their God, in our present form, about 10,000 years ago. That's two-fifths of the U.S. population. Another 38% believe evolution occurred, but was guided by divine intervention. Just 16% believe in an entirely natural process, though that number has nearly doubled in recent decades.

Not surprisingly, there's a political dynamic at play -- most Republicans (52%) in the United States embrace the notion of young-earth creationism, while Democrats and Independents accept this in much smaller numbers.

Reading these results got me thinking about a story President Obama told about a year ago, after he returned from a trip to Asia. He shared an anecdote about a luncheon he attended with the president of South Korea.

Quote:

"I was interested in education policy -- they've grown enormously over the last 40 years. And I asked him, 'What are the biggest challenges in your education policy?' He said, 'The biggest challenge that I have is that my parents are too demanding.' He said, 'Even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best education.' He said, 'I've had to import thousands of foreign teachers because they're all insisting that Korean children have to learn English in elementary school.' That was the biggest education challenge that he had, was an insistence, a demand from parents for excellence in the schools.

"And the same thing was true when I went to China. I was talking to the mayor of Shanghai, and I asked him about how he was doing recruiting teachers, given that they've got 25 million people in this one city. He said, 'We don't have problems recruiting teachers because teaching is so revered and the pay scales for teachers are actually comparable to doctors and other professions. '

"That gives you a sense of what's happening around the world. There is a hunger for knowledge, an insistence on excellence, a reverence for science and math and technology and learning. That used to be what we were about."

I've been thinking a fair amount lately about whether the United States is really in "decline" as an international power, and our ability to compete on the global stage in the 21st century. And in general, I think the push in some circles, including at the White House, for a renewed national emphasis on science and math will benefit the country tremendously.

But then I see a Gallup poll that suggests a plurality of Americans reject the foundation of modern biology, and may very well think The Flintstones were a documentary.

It's not too late for the United States to bounce back from this decline, but we're going to have to do a lot better than this. Our global competitors aren't playing for second place, and the more societal ignorance reigns, the harder it will be for us to come out on top.

—Steve Benen 10:50 AM December 21, 2010

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archiv ... 027188.php


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 1:05 pm • # 2 
Let me add a name to this quote: Sarah Palin "may very well think The Flintstones were a documentary".


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 1:06 pm • # 3 
OMG! it actually fits!


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:10 pm • # 4 
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It's not too late for the United States to bounce back


I think it is. 20 years too late, and now you can add a few more years of decline until the dems will perhaps have another chance.
Besides, we are broke, and the wealthy like the ignorant masses.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:15 pm • # 5 
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jabra2 wrote:
It's not too late for the United States to bounce back


I think it is. 20 years too late, and now you can add a few more years of decline until the dems will perhaps have another chance.
Besides, we are broke, and the wealthy like the ignorant masses.


Ditto. The sun's setting on the US.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:17 pm • # 6 
The age of the middle class "enlightenment" of the western world is over. Not just in the US, but right across Europe too. What we have come to know as the status quo no longer serves and future generations will have to find a way to carve their own path. We can only hope to help lay the foundation for a future most of us will probably not share.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:20 pm • # 7 
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We're going to have to share the wealth whether we like it or not.
The greedy have one hell of a surprise coming, methinks.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:23 pm • # 8 
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Not just in the US, but right across Europe too.

Whoa! Hold it right there, son!
There are just a handful of Woolen type religious nutjobs working in Europe. Church attendance is in decline since 50 years, and, goddamned, do they have some interesting high tech developments we can only dream about.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:23 pm • # 9 
No oskar, sadly I don't think so. They'll all move to their sand castles on the shores of the Persian Gulf in Abu Dabi. They'll just loll around on beaches and isolated cruise ships until this whole thing blows over. Then they will race to scavenge like vultures for what's left.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:35 pm • # 10 
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Sidartha wrote:
No oskar, sadly I don't think so. They'll all move to their sand castles on the shores of the Persian Gulf in Abu Dabi. They'll just loll around on beaches and isolated cruise ships until this whole thing blows over. Then they will race to scavenge like vultures for what's left.
It happened to the monarchy in Europe, it happened to the British Empire, it happened to the Soviet Union, it happened to Napoleon... etc, etc, etc....


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:42 pm • # 11 
Yep... talk about living on the cusp of a new age!


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:52 pm • # 12 
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Well, IMO, the Tea Party is merely a symptom of some serious unrest in the US. I also think that they were totally disorganized and the righties took over and turned them into a joke.
Next time it won't be that easy.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 3:59 pm • # 13 
I don't think the average republican politician actually believes half of what that party as a whole is putting out there. But I also think they know instinctively that what is being put out there rings true with the broader population - so they stick with their "message" regardless of their own beliefs. So... if there is an upheaval, it will be in part the result of a lazy, under-informed, under-educated underclass that feels isolated from those who rule over them. You're right... it's happened before - many times in fact.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 4:00 pm • # 14 
jabra2 wrote:
Not just in the US, but right across Europe too.

Whoa! Hold it right there, son!
There are just a handful of Woolen type religious nutjobs working in Europe. Church attendance is in decline since 50 years, and, goddamned, do they have some interesting high tech developments we can only dream about.
Europe isn't immune Jab... niether is Canada.


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PostPosted: 12/21/10 7:05 pm • # 15 
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oskar576 wrote:
jabra2 wrote:
It's not too late for the United States to bounce back


I think it is. 20 years too late, and now you can add a few more years of decline until the dems will perhaps have another chance.
Besides, we are broke, and the wealthy like the ignorant masses.


Ditto. The sun's setting on the US.

all empires end.  it will be nice to be a third rate power like Canada some day.  being big dog is a PITA.  ;]


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PostPosted: 12/22/10 4:01 am • # 16 
I prefer the days when Canada had no power at all, let alone "third rate". Back then, we were off the world's radars - including America's.


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PostPosted: 12/22/10 4:38 am • # 17 
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Sidartha wrote:
I prefer the days when Canada had no power at all, let alone "third rate". Back then, we were off the world's radars - including America's.
We still are unless they (U.S.A.) want something.
Remember the Shrub suddenly showing up out of the blue trying to sell that missile defence thingie?
Surprise, surprise, Canada was the "instant hero" for accepting all those flights on 9/11. Until then, we didn't exist and had received no thanks whatsoever.
USians, however, were far more appreciative and threw a humongous Bar-B-Q for the Newfies who received them in their homes. That was the best thank-you ever.
PM Martin sent Bush packing telling him that Canada would take care of its own airspace without interference.

  


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PostPosted: 12/22/10 6:11 am • # 18 
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The Trial of the (New) Century
Dover and the 5th Anniversary of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District

by Andrew Zak Williams

This year, 20th December marked the fifth anniversary of the judgment in the first major, no holds barred courtroom battle between Evolution and the new species of creationism known as Intelligent Design (ID). The question before the court was whether Intelligent Design was a credible scientific theory. If so, the school board of a small town in Pennsylvania would be able to argue that it had acted lawfully when it amended its science curriculum to include the reading to students of a description of ID, along with recommended readings promoting this new form of creationism. If ID was just a religious belief, however, discussing it in a science classroom would be a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which aims to provide separation of church and state.

ID's “big tentâ€



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PostPosted: 12/22/10 6:44 am • # 19 
"there's no truce in sight as creationism continues to evolve"

It'll evolve into Darwinism.


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PostPosted: 12/22/10 1:57 pm • # 20 
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Ignorance feeds upon itself.


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