Total Eclipse of the Stun*

Do not read this if you are sensitive AND religious. Nothing to see here.

[A dragon eating the sun. AI generated, not an actual dragon. Dragons do not exist.]

Please, people, stop. Just stop.

The current outcry is: With all these crazy conspiracy theories about the eclipse, clearly we should be teaching more science in the schools.

Answer: We do.

Next level outcry: With all these crazy conspiracy theories about the eclipse, clearly we should be teaching concepts, not just dry facts, in schools!

Answer: We do.

Alternative outcry: Eclipses are basic facts, not the result of conspiracies, why don’t we teach the basic fact in schools?

Answer: We do.

Yet another outcry: OK we teach science in every single grade in school as well as college, it is one of the pillars of our public school system, even for people pursuing artistic or literary areas. So clearly the TEACHERS ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!!!

Answer: Fuck you, on behalf of the teachers. (See also this)

Please try to keep it together

Now, dear randomly chosen person, I have a few questions for you.

Are you a member of a church, temple, mosque, or whatever?

Answer: Yes. (If not I’m probably not talking to you but feel free to read on.)

Does your church or temple or mosque or whatever have a religion attached to it, that you and the other members of the church practice?

Answer: Of course.

What does this religion teach?

Answer: To do good works, and we do that, we do charitable giving. I give charitably and sometimes volunteer and stuff.

Oh. So you and your church members don’t believe in God?

Answer, well yes, that too.

OK then, are there any items on the following list that your church and religion, the religion in which you participate, believe?

a) That in communion, you are consuming the flesh of a man named Jesus.

b) That in communion you drink the blood of a man named Jesus.

c) That after you die, a soul will leave your body and go somewhere forever.

d) That at some point in the future a possible historical figure who died or left the planet long ago will return.

e) That there are non seeable or corporeally knowable entities that influence the life of humans and nature (devils, angels, etc.)?

f) That there is some entity keeping track of your good vs not good deeds, and there will be some sort of payback later, either after you die, or some other time? Maybe in another life?

g) That uttering certain words in a ritualized fashion can change the outcome of events distant in time or space?

If you answered no to all of these, then you are a) probably an atheist and b) probably don’t believe in very many conspiracies about the eclipse, though it is possible that you are MAGA and thus will pretend to believe anything that makes the libs cry.

If you answered yes to any of these or similar questions, then you have at least a few irrational and incorrect beliefs, but somehow feel it is your place to blame teachers for other people also having irrational and incorrect beliefs. Wow.

What is the actual problem?

I’m not sure but I have an idea.

The problem is not that there is insufficient science education in schools. The problem might be that society and culture require of most people that they believe things that simply can’t be true while at the same time receiving a reasonable science based education. As long as we do that, people are going to have irrational ideas, some of which you will find for some reason extra annoying. This is because they are given permission, by society, to believe things that can not be true and to know something about science at the same time. They can therefore pick and choose among real and not real.

Society that privileges religion provides a permission structure for people to have whatever the heck conspiracy theory they find titillating.

STEM educators are working upstream against religion. Crazy ideas are very common in more religious societies, less common in more atheists societies. Nobody in Sweden is waiting for the Rapture. Think like a scientist, who wants to explain variation in an observed system with variation in something that may affect that system. That is what scientists often do:

Variation in public acceptance of fantastic spiritual believe varies, and that variation explains variation in craziness of ideas,. Variation in STEM education does not explain any, or at least, explains only a little, of that variation in absurdity.

Please help keep our teachers safe from this accusation. Maybe stop the crazy in your own life and community, stop privileging religion, and get on with the science.** And no, they don’t reconcile.

That is all, have a nice Rapture.

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Footnotes:

*n= “pid”

** And when you are done with the churches and temples, give us back the land, it is needed to alleviate the housing crisis.

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