How to deal with dumb design?
Reading the news from the
The failure of the education that student has been receiving is two-fold. Firstly, that he could be at university and holding beliefs that are akin to thinking that the Earth is flat. Secondly, that he could be blissfully unaware of just how outrageous those beliefs are. Unfortunately, my immediate reaction was not satisfactory – I laughed off the matter saying that yes I know that they think that kind of thing in the
Dealing with second question first, it is necessary to start by pointing out a particular quandary which is quite familiar to anyone who finds themselves in my situation: by reacting, even negatively, to a particular view, one gives it some intellectual cachet as it thereby becomes a thing that is discussed while, by not discussing it, one allows errors to persist unchallenged. I think the answer has to be sought case by case and depends on several factors. Of course, just as with a disease that strikes the body, it is better to act to prevent people being susceptible in the first place rather than having to deal with the actual problem. This has the added advantage that this would not lead to the objection that one is merely opposing views one does not like, rather than ones that are really inferior in some way.
However, given that harebrained ideas are just as common as rabbits and often reach plague proportions, it is necessary to know what to do about them. I think that intellectuals have as much an obligation to oppose such views as they do to propose better ones.
In general, there are two reasons why a particular view ought to be discussed. One is that it is interesting for some reason. The other is that it is influential. I find creationism duller than bilge water (as that is bound to be full of all sorts of interesting micro-organisms). However, it is influential, making it necessary that I deal with it on occasion. At the same time, these kinds of instances really reveal how important a rounded education is. Had the student received a proper education in the basics of science he would be in the position to evaluate creationism himself and the whole problem would not have arisen in the first place.
1 Comments:
The good news is that "ID" is slowly going away. Check out the National Center for Science Education for what we are doing about it.
I like your blog, fellow freethinker!
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