Learning Something, For Once

WHAT I NOTICE IS THAT often, if not usually, the same people who refuse to believe in the reality of climate change also refuse to accept the scientific fact of Darwinian evolution, and furthermore, they tend to believe strongly in very primitive, barbaric religion. They are called Christian conservatives, and what they fail to understand is that socialism, progressivism, with its support for minority equality, economic equality, and social equality, is much more closely aligned with the teachings of Jesus than political conservatism. Render unto Caesar, give unto the poor. Redistribute the wealth. These people refuse to abandon the insane belief that God's truth can be found in a book, an ancient primitive book full of demonstrable errors, a primitive, absurd notion. We humans must evolve to a higher level of intellect. It should not be forbidden to believe that the Earth is flat, but it should be nonexistent. The persistence of literal belief in the Bible into the twenty first century is a phenomenon most people in the late eighteenth century would never have predicted. It certainly is not necessary for every human to have a college education, or to be able to quote Shakespeare, or that sort of thing. But literacy is a good idea for everyone, is it not, even for people living in the wilderness, off the land, back to nature? Literacy, and a basic understanding that the Earth is not flat, that the universe was created billions of years ago, that we humans are actually a species of primate, like monkeys, that we evolved from bacteria and cock roaches, and that nature, God, and the universe are far more subtle , complicated, and magnificent than described in any of our ancient, traditional religions, or for that matter, in our modern science. Like Einstein said: "we don't know one millionth of one percent of anything" if nothing else, that means that we ought to stop pretending that we know everything. You will notice that in America, we are all experts on everything; we all have the right religion, the right politics, the right everything. In fact, we don't know anything, which is fortunate, because with open, empty minds we have a chance to learn something, just as soon as we are willing to begin.