By Heresies Distressed (Pt III)

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way."

Recently I attended a talk on the state of science education in Our Fair City. (My apologies if you choked on something when you saw the link. ;) I live under a pretty big rock sometimes, so I really didn't know what to expect from this talk, save that I thought the emphasis might be on teaching the process of critical thinking, rather than facts about science. And there was a good deal of valuable discussion on that point.

But the main point of discussion was the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Now, Our Fair City is pretty liberal, so I didn't think that this was a problem in our area. But apparently there is a survey out there somewhere that did not give Our Fair State a favorable ranking in science education. And apparently this has a great deal to do with how evolution is taught.

Yours truly was displeased to learn that science education has become synonymous with evolution. [Mini-rant begins.] Science is so much more than that. It is, first and foremost, a process of thinking critically about the evidence in front of you, whether that evidence be a fossil, the light from a star, or the behavior of an individual. Science is not a club you join, or a replacement for spirituality. (The chief doctrine of Buddhism is "Be ye lamps unto yourselves." As in, think critically about what's in front of you, and don't follow along like a sheep. So science does not have a monopoly on critical thinking.) And while science is also a community, it should not be a community that allows its actions to be dominated by an anti-religion agenda. [Mini-rant over.]

During all the back and forth about evolution vs. creation, yours truly was wondering 'Why doesn't the idea of evolution distress me? How did I get to this place?' I didn't get there by simply switching the authority to which I pledged my allegiance. I didn't get there through fear, or peer pressure. I got there by embracing and nurturing the power to ask questions and answer them for myself. I questioned authority, and found it lacking. I also found that authority didn't particularly care if I got hurt when I followed it, and therefore I was often better off thinking for myself.

My next question was 'Why aren't more people doing this?'

"One of the basic human desires is the desire to be dominated. Dictatorships and cults arise from the desire of certain communities to be dominated by some powerful figure. Our primate relatives often live in small packs dominated by one unquestioned leader. Maybe this is how we're programmed to respond. In any case, a dictator doesn't come into power by his personal force alone. He comes into power when people want to be led, when people want to transfer responsibility onto some supposedly greater person.

It's very convenient to be told what to do. You no longer have to think for yourself. You no longer have to make your own decisions. That can be a tremendous relief. It's why some of the smartest people in the world often fall prey to the kookiest cults. They're just tired of being responsible for themselves." - Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate, Brad Warner (2009). (Good book. Worth the read.)

Assuming that it is advantageous to be a critical thinker, how do you go about giving people (especially children) the ability to be independent thinkers? How do you give them the desire to be independent thinkers? What can you do to influence the next generation if you are neither parent nor teacher? And how do you do it without simply becoming another 'authority' to which they transfer their allegiance? (More thoughts on this are forthcoming.)