Thursday, June 24, 2010

Scientists- what do they know, anyway?

Every once in awhile, thankfully not that often anymore, I hear some fundy or other bitching about how you can't trust the scientists- those evil, atheistic, god-hating, evolution-pushing, liberal, evil... scientists. Because they believe in things like evolution and global warming and that the earth is billions (!) of years old. Hogwash, right? Flat-out bullshit, even. They have an agenda to push, just like everyone else, I'm told. Peer-review? Let's see, if I'm out to send the world to hell with my Doctrine of Darwin, then of course I'm going to have my articles reviewed by my peers- because they'll agree with me! We believe the same things! So that proves that peer-review is a complete joke!

That's the kind of crap I have to listen to sometimes (thankfully not often) when I'm around a group of fundies talking about how you can't trust the scientists. They'll also mention how everyone worships something;- the Christian worships God, the scientist worships Science. See? In some ways, we're not so different. Whenever I hear people talk like that I just want to grab them by the collar and shout in their face, 'Don't you get it?! Are you really so stupid?! What about...' and then list off a bunch of things that Science has given us, but God hasn't.

For example, what about:

Computers/Internet- Such a great tool for disseminating (mis)information to the masses. Christians everywhere sure like to take advantage of it to preach the gospel, yet did Jesus give us the knowledge or technology to create computers and digital information? Nope. Science did.

Forensics- (or Forensic Science, you might say...) How many previously unsolved murders have finally been solved (and are being solved) due to forensics? How many innocent people have been freed from jail due to the wonder that is DNA? No, it's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good, and getting better all the time. But did Jesus discover, or even tell us how to discover DNA? Nope. It was first isolated 1869 by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss physician, but then in 1953 Watson and Crick really kicked things off with their discovery of DNA's double helix structure. To the best of my knowledge, their discovery was in no way a result of prayer, hidden bible codes, or from God or Jesus telling them, 'Look over here...'

Medical Science- Everything from oh I don't know, aspirin, to blood transfusion and organ transplants. Science. How diseases work; the fact that bacteria (some, but not others) can make us sick, and how we fight against that bacteria. Viruses, too. I'm pretty sure when Jesus told his followers to go out and heal the sick, he never mentioned antibiotics. Yet every Christian I know is quick to pop an aspirin or go to the doctor, even while they're praying for healing, when things go south health-wise. Funny how they trust in prayer, but seem to trust in medicine even more. Chemotherapy? Science gave it to us. Maybe God didn't want us to get better, and that's why he never told us about any of this stuff. He did curse us, after all. Maybe by taking medicine Christian are going against his will. Oh yeah, not just drugs and pills and stuff, what about birth control? Science! And not just birth control, but fertility treatments? Can't have a baby? Don't worry, science can help! It's not always guaranteed, but I do know that your odds are better than with prayer.

Air Travel- I know so many Christians who have some sort of weird fascination with going to Israel. I hear about churches that organize trips there for there members who can come up with the dough to pay for a plane ticket, I know a few personally who've gone, sometimes several times; I guess it gives them a boner to hang out where Jesus hung out or something. But since the majority of the world's Christians live in other countries (and many of them separated by an ocean) it's a little impractical to pop in for a Sunday afternoon visit. Science to the rescue! Airplanes are slightly complicated devices. You have to know a lot about a lot to build and fly one of those babies. Physics, aerodynamics, weather patterns... y'know what, maybe chariots weren't such a bad idea after all. Or even camels; at least they're ready-made. Throw a saddle on one and kick it in the behind, you'll be there in no time.

Bridges, skyscrapers, the printing press (would've been a tad bit inconvenient to leave Gideon bibles in all those hotel rooms without that, eh? Thanks, Jesu... uh, Gutenberg!) clothing... for a god that hates nakedness as much as Yahweh apparently does, you'd think he could've at least shown Adam and Eve how to make some decent clothing instead of letting them sew some fig leaves together. Nope, too busy kicking their asses out of the garden, I guess. And while it's true that the printing press and clothing are not exactly marvels of modern science, they are completely un-supernatural, i.e. man-made, using natural materials which we had to figure out on our own, with no help whatsoever from God. Figuring out how to make paper, for example, or actual clothing as opposed to leaves and animal skins- that takes knowledge. How do you get knowledge? You could try using the scientific method, which according to Wikipedia, '...refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.' Or, you could ask someone who already has that knowledge (God) to show/tell you, but he seems quite unwilling to share any of it. So all the fundies out there can label me however they want, but until God actually starts speaking up and sharing some of his infinite wisdom and knowledge, I'm sticking with science.