Angel or Demon

In tonight’s discussion we looked into religion and science and the role of politics in world issues. Seems like a bit much to cover in one evening, but everyone was game! First we discussed the idea of ‘separation of church and state’. The US is supposed to be an example of this; however, recently there seem to be a lot of policies coming out of the White House with overtones that are highly Christian. For example, Aid restrictions to Africa and other countries that do no support ‘abstinence-only’ programs. Uganda is a prime example, where over the past 20 years AIDS infection rates dropped from a mind-boggling 16% of the population, to only 6% through condom use advocacy programs. Today, Uganda has flip-flopped and is now no longer promoting condom use and in fact has a condom shortage, due to the AIDS relief fund restrictions placed on them by the current Bush administration. Bush’s plan requires that in order to get the funding, Uganda must promote and teach ‘abstinence-only’: telling young people to not have sex until they are married. They are not allowed to educate people about ‘safe sex’ or condom use in any way. This ‘moral’ restriction will reverse the AIDS infection trend in Uganda in no time at all- mark my words. Keep an eye on the infection rates to see the uselessness and moral bankruptcy of this approach to controlling an epidemic.

We looked at religion and science and we explored why scientists are usually atheists. It seems that the scientific method inspires a desire for proof before making claims, and this, in turn, leads to scientist questioning the existence of a god. Also, it seems that those who blindly accept, without doing any ‘work’ are more likely to be believers, than those who dig for facts.

A 2004 article in National Geographic pointed out that 44% of Americans believe that God had something to do with the creation of the earth and the existence of humans sometime in the past 10,000 years (see Was Darwin Wrong?). Not to say that I am any kind of expert here, but that also seems to be the case.

The majority of the discussion focused on Evolution and the fact that Americans seem to be, as a majority, against the idea that we evolved from simple organisms over millions of years. The (non-)debate between ‘creationists’ and ‘evolutionists’ has been going on since the Discovery Institute- a Christian-funded organization- pushed the ‘new’ idea of Intelligent Design on the public. Many in class were shocked that Americans seem to very stubbornly support some form of ‘creationism’ and that there was some ‘hand-of-God’ event sometime in the recent past. The numbers who believe this have not changed in twenty years- a testament to the conservative, religious mindedness of the American population. Only 12% of Americans believe in evolution. A further example of the ‘non’-separation of church and state; education policies in the US supported by the younger Bush promoting ‘Intelligent Design’, which is ‘Creationism’ dressed in new clothes. God (sic) bless America!

Here are some great bumper stickers you could see on some (few) cars in the US:
First, hoping that those who promote (sell) their religion door-to-door, will stop.
“Jesus, protect us from your followers!”
This one supports the separation of church and state by supporting no prayer in public school.
“Don't pray in my school and I won't think in your church”
Anti-Bush bumper stickers are pretty popular: So many…