Monday, February 22nd, 2016
Stephan: Most people who aren't Creationists think people that do believe God created the world in six days, roughly 10,000 years ago, with everything pretty much as it is today constitute a tiny fringe. Not so, I am afraid. The Gallup Organization has done multiple polls on this and they report 42 per cent of Americans believe this; and it has been that way for the past three decades.
The other day I saw a video of students at George Mason University, part of the University of Virginia System in Virginia outside of D.C.. The Koch brothers have funneled millions of dollars into George Mason trying to have people taught what they believe. I do not assert a causal relationship between that and the video. I simply note the existence of the funding.
In the video a team of students from another school went up to GM students and showed them a picture of Vice President Joe Biden, and asked them to identify who was in the picture. Only one could do so. They then showed them a picture of Kim Kardashian. What do you think? Everyone could identify her. The Willful Ignorance Trend is alive and well.
Here is an example of what I mean. And I think we should take this very seriously because it is one of the most powerful forces in our politics.
A genuine example of willful ignorance
This has been floating around for a while, but it looks like Snopes has now confirmed it. It’s real. The above is an actual science quiz given to 4th graders at Blue Ridge Christian Academy in South Carolina. Here’s page two:
This particular Christian Academy is a tiny school, it’s private, it’s got Christian right there in the name so you know where they’re coming from, and like a good portion of America’s much-heralded private schools it apparently exists to give children the shittiest possible education that your limited money can buy, the sort of education that will get them laughed at for the rest of their life. Or something. No, there’s nothing in American law that says you can’t give your children the silliest possible education—if you want, you can teach them that the sun is a 50-year-old man from Orlando who just got […]
