The human race has come a long way down the centuries. From some very humble beginnings, to developing the means to land probes on other planets. Once, diseases like smallpox were a scourge; now they're all but erased. There was a time when it took weeks, even months, to cross an ocean, at great peril. Now we can on the other side of the world in a day. Whereas messengers would have to run or ride to convey information to distant lands, we can now do so instantly.
These developments are the result of an unrelenting, insatiable desire to learn more, to peel back the layers of creation, and understand what make things work. The pursuit of science has led us to develop some powerful and dangerous weapons, but equally, we have learned all sorts of positive elements too. Why then, do some people desperately cling to ignorance?
I'm inspired to write this because of my experiences with religious fundamentalists. I know of at least one who insists the Biblical narrative is 100% literally true, and no level of evidence or logic will sway them. What's worse, there seems to be a steady rise in people disputing and distrusting science. They reject the science, and expert experience, in favour of their limited armchair research, and their half-hour Google search. Sometimes, in an hilarious-yet-tragic fashion, some of these wilfully ignorant people will lecture those with scholarly credentials, and dare to suggest their 'knowledge' is equivalent.
How can we be in the 21st Century, having learned so much as a species, having overcome so much, see what we have accomplished slide? When did the pursuit of knowledge become something to be derided? How is it that society-at-large seems to be letting the ignorant drive the narrative?
How might we push back against this dangerous rejection of fact and logic?
These developments are the result of an unrelenting, insatiable desire to learn more, to peel back the layers of creation, and understand what make things work. The pursuit of science has led us to develop some powerful and dangerous weapons, but equally, we have learned all sorts of positive elements too. Why then, do some people desperately cling to ignorance?
I'm inspired to write this because of my experiences with religious fundamentalists. I know of at least one who insists the Biblical narrative is 100% literally true, and no level of evidence or logic will sway them. What's worse, there seems to be a steady rise in people disputing and distrusting science. They reject the science, and expert experience, in favour of their limited armchair research, and their half-hour Google search. Sometimes, in an hilarious-yet-tragic fashion, some of these wilfully ignorant people will lecture those with scholarly credentials, and dare to suggest their 'knowledge' is equivalent.
How can we be in the 21st Century, having learned so much as a species, having overcome so much, see what we have accomplished slide? When did the pursuit of knowledge become something to be derided? How is it that society-at-large seems to be letting the ignorant drive the narrative?
How might we push back against this dangerous rejection of fact and logic?
