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richardhutnik on 11 June 2010
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Scoobes said:
richardhutnik said:
melbye said:

I don't believe in Creationism, but i believe that as long as their ideas don't interfere with my way of living people can believe whatever they want to and i have no right to critizise them for their belief

The problem happens in school systems where parents are put in a situation where they trust to raise their kids the way they want.  People who aren't religions don't understand that faith IS reality for people, and God actually doing stuff isn't just some sort of passing fancy for people, the way that stamp collecting would be for some.  For some people, it is life.  And when you take school systems, then parents expect their kids to be able to be given support by science that God did it.  This is where the creationism in classrooms comes from.  On the other side, you have non-religious folks who think it is utterly daft that people would even question evolution being valid, and feel it would be HARMFUL for America unless kids are taught that.   It is critical that America keep up in math and sciences, so ALL kids MUST be taught evolution, or America is DOOMED.

Now, put these two sets of values together, and then you have a culture clash that is political.  And then there is the third reality where you can't put truth to a vote either.  2 2=4, period (by definition of math it is that).  2 2 doesn't equal Nintendo's Mario (unless Nintendo's Mario is said to be the same as 4).  People see all this and there are no easy answers, no matter how each side wants it to be.

Why is this only a major problem in the States though? In Europe people generally accept religion and science to be 2 seperate subjects, and that they can complement each other. The creationist ideas are taught in religious studies, evolution is taught in science. I was taught the different belief systems of a number of religions but that never interfered with what I was taught in science.

Why is it an issue in the United States?  Well, the way the U.S Constitution got interpreted, the First Amendment regarding religion means "separation of church and state".  The state isn't to meddle in how churches work, and churches aren't to meddle in the affairs of the state (except through religious people).  Churches get no financial support from the government, so they do their own thing.  It isn't a "problem", but more like how it is.   Because in America, freedom is held as the top value, it is different than Europe or other nations that have more Socialistic overtones.

In regards to creationism, or even Intelligent Design, this isn't meant to be religion.  It is meant to be science that is agreeable with certain religious values.  And that is a different animal.  And it is meant to appeal to parents who want their kids to believe God did it, and wants science to back it (or at least feel science is backing it).

Anyhow, back to America vs Europe.  Europe seems far more likely to reach common ground in a lot of areas, and develop consensus on what is social norms.  In America, it is everyone do their own thing, and go off on your own and go it alone.  End result of this is you will have less likely to reach consensus, and more likely to have fights for power where people get fully what they want to do, rather than half a loaf.  Because of this, you don't get socialize medicine (the abortion issue figures into this) and laws get passed to outlaw gay marriage also.  People here feel that those with other values are imposing themselves on them, and they can't escape, so they need to fight back.  Of course, the likes of Fox News does feed into all of this.