50 years ago, it was the summer break between my 2nd and 3rd grade years in Richfield, Minnesota. I had either just been taught, or was going to be taught, that earth’s mountains were formed by the earth “crinkling” as it cooled. I now know this is ridiculous. Plate tectonics had been proposed before 1967. But it had not made its way into my 2nd or 3rd grade science textbook. I was taught utter nonsense.
The first thing I wish I had been taught in school is that there is nothing funnier than an out-of-date science book, and that all current science books are probably out of date, but we just don’t know it yet. I wish I had been taught to have a deep skepticism of science. I wish I had been taught to go ahead and use what we know of science, but be always ready to change when new facts and new understandings emerged. I wish I had been taught science is a good, but an imprecise and fallible tool.
Instead, I emerged from my K-12 journey somehow believing science is truth. Those scientists who got things wrong in the past, well, they weren’t as smart as us or something. Look at the funny clothes they wore. We modern folk got it right now, to the precision of our measuring apparatus. Where the Bible and science disagreed, obviously science had the correct answer. I didn’t believe in science, I believed in scientism! Science has the answers to life’s issues!
I believe public schools are still teaching scientism. In our quest to abolish Common Core, let us also re-establish teaching science as science, not science as a religion.
It’s been 40 years since I graduated from high school. I became a Christian 38 years ago. My feelings about science are very different now. For one thing, I’ve lived long enough to have noticed that many “scientific facts” changed. For example, what is “known” to be at the center of the earth has changed a half-dozen times that I’m aware of. It’s switched back and forth among molten rock, a solid sphere, a spinning sphere and some sort of nuclear reactor that’s generating the heat. In each case, the article or TV program didn’t say what was at earth’s core was a theory, they said it was a fact. If science really doesn’t know what’s 4000 miles straight down, what does it know?
I have come to believe science without God is downright dangerous. Potentially lethal! Take the case of Thomas Midgley. He developed leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). A one-line summary of his work could be, Thomas Midgley poisoned the earth with lead and destroyed its ozone layer with CFCs. While I don’t know his spiritual condition and I hope he was right with God, Jesus said it’s ok to be a fruit inspector.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Matthew 7:15-20 NIV
If Midgley wasn’t right with God, leaded gasoline and CFCs aren’t going to read well at this event.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
Revelation 20:12 NIV
After all, God has a dim view of those who destroy His creation.
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign.
The nations were angry,
and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your people who revere your name,
both great and small—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
Revelation 11:17-18 NIV
Continuing on the science-without-God-is-dangerous theme, I think nuclear power plants will prove to be one of mankind’s worst ideas. We already have the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the Chernobyl disaster. There are 200+ more that could fail if things that “never happen” happen. Then, we have obligated future generations for tens of thousands of years to look after our radioactive waste. What could possibly go wrong with that? I don’t think there is a nuclear power plant in heaven, and I don’t think there should have been any on earth. Looking at the fruit, I don’t think it will be pleasant on judgment day for those who pushed for nuclear power plants.
On the other hand, there have been many scientists who worked with God and left a legacy of great, lasting fruit.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
John 15:16 NIV
My all-time favorite good scientist is George Washington Carver. I wrote about him in this post. (Read the post to find out about compact fluorescent hand grenades.)
The first thing I wish I had been taught in school is a proper understanding of science.
The second thing I wish I been taught in school is why we learned about Ben Franklin and the Wright Brothers in school. Oh, sure, Orville and Wilbur Wright invented the airplane. Franklin was a statesman and an inventor. I was taught those things. But I was never taught why I was taught about these three men, out of the millions to billions of possible people. I was an adult in my 40’s when I finally figured out why I had been taught about Ben, Orville, and Wilbur. My reaction was a mixture of ecstasy and rage. I was overjoyed to have discovered the secret to super-accomplishment, and boiling mad that no one had ever told me the very simple secret. The secret:
Make enough money so you can use your time and money to pursue your dreams.
Isn’t that brilliantly simple and powerful?
Make enough money so you can use your time and money to pursue your dreams.
One more time. Let it soak in a bit.
Make enough money so you can use your time and money to pursue your dreams.
Wow. I believe my life may have turned out completely differently if my 2nd or 3rd grade teacher had said something like this.
Boys and girls, we learned about Ben Franklin and how important he was to America’s founding and its early days. Many people believe that without him, there would be no United States of America. He was that important in America’s history. But there were many printers in Colonial America. Why do we remember Mr. Franklin? I’ll tell you why. When he was 42, Ben Franklin was successful enough he was able to retire. (1) He had enough income from businesses he had helped set up that he didn’t have to work. He had the time and the money to be an inventor, and the statesman our country needed. If he had had to stay at his printing press all day, he would not have had the time to invent things and be a statesman, and you would not have learned about him in school.
It is very much the same with Wilbur and Orville Wright. They had a bicycle shop. They made enough money from the bicycle shop that they could spend about six months of the year working on inventing the airplane. If they had not made enough money to buy the things they needed to make airplanes, and not take time off from work, they would not have invented the airplane. They would have been just two more people who lived a long time ago, that you didn’t learn about in school.
So remember this, girls and boys. I know you are all very smart, and there are things, special things, you will want to do when you are grown up. Remember that you need money to buy things to help you make your special things, and you will need time to work on your special things. Remember the lesson of Ben Franklin, and Wilbur and Orville Wright. You learned about them in school because they had the time and money to work on their special things!
But today, America’s Common Core indoctrination system does not want common people to achieve extraordinary things. I think George Carlin got it right. The powers-that-be want obedient workers, not independent thinkers who chart their own way to success.
(1) The Many Worlds of Benjamin Franklin, Second Edition, Harper & Row, (c) 1963, page 53.
Are you following God's plan for your life? You should. Your plan sucks. It really, really sucks. Suckage Maximus. Most people are WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Jesus is coming. Are you ready to meet Him? Give your life to Jesus Christ. Time is running out.
Lift Up Your Eyes! 