Wed, 26 May 2004

The Poof Factor

Over the course of some of our recent travels, Kris and I got into several interesting conversation (I love to travel with her - she can come up with some of the damndest insights while on the road). One of these revolved around the whole myth of Noah's Ark and how it was taken so literally by so many.

Of course, one immediate problem that springs to mind with taking the tale as gospel truth (pun intended) is the simple matter of fitting several of all the animals, plants, microbes, etc., into a ship of the size described in Genesis. Not to mention their feed, and the generated manure, and the crew time necessary to care for the livestock (trust me, we know all about the latter).

Yet the belief in a literal ark persists - and apologists will come up with all manner of convoluted schemes to explain away the problems, tossing Occam's Razor right out the porthole in the process. But eventually, it all boils down to a very simple proposition on the part of the true believers:

God said 'Poof!', and it happened!

This is the ultimate statement of faith: 'God said it, I believe it, that settles it.' The complete and utter refusal to believe the evidence of your own mind or eyes against the ramblings of an ancient (or, in some cases, modern) 'revelation'. Every argument, debate or disagreement between anyone who holds to reason and someone who holds to faith will ultimately end up at the 'Poof Point'.

Heathens don't have much use for the Poof Factor: one of the defining characteristics of any polytheistic faith is the acceptance of other, alternate world views as equally valid and 'true' (small 'T'). We recognize that our sacred texts are not 'revelations', but rather myths, designed to explain the natural world and our relationship to it in a context that can be easily understood. Lacking the 'One True Way', and without the absolute commandments of the Powers That Be, we tend to be a tolerant and discerning folk, given to questioning and testing our path.

Unfortunately, there are very few of "us" (tolerant heathens or atheists) and a whole lot of "them" (loony fundies of every stripe). The consequences of this demographic imbalance loom large in many areas.

The article referenced as the link below puts this type of uncritical thinking (if it can be called thinking at all) into the context of fear. Which is a very scary thing, especially when it comes to making crucial public policy decisions based not on reason, but on raw, naked terror.

I am beginning to understand that the core motivation driving the supporters of such proposals [for the teaching of "creation science"] is fear. Not fear for themselves — they are too strong in their faith to be corrupted by evolutionary science. It is fear for their children and in particular, fear for their children’s souls. There is a genuine belief that accepting an evolutionary view of biological phenomena is a giant step on the road to atheism, and in learning evolutionary theory their children are in peril of losing salvation. Given the beliefs they hold, this is not a silly fear. From their perspective, atheism is a deadly threat, and evolution is a door through which that threat can enter to corrupt one’s child. No amount of scientific research, no citations of scientific studies, no detailed criticism of the Wellsian trash science offered in “teach the controversy” proposals, speaks to those fears. If one genuinely fears that learning evolution will corrupt one’s children and damn them for eternity, scientific reasoning is wholly irrelevant.

(link) [The Panda's Thumb]

/Asatru | 1 writeback | permanent link

On
A Mindful Life wrote

Poof Positive

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