Re: [asa] Dawkins, religion, and children

Pim,

As a meme, belief in God can spread like a virus. I'll grant you that. So
can belief in democracy, which is also a meme. Something tells me that
Dawkins would be far less eager to call the latter a "virus."

Let me suggest an alternative interpretation of all this, one that is
consistent with my own knowledge and experience of American controversies
about religion, science, and the schools.

Let me suggest that Dawkins, who probably lacks a detailed knowledge of
jurisprudence concerning the First Amendment, has been advised by wise
friends that it might not be politically savy to keep pushing these
arguments about the dangers of belief in God, and to tie these too closely
with belief in science, esp with belief in evolution. If he's too
successful with that stuff, and lots of scientists (esp American scientists)
give voice to it, then frankly it won't take too smart an attorney to make
the case that evolution can't be taught in public schools. And, I would
support that argument myself if it were true--that is, if science were
inherently antireligious.

As it is, I've been saying for two decades that a root cause of the
evolution controversy in schools is the lack of genuine religious pluralism
in American public education. This doesn't create the issue--lots of
Americans would oppose evolution, whether or not the schools taught it--but
it surely shapes it. It is IMO unjust to force taxpayers to pay for what
they regard as anti-religious indoctrination of their children. Bryan was
right about that in the 1920s, and that part has not changed one little bit.
 Never mind that I don't agree with their view of evolution and Christian
faith; what matters here is justice, and I don't see it in this case.

But that's another saw, and we were talking about Dawkins.

Ted

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sat Apr 28 08:22:39 2007