Just by coincidence

Stu wrote an interesting blog last week about the fact that one in three adult Americans believe in creationism rather than evolution.

By sheer coincidence there was an article in Saturday's Telegraph magazine on almost the exact same subject. The article, however, focused on the rapid increase in home-schooling by American parents because of what is taught in science classes when children are about 13....evolution. The American religious Right are, according to the article, "increasingly turning to home-schooling, lest their children be exposed to the evils of sex, drugs or – heaven forbid – Darwin". Almost 70% of home-schoolers in Texas are apparently motivated by religious reasons.

This was a fascinating article and there were a few comments from interviewees that had my jaw dropping.

For example, in one household, TV for the children was strictly monitored: The Simpsons are not allowed - "too disrespectful"; nor Harry Potter - 'the Lord is in charge of your life, and in Harry Potter the characters are interested in gaining power for themselves'. Eh? And this comment related to dating had me falling about laughing until it hit me that people do really think like this and that laughing was probably not really an appropriate reaction on my part.... 'We want them to court, not date,' David says. 'Thomas will be ready to court when he is able to support a wife, and if he can't support a wife, he's not ready to look.'

'We don't want people teaching our children that they come from monkeys,' says one parent, "What happens in biology classrooms is 'a lie'". She firmly believes that the world is only 6,000 years old and that, consequently, man and dinosaurs (created on Day Six, along with Adam and Eve) once lived together quite happily.....which would go some way to proving Stu's thought that Americans don't believe in evolution because they can't imagine a timespan long enough.

And the creationist have an answer for everything. One parent pointed out that it is Noah's flood that is responsible for the existence of fossils. "And as for the vexing question of how Noah got a brachiosaurus, an animal that could have weighed up to 33 tons and eaten 3,000lb of green plants a day on to the Ark – 'He took the young ones. That would make the most sense.'"

I don't have a science background, but my background is farming and if anything can show you how evolution works, farming is it. Perhaps the fact that I occasionally hover around agnosticism but then fall firmly on the side of atheism makes it difficult for me to understand where these people are coming from. There was a time I would have said they were complete fruitloops but, perhaps because age makes one more tolerant, I find myself intrigued by their stories, albeit not to the extent of shaking my beliefs, and amazed at what a diverse lot of people there are inhabiting this world. I'm not entirely sure who is the more naive. Them or me.

The whole article is here.