When will people learn..?

Question

The people voted into power, as well as the political underlings, are almost exclusively scientifically illiterate, and have degrees in economics, law or business..

Any claims of religious alliance or having "faith" are merely to suck the belivers in, as in the USA for eg, they are the political power base.
The self serving, greedy, unscrupulous and immoral frameworks of business economics or law ethics preclude any alleged moral high ground, religious or otherwise anyway..

I believe that a much greater level of scientific literacy is crucial to any future goverment or leadership, from the local community to the national arena, so that "informed" and "relevant" decision can be made regarding the future of the global community and especially the environment.

Religion only stifles the ability to learn and increase knowledge, especially any new knowledge as it becomes evident.

So what do you think, more scientific literacy in all learning institutions for a better future..?

"mithrill", appart from the obvious fruitackes that have responded, I appreciate you comments. However I disagree with you on some points.
There are no recognised scientific studies showing a postive effect from prayer, period. I'm sure there are some "in house" seemingly positive results though..
Also whatever we don't know about the brain, the incredible discoveries that have been made so far are thanks to science. More than a slight omission there..
The same for dreams, but consider that dogs dream, and that a dreaming mind would've been happening long before the largest primate was still the size of a mouse, so millions of years before biblical records of dreaming..
Lastly, people can be spritual without worshiping a god or gods, so another invalid point I'd say..

Answer 1

I was totally with you until the whole religion stifling learning bit.

It's important to be scientifically literate, and it does not automatically need to be placed at odds with religion. And I agree that politics directly manipulates religion. It does not, however, rob religion entirely of its meaning and significance.

Studies have shown that prayer, in addition to western medicine, if more effective than the medicine alone. It may be psychological, but is psychology not a science as well?

Many things remain a mystery to science, like much of the human brain and how it works. Has science found what dreams are, for example? Yet they have been around since the Biblical times. (And we know this how? Get the point?) We are physiological beings. To deny our spirituality can limit our potential.

Your point in this question is so perceptive that this generalization about religion is just a tragedy. I strongly agree that our whole society can benefit greatly from scientific literacy, but not at the expense of religion. They co-operate with each other, and to suggest that they compete with each other is such a limited view of both areas.

Answer 2

At this point, I would settle for more literacy and the ability to read, write and spell, much less scientific literacy. But yes, we definitely need more scientific literacy -- not just among our elected and appointed officials, but in journalism and media and among the country as a whole. The statistics on how the U.S. has lost its lead in this regard, and how other countries are graduating far more scientists and engineers, are frightening. Other countries now lead the U.S. in many high technology endeavors where we traditionally led. Maybe that will prove ultimately useful in causing us to tame our political arrogance, gain a little humility, and start talking to the rest of the world instead of just bombing whomever we disagree with.

But global warming is a fact, there is no scientific disagreement, and we cannot get our own government to take action or even sign the Kyoto accords. We have the technology to become energy independent and stop polluting the atmosphere but we continue to burn fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow. The arctic ice cap is melting and there is no reversal of the process in sight. Our administration ignores all the scientific evidence in advance of hurricane Katrina and allows hundreds of thousands of our citizens to suffer through government inaction. The list is endless.

Scientific literacy depends heavily upon logic and reason. Without even getting into the debate about how faith in place of reason has wrecked out government, just the general lack of reason and simple logic in governmental decisions is killing us.

Regardless of your politics, I would highly recommend reading the just-published "The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore. If that doesn't scare the living sh-- out of you, nothing will. I only hope that enough Americans take it as a call to action.

Yes, I know it is even worse in other countries, and I look forward to answers to this question from other parts of the world. But the U.S. was created and our Constitution written by a generation of people who believed that science and logic and the rule of reason were the things that would actually make it possible for a Democracy to work. To think that our leaders were smarter 235 years ago than they are today is pretty depressing.

Answer 3

Man has such a tendency to lie to me. For this reason, I study the Bible. I was astonishd to discover how accurate it is - so accurate, that predictions made thousands of years ago have occurred exactly as predicted. This is one of the reasons that I know there is an all-knowing God behind the Bible, who is not bound by time and knows the end from the beginning.

I would not have taken the Bible so seriously if God had not shown such complete control and knowledge of the future. The mastery of this knowledge is revealed clearly in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation.

God promised that He does nothing until He tells His prophets first. Prophecy warns us about future crisis. The Bible is a recording to teach us that God does exactly what God says He will do.

Answer 4

OK well yes scientific literacy is impt. However you can't totally write off religion, When you say,"Religion only stifles the ability to learn and increase knowledge, especially any new knowledge as it becomes evident." I disagree.
A selfish person is going to justify their actions w/ rhetoric and perhaps claim "religion" made them do it. Just because many
fail to be truly religious or spiritual does not mean religion is bad. Good question. You are making me think. Science cannot be ignored. Intelligent and informed decisions based on the environment and the impact on "earth life" needs to be taken into consideration. Oh well. I tried.

Answer 5

i think in case you replaced the word "theory" with the synonymous word "hypothesis" you does not have a topic. except you're thoroughly unthinking, it is impossible to no longer have already got a preconceived suggestions approximately what you are going to earnings. there is no longer something incorrect with already having ideals, you are able to no longer no longer have them... in any case because of the fact the consequence of gaining know-how of you learn in case you have been the two ultimate, incorrect, or particularly the two on your ideals. enable's take some thing common as an occasion. The Earth strikes around the solar. My Preconceived hypothesis: From adventure i will watch the solar circulate around the sky. The Earth sounds like it is tremendously nevertheless. as a thank you to in common terms end that the solar is the guy who's easily shifting. ^The above is even regardless of the undeniable fact that incorrect. The argument against the above is that once you do the mathematics it is plenty less difficult for the Earth and planets to be circling the solar and not each little thing circling the Earth. additionally we can learn Venus and notice how the dark part of Venus changes (see as Venus is going around the solar distinctive areas of it are lit up showing that it is shifting around the solar). And why it feels like the Earth isn't shifting is defined because of the fact we are in fact "shifting with" the Earth. ===== As an element notice I disagree with the guy who reported "ideals tend to get interior the way". it is no longer genuine, in fact, maximum scientific information are easily "ideals" until eventually now they're shown. you have a theory, you circulate out and teach that theory. Copernicus believed the Heliocentric kind, he went out and proved it.

Answer 6

No, in fact I think there should be more morality and Bible believing people that hold offices and lead our country. The farther away from morality we get the worse God will punish our country. We need to seek Him, His will and follow His guidelines to get our country going in the right direction. I believe too that leaders should be literate in all areas as much as possible.

Answer 7

science itself is a limiter of knowledge that could be gained just like religion is. When you set your learning based on rules you lose something but what you gain is worth it in both the perspective from science and religion. I actualy think schools in the US should be matching the rest of the western world in respect to having more philosophic classes. While philosophy is not generaly taught well in schools at least trying to inform people about what it is could be useful in both respect to knowledge gained spiritualy and or scientificly. So while more science classes could be good I think more classes on logical and illogical thinking are needed more.

Answer 8

I'd like to know when athiests are ever going to shut up. You're playing a broken record. What is it, really, about Christianity that you are so afraidof that you cinstantly have to degrade it? Cant you just get your point across in one post r you all afraid that we didnt hear you?

Answer 9

I'm up! Where do I sign?


Ooooo! spost8260 look at this:

http://www.truechristian.com/atheists.html

Any more stupid questions?

Update: A favor for moises:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_letter

.

Answer 10

it has to be a good idea. at the moment the both bush and blair claim god told them they are right to be in iraq - amazing how the people against the invasion also claim god tells them to kill the americans.
yes we need a government which makes decisions based on science - not based on hearing voices.
religion should be kept to history and philosophy lessons