{pic by Colin Purrington}

A front-page story in the March 11, 2009, Washington Post serves as an example of human stupidity both laughable and terrifying in its implications for the future of the United States and of Civilization as a whole. The laughable part of the story is the recounting of a recent field trip to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History by students in an “Advanced Creation Studies” class at Lynchburg, Virginia’s own Liberty University—the faux institution of higher learning founded by the late, great religious fanatic Jerry Falwell. Apparently, excursions to venues such as “natural history museums, aquariums, geologic sites, and even dinosaur parks” are a rite of passage undertaken by many Creationists as a means of inoculating themselves against the deleterious effects of science.

The terrifying part of the story is a reference to a 2006 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life which found that “42 percent of Americans believe humans have always existed in their present form.” In other words, despite the abundant evidence of evolution—the well-documented genetic changes that have been observed in organisms over the course of many generations; the chronology apparent in the fossil record; the anatomical similarities and geographic distribution of related species—more than two out of every five people in an ostensibly “advanced” nation such as the United States view the creation stories of their favorite religions as literal renditions of world history.

This constitutes a grim indictment of the U.S. educational system. Not only is a sizable chunk of the populace unaware of what words like “evolution,” “science,” and “theory” actually mean; but they also lack any sense of perspective on the blindingly random diversity of the world’s religions and creation stories. There are as many creation stories as there are cultures. Which one is “right”?… Yoruba? Maori? Hopi? Norse? Mossi? Wakaranga? And which of the world’s religions possesses the greatest authority in matters of history?… Candomblé? Baha’i? Sikhism? Zoroastrianism? Jehovah’s Witnesses? Santeria? Of course, all a Fundamentalist of any kind needs is “faith”… you just know what you know… even when you know nothing at all.

It is ironic that many of today’s Creationists would probably be dead if the “theory” of evolution had not enabled scientists to develop new and better antibiotics in response to the evolution of antibiotic resistance among the bacteria that cause infectious diseases. Indeed, this suggests a means of reducing the incidence of Creationism in the U.S. population that might be far more cost-effective than a rejuvenated system of public education… we could stop giving antibiotics to Creationists when they get infections. It is only logical to assume that if Creationists don’t believe in the process of evolution through mutation and natural selection, then they don’t believe in the power of antibiotics either.

{pic by Godverbs}

To hear some conservatives describe it, the Obama Administration’s announcement that it will rescind the so-called “conscience rule” implemented by Ex-President Bush means that God-fearin’ doctors and nurses around the country will soon be forced at gunpoint to bite the heads off of babies. In truth, Obama will be overturning a rule so sweepingly vague and Taliban-esque in its extremism that it has no place in a civilized society. Under the Bush doctrine, a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription for, say, birth-control pills would be entitled to a “right of conscience” for not doing his or her job. As for the possibility that some Good Christian might be forced to perform or assist in providing an abortion in the absence of Bush’s edict, federal law already “protects” those medical professionals who might find it morally objectionable to do so.

One can only imagine the Dark Ages into which medicine might fall were the conscience-stricken anti-logic of fundamentalist doctors and nurses to hold sway throughout the land. You are taken to the emergency room with a compound fracture of your leg, hoping that a surgeon might pin your broken bones back together and enable you to one day walk normally again, only to learn that your doctor—good Christian Scientist that he is—prefers to use the healing power of prayer rather than surgery to mend horrifically broken bones. Should you really be forced to spend your life as a cripple in order to accommodate your doctor’s superstitions? Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who can’t handle the demands of modern medicine because of perceived conflicts with their favorite religious story books should consider finding a new line of work. Perhaps as faith healers.

Then again, there might be an upside to a Bush-style “right of conscience.” Progressive medical professionals who have moral qualms about fundamentalism could refuse medical care to conservative patients….