Self Blinding

WHEN THE CHRISTIAN LADY responded to me in a conversation about evolution that "if evolution were true, chimpanzees would be giving birth to humans", I knew it was over. Hopeless. Time to quit. All I could do is smile. My apologies to the gods of science and common sense, but, there comes a time to just pack up and go home. Piling facts atop facts does not change the minds of humans. Oh, how I wanted to mention Jared Diamond ("The Third Chimpanzee") and proclaim: "quite right, madam, and indeed, chimps already do give birth to humans, who, after all, are indeed chimps themselves!"..but no..I'm older now, and, I hope, wiser... This is a Bible study lady who never got back to me when I handed her a list of Bible verses and chapters which described the Earth as flat. To me, the frightening thing is, even with all our modern educational opportunities, a huge number of people still use their minds as if they were living in the dark ages, which, now that I think about it, they may well be. It almost seems as if every conservative denies human made climate change, a clear indication that ideology, bias and emotion, rather tan intellectual, objective analyses are controlling the thought processes, and hence behavior, of most people. The reason this is important is that critical thinking skills, thought processes, and attitudes determine behavior, which in turn determines survival, and level of happiness, and in an advanced, modern society, this means the difference between nuclear war, and a hunger free, disease free, violence free global community. Interestingly, the same people who reject some forms of modern, factual science, such as, say, evolution, also reject other forms of modern, factual science, such as man made global warming. There must be something in the water which makes the same people who believe that God writes books also believe that god suspends the laws of physics concerning the coefficient of heat absorption of the element carbon, just for us earthlings. The Christian lady believes in a god who orders parents to put disobedient children to death, but who does not allow carbon to cause global warming. Wow. Our problem is not lack of educational opportunities. Our problem is our own self-blinding.