[SFRA-L] Science and Science Fiction

[Easterbrook, Neil]

There was an interesting op-ed in this weekend's paper of record (Saturday maybe?), written by two scientists, both believers, teaching at an evangelical college. Their claim was that evangelicals needn't be fundamentalist literalists who deny reason and science.

So this morning's letters page contains an indignant missive from the communications director at a Creationist amusement park. This guy says biblical literalists haven't abandoned science and reason, it's just that Darwinists have their reason and fundamentalists have another reason. See? They are rational, and respect science after all. Glad that guy wrote his letter, b/c otherwise we would continue on in our ignorance, thinking it's not rational to hold that the planet earth is between 6 and 11 thousand years old.

BTW, I love the suggestion of Neil Postman, years ago in his _Conscientious Objections_, that public schools teach both evolution and creationism, side by side. That way, he said, students could actually learn the differences. One uses evidence, rationality, and verification (both to confirm and to falsify); the other assumes in advance what it claims to prove (petitio principii) and is un falsifiable. Postman's thot, and I agree, is that unless these direct comparisons are made, folks will never learn the difference in reasoning that distinguishes scientific and religious views.

Neil Easterbrook
Professor
Department of English
TCU
TCU 297270
Fort Worth, TX 76129
office: 817-257-6251
fax: 817-257-6238
n.easterbrook at tcu.edu

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