Circles and Squares

Here is a recent discussion at Asia Institute on the decision in Korea to permit a textbook that purposely omits evolution (see “South Korea Surrenders to Creationist Demands”) The point I try to make is the absolute difference between science and technology, as the great Rudi Volti stressed. Confusing the two is one of the tragedies of our age.

Per Christer Lund

This is truly scary reading. As the article notes, most people, including myself, associates population-wide belief in creationism with the US, so for me this was a big surprise. I thought that better access to information and higher average level of education in a society would make people more rational and able to think for them self, but obviously I’m wrong. What’s next – believe in Santa Claus, angels, trolls as adults?

Stephane Mot

Very disturbing trend towards revisionism in general. See post.

Emanuel Pastreich

Oddly, people confuse science with technology. They are not the same. They are perhaps opposites. Science is a cold investigation of reality following accepted consistent procedures. It is not always right, but it has consistency. Technology is a variety of methods for achieving effects, many of which are poorly understood, even by those who design them. After all, cavemen did not have to understand reactions between Oxygen and carbon to build fires! As technology advances, and blurs the distinctions between observed and generated phenomenon, particularly because the out of control rate of advancement for technologies for the mechanical reproduction of images and videos, it is only natural that irrational perceptions should increase. After all, humans are no longer grounded in reality or the scientific method. They are grounded in images and words that shift in response to their desires.