Education

Be afraid - be very afraidIf those numbers are anything like accurate (and every poll from the US I've seen reported over here suggests they are) it's way beyond appalling. It's terrifying.The idea that the electorate of the country with far and away the most powerful conventional and nuclear forces in the world thinks humans aren't developed from an earlier species gives me the heebie-jeebies.I never batted an eyelid about living with the threat of 'Mutually Assured Destruction' between the US and USSR in the '70s and '80s (too young to care back in the '60s ) but this actually frightens me.I don't think I'm stretching too far in assuming 'not developed from an earlier species' goes along by and large with the belief 'created ~6000 years ago like it says in the Bible'.If people aren't picking up the mental skills to realise this isn't true (and I think it is mental skills rather than actual technical knowledge that are lacking) they can be suckered into thinking or doing anything. Mind you, I sometimes thinks that's actually what our business leaders want these days - a population that thinks 'these trainers must be worth $100 - Michael Jordan wears them'. How else are we going to keep the economy growing except by getting people to buy stuff they don't need at prices that bear no relation to the intrinsic value of the item and the materials and processes used in making it?I realise I'm showing my age with both the MJ reference and the price of the trainers

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

The thing is the public - including me and you - shouldn't really be the ones deciding on the relative merits of scientific theories other than in abstract discussion.I'll accept that the modern synthesis¹ is no longer the best option we have when I see the folks wearing smart suits and posh frocks walking up to the stage to collect the Nobel prize for either showing it is wrong or providing a superior replacement theory.¹ Or whatever the most recent version is called

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

We're 300+ so I can't resist - isn't 'when the sun shines' the definition of 'day' in this context rather than an observation?

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I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then