Valerie,
I am the son of an emeritus professor who has an international reputation regarding current brain research and its implications for education. He has authored many books and hundreds of journal articles, and he has lectured all over the world.
I am the brother of a Ph.D. research biologist who does live HIV/AIDS research.
You cannot possibly state an argument that I have not already heard many, many times. I am not persuaded � not in the least.
Recently, both my father and my brother have increasingly referred to those who do not share their particular science world view premise as people who are irrational. My brother adds freely that these "irrational" people are to be feared. My brother is an atheist by his own description. Most certainly, my brother's religion is science, but he steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that.
Valerie, if you want peace in the world, you start by not calling others irrational. Think it through. If you and I do not share the same fundamental world view premise, then neither of us can rightly call the other irrational. Rationality MUST be measured solely by the logical progression of thought that springs from a shared premise. If you call me irrational because you do not share my premise, then you are arrogantly claiming that your premise is the only acceptable premise. That sort of arrogance is what defines the worst kinds of religious fundamentalism. If your arrogance � your religious fundamentalism � is based on the Theory of Evolution, then your most basic fundamental belief is something that is unproven and unprovable � it is your leap of faith.
Understand this: I am NOT opposed to anyone's leap of faith. You are hereby welcome to make whatever leaps of faith you want to make, and please feel free to make those leaps with enthusiasm and gusto. BUT please do the first right thing and own up to it, meaning: admit openly and frankly to all others that you have made a leap of faith � even a giant leap of faith. And then do the second right thing, which is to allow all others to make their own leaps of faith, no matter what those leaps might be.
Valerie, you cannot escape religion, even in a science classroom, but you can put it in its rightful place and there fully give it its due honor and respect. What that means is simply this: you entitle everyone to their own curiosity without qualm or judgment. What "huge disservice to our children and the nation's future" is being done in allowing science students to ask their own honest questions? � even if they are Muslim in their thinking? � even if they are Jewish in their thinking? � even if they are Christian in their thinking? � even if they are atheistic in their thinking? ...
Science begins in response to the question asked; it does not begin with the premise.
Valerie, I can tell you from multiple firsthand experiences that homeopathy works. I can also tell you that I was the biggest skeptic in the world regarding homeopathy before my first firsthand experience observing it in action. That homeopathy works is one of the revelations of my lifetime, yet most Ph.D. biologists and most M.D. physicians dismiss homeopathy outright as quackery. I tell you frankly: the critics and the dismissers of homeopathy are simply wrong.
Many years ago, the physician who opened my eyes to homeopathy was sanctioned by the local medical board because he was practicing outside of accepted boundaries. He was willing to try things that worked even if he did not know why they worked. Homeopathy was discovered by Samuel Hahnemann more than 200 years ago (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hahnemann ), but how and why it works is still unknown. Standard western medical thinking rejects mysterious treatments, so most Americans never benefit from homeopathy or acupuncture or herbal remedies � even if those treatments are reliably effective.
Valerie, the same physician who opened my eyes to homeopathy is the physician in the following true story:
http://steven-a-sylwester.blogspot.com/2009/10/connecting-dots-asthma-and-vitamin-d.htmlhttp://community.nytimes.com/commen...d-to-stay-healthy/?permid=170#comment170http://community.nytimes.com/commen...e-of-food-allergies/?permid=68#comment68I am related to physicians. For almost ten years, even my own blood relatives who are physicians would not listen to me regarding Vitamin D and asthma. It is very, very frustrating to go up against the powers that be, because those powers are in lockstep against everyone but their own kind. I can tell you: the truth is out there to be found, but you might be brutalized if you dare grab hold of it.
Valerie, I was born without a left hand 56 years ago because a physician prescribed a drug to my mother. I do not stand in awe of smart people, be they scientists, physicians or academics, no matter how elite and renowned they might be. All of those "smart" people are just educated ordinary people who are fully capable of being duped and of doing stupid things. And they are party-line people through and through. The value of a Ph.D. degree or an M.D. degree can only be maintained if the club maintains its rules and keeps the riffraff out.
Valerie, I can only imagine that I threaten you in some way. Please do not feel threatened. What I propose will not hurt you or anyone else, but it will help many, many people.
Please ponder the lives of two people: geologist J Harlen Bretz, Ph.D. and physician Barry Marshall, M.D.:
http://www.detectingdesign.com/harlenbretz.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/megaflood/fantastic.htmlhttp://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mar1int-1http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2005/press.htmlhttp://www.helico.com/h_history.html Bretz and Marshall are two of my heroes. They were always correct in their thinking, but they endured horrible abuse from the scientific world for a long time before they were proven correct by the scientific establishment. Remember that. The enemy is not a question from a science student who happens to believe in God. The enemy is a science establishment that would forbid a student to ask his/her question simply because that student openly believes in God.
Steven A. Sylwester
