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November 6, 2007
In Which I Worry About the Election
No, not that election; the one held today. Locally we voted for members of the Community College School Board and the board of the Unified School District. I didn't think the community college board is much of a problem. I voted for the incumbents. The Unified School District Board is another matter. Both the incumbents up for reelection have been on the board for a very long time and have presided over some significant fiscal mismanagement; some have called it fraud. One of the incumbents needs to awaken on a regular basis when it is time to vote. Also, the demographics of the district have changed significantly but the current board hasn't worked very hard to address the changing needs of the district.
So Shirley and I looked over the list of challengers. We talked to a couple of people who knew them; we looked at each of their backgrounds. Aside from one challenger how is employed by a church, there wasn't anything that made either of us think any of the challengers were stealth creationists. The church is a local, more or less liberal, Baptist church. I know several members and they support the teaching of sound science. Creationism is not part of the regular Sunday lessons at the church. And besides, both Shirley and I worked for churches in our checkered past and we were not creationists then. We may have been enablers, giving the creationists cover from the left, but we weren't creationists. But in those days, even creationists thought creationists were nuts. Both viable challengers focused on financial issues, technology in the classroom and how to deal with ever increasing numbers of students who know little or no English. They also spent a lot of time talking about "integrity" and "good management" but that was the issue du jour. The only talk of curriculum focused on technology and English as a second language. When asked, they both said they saw nothing wrong with the science curriculum that better technology in the classroom wouldn't help.
So, I guess I hope the challengers are elected. But, I sure hope I didn't help elect one or more stealth creationists.
Posted by Duane Smith at November 6, 2007 7:34 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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Comments
If I had to classify myself as anything, I might call myself a "stoic logician" perhaps. My outlook on fundamentalism (whether it be fundamentalist christianity, fundamentalist islam, fundamentalist capitalism, fundamentalist communism, etc., etc.) is that it makes a mockery of both science and faith. So my heart goes out to those who are religious but sensible people that have to endure the fallout from toxic loons that contradict their own principles but yet shout the loudest.
Fundamentalism of any sort deliberately hijacks mature moderation and balance for the sake of over-indulgent & self-serving goals, no matter what the negative costs to other individuals and society.
Those that scough at science in this day and age are self-serving and self-indulgent because they would rather fantasize in their own lonely minds than reach out to the world around them and take stock of the knowledgeable opinions of people other than themselves. Christianity is supposed to be about humility and compassion but I see a lot of boastfulness, stubborn close-mindedness and war of late, all of which are serious Christian sins last time I checked.
In computer science terms, fundamentalists are like modules spewing output without input being received. Unless the answers are programmed within them from birth (which is evidently not the case for any human being), their output as a result is a long string of destructive nihilism, just like any malfunctioning module would produce if intercommunication is impaired.
I'm beginning more and more to look at fundamentalism as an overt symptom of "societal depression". Much like a depressed individual, a society can also begin to demand impossible expectations of itself to distract from the real issues, and by inevitably failing in these unreasonable self-expectations, sink further and further into sickness, sometimes to the point of suicide. Hopefully however, with treatment (via continued, compassionate and honest communication) the patient's downward spiral can be reversed. Get well soon, society, because we still need to fix the melting ice caps and there's no time to be down because we have so many good things to experience and learn yet :)
Posted by: Glen Gordon at November 12, 2007 2:39 PM
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