EVOLUTION

Only 40% of adults in the United States believe evolution to be “true”.  A third of American adults positively believe it to be false, presumably believing that God delivered man and woman,  fully formed, to the Garden of Eden five thousand years ago, as per one of the Hebrew creation myths (there were two of them – read Genesis!).  And 78 % of all American adults are happy with the idea of natural selection in plants and animals, just so long as the word “evolution” is not mentioned in the same breath. It must be reassuring to think we are SO special, us humans!  This ranks the US with Turkey in terms of resistance both  to reason and to scientific discovery.

Writing recently in the journal Science, Jon Miller and his colleagues from Michigan State University wrote as follows:

“The politicization of science in the name of religion and political partisanship is not new to the United States, but transformation of traditional geographically and economically based political parties into religiously oriented ideological coalitions marks the beginning of a new era for science policy.” 

It marks the beginning of a new era for Epicureans as well, however they interpret Epicurus!   It is all very well advocating keeping your head down and not getting involved, but there will at this rate come a point when rational people, such as Epicureans, will be persecuted and discriminated against for their independence of mind.  It is already happening in isolated spots for scientists and is alive and well in small communities with mega-churches, where conformity to church teaching is obligatory if you want a social life.