It’s been seven days since the last post.  I swear I’m trying to write more and I definitely will.  Hopefully this will be the start of it.  I hope this week will be indicative of the amount of time I have to spend on these posts, and thereby determining the number of posts I can get to in an average week.

Lauren emailed me an interesting article from the New York Times entitled, “Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?”by Patricia Cohen.  Ms. Cohen mainly chronicles Susan Jacoby, author of the book The Age of American Unreason. In the book, Ms. Jacoby speaks about the decline of the human intellect and global awareness.  Her statement of the two gentlemen speaking about Pearl Harbor sounds too outrageous to be true, but I doubt it is.  Today’s culture is more worried about when Britney Spears’ next stay at a rehabilitation center will begin instead of worrying about the war in Iraq, the escalating oil prices, or the 2008 elections.  It’s quite sad when the only thing a person can speak knowledgeably about is the ongoing saga of American Idol.

Ms. Jacoby suggests several reasons why the human intellect has fallen so drastically.  She argues that anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism are the main causes of this terrifying decline.  According to the article, these “anti’s” can be explained through a failing education system, liberal collegiate ideas of the 1960’s, and religious fundamentalism, just to name a few.  Tonight I will only focus on religious fundamentalism, however, later in the week I will discuss my views on public education.  I might even discuss the how the liberals (and some conservatives) have exacerbated the demise of human intellect.

How does religious fundamentalism affect human intelligence? Well I can speak firsthand on that question because I was raised as a Southern Baptist.  Religious fundamentalism attempts to ignore all scientific fact and instead wants to institute its own “scientific facts.”  Let’s just take a pretty straight-forward example.  Fundamentalists believe that approximately 6000 years ago God created the world in 7 succinct days, thus creating life as we know it.  Sounds great if science wasn’t an issue.  How do these fundamentalists explain the fossils of dinosaurs and the like that are millions upon millions of years old.  Or how about the fact that homo sapien fossils have been found and dated at 195,000 years old.  I don’t believe 6000 adds up to 195,000.  I could be wrong, but I doubt it. 

A second fundamentalist issue is that of creationism.  I believe God created everything.  Do I know how He did it?  No I don’t.  Science points toward evolution.  There are facts, figures, fossils, etc. that support the claim of evolution.  Creationism is mentioned a few times in the Bible.  Fundamentalists argue that God created Adam and Eve from the dirt and Adam, respectively.  This is the only way it could happen.  Why is this the only way?  From what I have always been taught, the Bible doesn’t even mention dinosaurs.  

I do believe the Bible is a great guidebook, but I don’t know if I’d take it for scientific fact.  And why does it matter if humans evolved from some other species?  That theory is not saying God is weaker or couldn’t create Adam out of the dust, but instead, evolution suggests God has a plan beyond anything anyone could imagine.  As I mentioned earlier, fundamentalists ignore the scientific facts that God has placed in front of them.  God has placed these scientific laws, fossils, facts, etc., here for a reason.  I believe it would be highly egotistical and hypocritical to ignore these signs from Him. 

So I hope this made some sense.  I just finished up our taxes and my mind is a bit beaten right now.  I would appreciate any comments you have for this article.  I will try to respond to each comment, but we will see if I get any first.  Just as a heads-up, the next post will probably involve sports again.  Yes Duke lost horribly and Junior didn’t win the Daytona 500.  I think my crystal ball needs to be cleaned.