Making Sense

WHETHER 'TIS STUPIDER to refuse to believe in climate change or evolution is a matter opinion. Arguably, refusing to believe in climate change is far more harmful to the United States and to the world,than simply refusing to accept reality in preference for a primitive, false, but deeply held religious belief. Climate change denial is purely political in nature. The reality of climate change means that in order to sustain human civiliaztion, enormous, fundamental changes in the economic, political, and social structure of society must be undertaken. Change is the trait of liberalism, reistance to change that of conservatism. All climate change denial is among conservatives, for a reason, if not a good one. Refusal to embrace necessary change, refusal to understand the desirability of change is a deadly attitude, an attitude which results in death. Because religion is among the most sacred traditions in human culture, a fundamental pillar of civilization, it seems natural that religious devotion, to whatever religion,is compatible with social, political,and economic conservatism. The pragmatic effects of denyng human evolution by natural selction are far less dramatic; the world doesn't depend for its very survival on acceptance of Darwin, as it does indeed depend directly on acknowledging, addressing, and acting effectively to reverse climate change. On a strictly intellecual basis, however, creationism as a fundamental religious tenet, the Biblical account, for example, is no more intelligent in the twenty first century than climate change denial. It is amazing, that in these United States, with our huge, excellent public school system and extensive system of higher edcuation, with thousands of excellent colleges and universities educating millions of perfectly intelligent people each year - that there remains a significant sector of the population which denies the reality of human evolution. Denial, of course, for purely religious reasons. How many junior high school, high school, college, and university biology, chemistry, and physics teachers are there in America? Tens of thousands, at least? How many of them refuse to accept or teach evolution? Are there any evolution deniers among people trained in science? If there are, you can probably assume that they are teaching at religious institutions, and are echoing the official viewpoint, whether they personally know better. Eventually, nobody will deny climate change, just as, essentially, nobody who is sane seriously denies any longer that th Earth is round. And, there will also come a time when nobody refuses to accept the fact of evolution. One factor in favor of evolution, in terms of tangible proof, is that evidence and proof of it is all around us, in dinosaur fosssils. hybrid corn and other crops, dog breeding, cattle breeding, agricultural techniques in general. Any sensible perosn can take a look at a monkey or chimp in a zoo and immediately discern that we humans are indeed primates, and that our remote ancestors evolved into us. We can look forward to a time when creationism is no more accepted among intelligent people than the ancient Greek and Roman gods themselves It just may take a while.