Film about volcanoes falls victim to creationists
you wanna know what's wrong with the left? this is what's wrong with the left (of which i'm proudly a part.) we just let this crap stand.
so. without even a protest on either side, IMAX (and there's one here) says, Uh, people might be upset. they've been so trained by these people to be afraid of conflict (when there might not even be one) that i won't even have a chance to see a gorgeous, educational film. (i'm unemployed! what else am i going to do with my days?)
why do the fundies get all the benefits of protest and dissent? where are the evolution loving progressives out there who want to show their kids the fascinating interplay between DNA and evolution? huh? what about our needs?
if this is what the world is becoming let's just wait for all the museums to close, all the schools to collapse so we can all retreat into our dark huts and wonder at the shadows on the wall. oh, wait. that's already happening.
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6 comments:
Hi Churchgal,
I just found your blog over the weekend. I'm a mom in Texas (Dallas area), and it's such a relief to find another progressive woman of faith!
I had to comment on this bit about the volcano film. The Forth Worth Science museum had orginally declined to show this film, but not because of the creationists. They said audiences just weren't that thrilled with the film and they were concerned they couldn't make enough money on it. Now with all the attention it's getting, they know they can make enough money on it from us anti-banned-media folks, so they're going to start showing it. It should be showing by summer. I thought that was interesting.
> why do the fundies get all the benefits of protest and dissent? where are the evolution loving progressives out there who want to show their kids the fascinating interplay between DNA and evolution? huh? what about our needs?
Sigh. I hear you on that one, living in a "red state" in an overwhelmingly "red" area. The only answer I have is that it's up to me as a parent to ensure that my children are properly educated. Increasingly that means teaching my children at home all the things they *aren't* learning in school. My kids aren't old enough for this to be a big factor yet (they're 8 and 5), but it's going to be. I've learned I have to show up and participate in my kids' education if I'm to have any voice in what they learn.
I'm not sure what you meant to say with your link to the Texas education agency -- that our education in this state is messed up? :-) We know that! Do NOT even get me started on the current (BACKWARDS!!!!) education bills in the Texas state legislature... .
I look forward to reading more of your posts.
It is immensely frustrating to me that moderates and progressives can't seem to find our collective voice and provide a strong counterpart to the social conservatives and religious fundamentalists. Poll after poll shows that there is actually a healthy diversity of religious, social and political opinion in this country, yet when rock meets hard place we let the ueberconservatives run roughshod over us...over and over and OVER again. WHY????????
i don't know when everyone else got politicized but it happened for me in college, in the late 80s. i couldn't stand reagan and i couldn't stand bush senior, either. and our governor at that time was pete wilson. grrr. trifecta of ass hats.
so in those tender years, i protested, wrote letters, boycotted, marched, demonstrated, confronted the scary lapd and shouted until i was hoarse. was this effective? depends on how you measure progress. the goal was to bring pressure to various authorities - govt, state and university. and, in some cases, we succeeded (yay for the chicano studies program at ucla).
my thinking is that the left has forgotten the upside of anger. anger and indignation (emotions the conservative right is well acquainted with) can lead to passionate action and debate - and change. we've also failed to spin out the right's arguments; we always stop at a point of reason.
'oh, well, they can protest any old silly book they want. it's not like they're going to get rid of evolution.'
but when you think that the standards from the texas board and the their textbook boards actually influence textbook standards all over the country, the eradication of evolution as scientific theory isn't so far-fetched.
so when are we gonna start getting angry enough to do something?
some days i think we're just effing lazy.
We are lazy. We lack both the true Biblical understanding and the scientific knowledge for the kind of protest you speak of.
For those who are interested, let me recommend several books that tackle evolution from a faith-based perspective and find them in perfect harmony:
"Climbing Mount Improbable" by Richard Dawkins
"The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith" by Richard T. Wright
XT
in a pathetice show of my laziness...
would you summarize?
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