Say say anything (A Fine Frenzy)
I've been listening A Fine Frenzy's Bomb in a Birdcage and frankly, I just love her voice and the general sound of her songs. It makes me feel happy even though I don't really listen to the words that much.
Anyway, I recently watched the video of the
2011 Miss USA delegate's responses to the question "Should evolution be taught in schools?" due to all the hullabaloo on Facebook. Maybe I'm just too accepting of an individual, but I don't see why so many people disliked it, or rather, are displaying such scorn. I guess it's pretty easy to go and think "Man, they're pretty dumb" and say that beauty and intelligence don't mix, but I think they did alright answering such a controversial question. Sure, most of them tried to find a compromise between both sides of the issue (creationism vs. evolution), but in such a competition, where you don't want to offend anyone or let yourself get grouped and judged by stereotypes, such a response would seem like the safest route. I must admit, the part of me that is entrenched in science cringed at the denouncements of evolution as fact and other such sayings, but overall I could just understand the nature of their responses. Miss Vermont did seem to steal the show with really bringing up the need to know and understand evolution with regards to bacteria and disease, but what was said about how religion and evolution can "coexist", so to speak, deserved some attention as well.
In Honors 101, Introduction to Research, we're reading David Sloan Wilson's
Evolution for Everyone that has provided reasonable argument for why evolution should be learned by everyone, even those who are religious. It is true that there is the touchy aspect where he shows that evolution is more capable of explaining why things are the way they are with proof, thus pointing out a "flaw" in religion, but Wilson doesn't claim that religious beliefs should be abandoned.
The main thing this conflict has brought to my mind is that the fact that there are parodies like "Should math be taught in schools," implying that saying no to teaching evolution would be like saying no to teaching math. The thing that bothers me about this parody is that while not accepting math would cause an individual to essentially be unable to function in our (what is meant by "our"?) present day society because of how it is needed in relation to our finances, not accepting evolution wouldn't necessarily impede the individual's chances directly. Oh, sure, understanding natural selection and how we developed gives us information about how we can change our present environments in order to produce desirable changes visible in the future and about what kind of thing (or person) we expect will lose the ever-present conflicts, but we don't exactly see acceptance of evolution as something as necessary to function in our society. Even though we (again, who is "we"?) push science and this pursuit of knowledge and understanding, American has had a history of religious belief, so this fight picked is kind of against ourselves. Proponents of change may, at times, see religion as erroneous, but it does have a function in societies as a binding force and as ideas that give individuals reasons and motivation to live.
It's not to say that I wasn't amused with the parody, but it was quite exaggerated (which, I suppose, is also the nature of parodies as well). Another thing that bothered me, perhaps, about the responses themselves, and the parody, was the focus on the interests of the children. Thumbs up to the delegates that noted the importance of evolution education in high school and college. Those are definitely more crucial decision-making times for individuals', in comparison to their "childhoods", growing up. Families do socialize individuals to believe certain ways. To grow up in a religious family and to keep holding on to those beliefs as one grows older definitely will impact the way an individual views the world and their existences in general. If we really wanted to change the world to accept evolution, teaching children this in elementary school is necessary, though it may conflict with what they believe in at home. The problem is overcoming that conflict, especially with the belief difference across generations. I think back to beliefs about Pluto being a planet, and beliefs of whether or not homosexual relationships are acceptable. There is the conflict between the new generations (the children) and the older generations (the parents), but which group has more power and say in the government, and which group has the greater capacity to accept change? I'm going off on tangents now, so maybe I'll stop talking about this. The greater question behind "Should we teach evolution in schools?" would be "What kind of world of beliefs do we want to create?" I can promote acceptance of everything and choice as did many of the 51 delegates, but is that really going to happen in this world where everyone wants power and someone always tends to have to be "right", where right is not necessarily what's "true" but rather what's believed by majority of society?
The family's role in socialization may not be decreasing as education's (and society's) role may be increasing, but family still has the control of those very first seeds that are planted.
While this is slightly lengthy and unorganized, and I really don't tend to do this kind of thing at all, I just needed to get this off my chest. There will always be this conflict, and creating a peace between both sides probably isn't possible. It is a matter of beliefs, but how do you get the entire world to believe in one thing? Conflict of culture, conflict of lifestyle... With the prevalence of one thing, another thing becomes destroyed or changed. And if some of the people disliking that video are those that claim themselves strong advocates of science (this sounds really dumb), well, I feel like they're wasting their time. Regardless of whether or not these delegates provided acceptable responses, in their opinions, I think that this "opposition" can just be looked over and one's own business can be minded because the people who do want to open their eyes and accept evolution will also be the ones that understand how to use knowledge of it to their benefit.
