Our future will depend on our childrenвЂ™s ability to distinguish between fantasy, belief, and evidence.

Given that our world is rapidly becoming ever-more-dependent on technology and science, this troubles me greatly. They are attempting to force their beliefs into school science classrooms, claim that theyвЂ™re being вЂњdiscriminated against,вЂќ and who knows what else, when their obvious goal is to introduce fundamentalist Christian beliefs into science, or to discredit science. Worse than being puzzled, however, I am frightened by the inroads that people of these beliefs have made into our political system, most especially Congress, as there is now a large group of people in positions of power who actively promote these beliefs, in contradiction to all scientific, rational evidence. Over the last 10-15 years, watching the politics of creationism, so-called вЂњIntelligent Design,вЂќ and anti-intellectualism grow in the USA, particularly within the far right wing of the Republican Party, now manifest as the Tea Party, I continue to be extraordinarily puzzled by these beliefs. In simplest terms, I figure that if a deity gave us a mind to think with, what would be the point of creating the universe deliberately to screw with the very understanding of it that he gave us the ability to find? I meanвЂ¦.really? Not only did I find such ideas ludicrous, the theological basis for God fooling us like this as a good thing was equally absurd to me. Here in the Bible Belt, I was first exposed to those beliefs by people who claimed that God created dinosaur bones as fossils to fool us into thinking ourselves smart. Having grown up Roman Catholic, that was never something I believed in anyway, and never really encountered until moving to Chapel Hill, NC for college and then dental school. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.As a science fan and former Christian (now I would describe myself as an agnostic atheist with strong Zen leanings), I am always puzzled by Creationism, that part of Christianity that believes that God created the earth either 6,000 or 10,000 years ago, and that the story of Noah and the Flood is real history, etc. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click вЂCustomise CookiesвЂ™ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

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