B.R. Owens: Accepted ignorance

The Oct. 28 letter “Carson no ‘crackpot’ ” was a great example of the “My ignorance is just as valid as your facts!” argument and is a serious education concern.

This creationist rant is believed by many Americans and is usually presented in loud, emotional tones. It is held to be the “truth” by some Christians, yet no theology is mentioned. It is just more anti-science clap-trap. The fact that the Vatican finds no religious conflict with Darwin’s theory seems inconvenient and is always ignored.

The “anti-climate change” position is a parroting by the undereducated of the fossil-fuel industry’s anti-regulation stance as espoused by commentator Rush Limbaugh and tea party owners, the Koch brothers.

Fossil-fuel magnates have the money – witness the Republican political candidates refusing to state they “believe” in evolution.

To save our children from this mindless position takes an aggressive science education program. The alternative is to relax our immigration limits for the Indian and Asian scientists we need to keep us competitive with the rest of the technical world. If we don’t teach science, we’ll need to teach children how to start a fire by banging rocks together.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 4:31 PM with the headline "B.R. Owens: Accepted ignorance."