{"id":1036,"date":"2005-02-04T11:07:03","date_gmt":"2005-02-04T19:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/02\/welcome_to_the_dark_ages\/"},"modified":"2005-02-04T11:07:03","modified_gmt":"2005-02-04T19:07:03","slug":"welcome_to_the_dark_ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/02\/welcome_to_the_dark_ages.html","title":{"rendered":"WELCOME TO THE DARK AGES"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Brian Urquhart’s “Extreme Makeover”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> in The
\nNew York Review of Books:
\n

<\/P>
\n


\n

In his recent book on the Scottish Enlightenment James Buchan writes of
\nEdinburgh in the early eighteenth century, “Men and women were coming to suspect that
\nknowledge acquired through skepticism might be more useful in this world below than knowledge
\n‘revealed’ by scripture.” It is a painful thought that in the United States in the twenty-first century
\nwe might be turning away from the world of the Enlightenment which inspired the Founding
\nFathers. Of all the thoughts provoked by [Anatol] Lieven’s book [<\/STRONG>“America Right
\nor Wrong: An Anatomy of American
\nNationalism”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>]<\/STRONG> this is the most disturbing, both for
\nAmerica and for the world. Since religious freedom and popular elections are both sacrosanct
\nrights of the American people, it is a particularly delicate one. Is it possible that America could
\neventually vote to go back on the Enlightenment?<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Might be turning away? Is it possible? Eventually? So politely put. How about, with Georgie
\nBoy elected to the White House last November, is it a done deal? <\/P>
\n

It sure seems so. Look no further than “Evolution Takes A Back Seat in U.S.
\nClasses,”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> which appeared earlier this week in the Science section of The New
\nYork Times.<\/P>
\n


\n

In [school] districts around the country, even when evolution is in the
\ncurriculum it may not be in the classroom, according to researchers who follow the issue.
\n

<\/P>
\n

Teaching guides and textbooks may meet the approval of biologists, but superintendents or
\nprincipals discourage teachers from discussing it. Or teachers themselves avoid the topic, fearing
\nprotests from fundamentalists in their communities.<\/P><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Dr. John Frandsen, a retired zoologist and former chairman of the committee on science and
\npublic policy of the Alabama Academy of Science, told reporter Cornelia Dean this fear made
\nit impossible to say precisely how many teachers avoid the topic. But he believed the practice of
\navoiding the topic was widespread, particularly in districts where many people adhere to
\nfundamentalist faiths.<\/I><\/P>
\n

“You can imagine how difficult it would be to teach evolution as the standards prescribe in
\never so many little towns, not only in Alabama but in the rest of the South, the Midwest — all
\nover,” Dr. Frandsen told her.<\/P>
\n

Dean points out that a 2001 survey by the National Science Foundation found that just 53
\npercent of Americans agreed with the statement “human beings, as we know them, developed
\nfrom earlier species of animals,” despite the fact that there is “no credible scientific challenge to
\nthe idea that all living things evolved from common ancestors, that evolution on earth has been
\ngoing on for billions of years and that evolution can be and has been tested and confirmed by the
\nmethods of science.”<\/P>
\n

Believe it or not, this was regarded as “good news to the foundation” because “it was the first
\ntime one of its regular surveys showed a majority of Americans had accepted the idea.”<\/P>
\n


\n

According to the foundation report, polls consistently show that a plurality of
\nAmericans believe that God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago, and
\nabout two-thirds believe that this belief should be taught along with evolution in public
\nschools.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

If that doesn’t astonish you, how about this?<\/P>
\n


\n

These findings set the United States apart from all other industrialized nations,
\nsaid Dr. Jon Miller, director of the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern
\nUniversity, who has studied public attitudes toward science. … In other industrialized countries,
\nDr. Miller said, 80 percent or more typically accept evolution, most of the others say they are not
\nsure and very few people reject the idea outright.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Or this, in this morning’s Times editorial about Dean’s report, “Afraid to Discuss
\nEvolution”<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>:<\/P>
\n

<\/P>
\n


\n

In some areas of the country, many biology teachers are themselves believers
\nin creationism. A 1998 doctoral dissertation found that 24 percent of the biology teachers sampled
\nin Louisiana said that creationism had a scientific foundation and that 17 percent were not sure.
\nSeveral surveys have shown that many teachers give at least some instructional time to
\ncreationism or intelligent design out of a sense of fairness.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

And the news only gets worse. Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public
\nLife, told Dean that the teaching of evolution was portrayed not as scientific instruction but as “an
\nassault of the secular elite on the values of God-fearing people.” Consequently, the politicians are
\nafraid to touch the issue.<\/P>
\n

Furthermore, Dean reports, “scriptural literalists are moving beyond evolution to challenge
\nthe teaching of geology and physics on issues like the age of the earth and the origin of the
\nuniverse,” according to Dr. Miller, and “they have now decided the Big Bang has to be wrong.
\nThere are now a lot of people who are insisting that that be called only a theory without evidence
\nand so on ….”<\/P>
\n

Who said you can’t turn back the clock?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Brian Urquhart’s “Extreme Makeover” in The New York Review of Books: In his recent book on the Scottish Enlightenment James Buchan writes of Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century, “Men and women were coming to suspect that knowledge acquired through skepticism might be more useful in this world below than knowledge ‘revealed’ by scripture.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-gI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}