Here's something else, While at work I came across a recent article in a national newspaper by Professor Brian Cox, which I found quite interesting. The nature of this newspaper tends to mean that the articles are a very distilled view of any subject, but interesting none the less.
Article titled - SCIENCE OUR REAL SAVIOUR
The article is intended to show that in our current century we need science to help provide solutions to some very real problems i.e. climate change, health needs of our ageing population and security of our energy supply. The problem that Brian Cox highlights is that in the US there is a very strong anti-science biblical literalist movement. As a result of this movement religious belief is being confused with science teaching in the classroom, giving an odd view of our planets history, science and the ability to solve our problems.
As an example of how this group impacts our views consider the following.
30 percent of Texans agreed with this statement “ humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time” and greater than half disagreed with this statement “ human beings, as we know them today developed from earlier species of animals”. This highlights the battleground between science and religion in the US with regard to evolution. In case you were wondering, and it should be something that crosses your mind, the survey was conducted by Texas University.
Now it seems that these ideas are beginning to find their way into teaching in UK schools.
The reason science should be embraced is that “it is not a belief system with an agenda”. It is a system of learning about our world, the problems we encounter and methods to overcome our problems. It is also the best system we have for exploration of our environment and as a result when it provides evidence or solutions it is the system we should listen too.
