“Sabotaging a nation’s future”
“Sabotaging a nation’s future,” Infidel753 Blog, Infidel753
The government of India recently issued new guidance on schooling. If implemented as described and made permanent, the changes will be disastrous for the country’s future.
The theory of evolution — the core and basis of all modern biology and most medical science — is to be dropped, except for the small minority of students who “major” in biology. Some other key scientific concepts, such as the periodic table of the elements and Faraday’s contributions to the understanding of electricity and magnetism, are also being dropped.
Science is not only the basis of all real human understanding of reality, it’s the basis of technology, which in turn is the basis of any nation’s prosperity, progress, quality of life, military power, ability to handle environmental issues, and pretty much everything else that matters. Any nation that neglects or rejects science will be a failure, no matter what else it gets right.
There is no ambiguity about what the problem is here. India’s current ruling party, the Bhartiya Janata party (BJP) has an explicitly religio-nationalist ideology, similar to that of Russia’s Putin regime or of the increasingly dominant fundamentalist element of the Republican party in the US. The religion whose supremacy it promotes is Hinduism, not Christianity, but in practical terms that’s a trivial difference — the real-world effects are the same. The new education guidance in India also de-emphasizes teaching about democracy and governance. The whole thing is strikingly similar to what we see in those states of the US where fundamentalism dominates. The post also notes that Erdoğan’s religio-nationalist government in Turkey ended the teaching of evolution in schools in 2017, and mentions several other countries — all of them Islamic — which have banned it.
Indian government officials are quoted as uttering and defending statements like “no one ever saw an ape turning into a human being” — the same kind of ignorance we hear from creationists in the US — and Indian scientists are warning that “this overall move to expunge some of these foundational topics will facilitate a climate ripe for superstition and unreason to fester”. Indeed, superstitious rubbish of all kinds, from homeopathy to “spiritual farming” to claimed medical benefits of cow urine, is running rampant. Most countries have problems with silly beliefs among some elements of their populations, of course, but under the BJP, even scientific institutes are being made to waste money and time on such garbage. Indian scientists are pushing back and protesting, but with the government against their efforts, it’s a tough fight.
Americans don’t need to look overseas to see the real-world results of this kind of thing. Average life expectancy in the US has been falling for years, and our country has now dropped out of the world’s top fifty countries for life expectancy. However, the real story is the exploding gap between “red” and “blue” areas of the country — the latter still have life expectancy almost on par with western Europe, while the former are quickly falling behind, a trend which accelerated during the covid pandemic due to mass rejection of vaccines and other precautions. The stygian depth of ignorance and stupidity prevalent among anti-vaxers is the poisonous fruit of long neglect and rejection of science education in so much of the country, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have paid with their lives for it.
India matters because it is the world’s largest democracy, and the democratic world can’t afford to keep leaning exclusively on American leadership as heavily as it has done over the last few decades. The Trump period showed that isolationism and authoritarianism have a substantial constituency in the US. Something like that could happen again. The whole democratic world needs to be as strong and advanced as possible, especially other large democracies like India and Brazil, so that it can continue to flourish even if a future Trump-like government here takes the US out of the picture for some period of time. We can’t afford to have the development of a country as important as India suffocated by the kind of nonsense the BJP is promoting.
This also reminds us that it is an error to attribute the damaging effects of religion exclusively to Abrahamic monotheism, and to whitewash it in the east or elsewhere. The present battle between science and nonsense in India looks astonishingly similar to the same battle in the US. The struggle of science, reason, knowledge, and evidence-based thinking against superstition, ignorance, belief, and dogma is one struggle, all over the world.
It should be noted that even well respected scientific organizations in the west can be subject to fads: to wit, the Descartian/dualistic/essentialist notion that sexual identity is a mental construct. Although it is clear that all associated aspects of sexuality have overlaps between the sexes, the concept of sex is a physical fact (aside from trivially rare intersex). Rather than campagning for tolerance of different sexual orientations, morality-displayers demand that society kowtow, thereby enabling medicalization of childhood confusion and Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The result is a gift to authoritarians, and possible loss of democracy.
I used to believe, and still hope, that faith in evolution did not need to be taught in schools. People who need to know will find out “the truth” and most people don’t understand evolution any more than they understand the religion they claim to believe in. But it is probably true that teaching ignorance in schools is harmful, not because of the imortance of any particular knowledge, but because of the dangers of ignorance and an ignorant attitude.
Similar things could be said about teaching “democracy” or even “religion.” We were taught democracy (and yes, racial tolerance) in school, and though the teaching was not very sophisticated the attitude conveyed is probably very important to maintaining civilization as we have known it in America. Trouble is that now even the “leaders” of our democracy don’t believe in democracy….not even the respect due to minorities (minority opinions as much as racial minorities) and respecting “the rules” (assuming the rules are good-faith rules and not merely the insane hate-rules promulgated by authorities with a fascist love for power and rule by force and fear).
I am very sorry to say that the author of the present post does not appear to understand any of this. His screed is just another appeal to a particular political religion which is more an appeal to rationalizations of the particular dogma of our own favorite party…some of which may be good enough in itself but is largely meaningless when it comes to rational or honest government.
“I used to believe, and still hope, that faith in evolution did not need to be taught in schools….”
The theory and mechanisms of evolution have nothing at all to do with “faith.” Just as relativity theory has nothing to do with faith. This is about science.
Thanks. I was going to post the same thing. Calling it “faith in evolution” is nothing but intellectually lazy bothsidesism. If you don’t understand the scientific evidence supporting the theory that life on earth is the result of descent with modification, then just admit you don’t understand evolution and they your opinions on the topic are worthless.
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published in 1859 and since then the principles of evolution have been subjected to countless scientific studies. The evolutionary process underlies life in its myriad forms and study after study, we come to know more about life from an evolutionary perspective. This is what biology is about.
Just as special and general relativity which has been studied for a century is what physics is about…
Yes, I’ve read Origin. Also Descent of Man. Of course, the revolution in genome sequencing has confirmed the origin of life on earth by common descent, data that were unavailable to Darwin. It’s not a question of “belief,” it’s a matter of understanding and critically evaluating all of the evidence.
Perfectly stated.
Excellent interview, with a renowned biologist:
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/mayr/mayr_index.html
October, 2001
What Evolution Is
Interview of Ernst Mayr
“I used to believe, and still hope, that faith in evolution did not need to be taught in schools….
“I am very sorry to say that the author of the present post does not appear to understand any of this. His screed is just another appeal to a particular political religion…”
[ These passages are completely incorrect and completely unfair; simply and sadly prejudice. The post was excellent. ]
ltr:
In instances, a few, some, or many; it segways, is segwayed into the instruction. If you are talking or discussing Infidel. I believe you are mistaken.
In instances, a few, some, or many; it segways, is segwayed into the instruction. If you are talking or discussing Infidel. I believe you are mistaken.
[ I have no idea what this means. I read the post and found the post important excellent. ]
ltr;
I was misinterpreting your remarks. Thank you for the comeback comment.
well, thank you to my two favorite “i believe it so it is so” commenters. People who don’t understand the uses of language or human cognition will never understand why i referred to “faith in evolution.” I was not referring to the role of Darwin’s theory of evolution in science, but to the role it plays in the thinking of people who are not too good at thinking.
sadly, these people are not alone in their ignorance. they are part of the great ignorance that sets people against one another instead of working to solve their mutual problems.
i like to say the problem with creative design fundamentalists is not their science but their religion. and the problem with evolution fundamentalists is not their religion but their science. science is not as close-minded as the people who think they are being scientific, and religion has absolutely nothing to do with the creation vs evolution “debate.”
Coberly,
I understood you the first time around. Sorry, about the peanut gallery. Stephen Hawking’s primary motive in advancing string theory is that it avoided the notion of creation that is implicit in the big bang theory. The big bang suggested the plausibility of a creator which was bad juju for one turned adamantly against the idea that a creator would subject one so brilliant as he to the ravages of ALS. Both theists and atheists often misinterpret the meaning of a personal savior. So, don’t take it personally sir; not the science nor the religion nor the semantically challenged.
Heck, ending teaching of a couple of old dead white guys like Darwin and Faraday would get you a medal at many colleges in the US.
“Heck, ending teaching of a couple of old dead white guys like Darwin and Faraday would get you a medal at many colleges in the US.”
This is false and malicious.
@Eric,
Don’t know about Faraday, but I suspect that teaching Darwin for any reason other than to attack it would be anathema at many “Christian” fundamentalist colleges, albeit not because he’s dead or was White.
Teaching Darwin has a place in a college level biology or history of science course, but we’ve learned so much since Origin that it would be a better use of student time to focus on the Modern Synthesis and genomics. Much of that aligns well with Darwin’s work, of course, but college science courses should be about learning the latest data, not historical preservation. This is an important reason to have research-active faculty at colleges and universities.
Joel
this was the mistake made in the sixties about teaching “new math” to people who had not yet learned old math. it is also the mistake made by new republicans trying to teach their “ultimate truth” to second graders…not very different, I think, from new progressives trying to do the same thing. Which, paradoxically was the mistake made by “the church” trying to suppress the work of Galileo…
and, while i am at it, the mistake made by “educators” of every generation trying to force knowledge on students instead of encouraging inquiry.
and, for what it’s worth, i struggle to teach our right wing friends who hate welfare, that Faraday’s family were on welfare, and Faraday himself was a government employee. Their answer is inevitably “someone else would have done it,” proving once again you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him think.
:<)
It is said that “inquiring minds want to know” which is very unhealthy for the status quo.
@Ron,
Sadly, there are too few inquiring minds. Genuine inquiry is hard. Carping and ad hominem are easy.
@Joel,
I completely agree with you on that. The status quo is so healthy that the lap dogs are cage fighting over the scraps.
@Ron,
No idea who the “status quo” and the “lap dogs” are. This sounds like the argot of conspiracy theory. I’m a research scientist. I’m interested in facts and evidence. YMMV.