Geoff Arnold's Blog

The Pub Philosopher watches the final episode of Dawkins on Darwin, in which Dawkins talks to science teachers:

There was an embarrassed silence as the penny dropped. Indoctrinated by years of multi-cultural relativism, these scientists had found themselves saying that science was just one way of understanding how the world was created. Whether or not they believed that was beside the point. Judging by their faces, I dont think they did but they knew what they had to say to survive in todays classrooms.

Matt watches Richard Dawkins trying to teach children about Darwin, and comes up with some useful terminology:

While its true that the creationists featured in the documentary certainly displayed a fundamental ignorance of evolutionary theory, it quickly became obvious that clearing up their misconceptions had no real impact on their beliefs. As one of the pupils at the school Dawkins visits in part 1 so concisely explained: It wasn’t that he didn’t understand evolutionary theory, it was just that his religion told him it was wrong. Through (I assume) a combination of bribes, threats and social pressure, his religious beliefs had managed to shut down a large part of his capacity for critical thought.
This is – what I’d call – “Regressive Theology”. It teaches that the Truth has already been revealed, and all knowledge which challenges it must be rejected. Failure to do so often results in the most extreme punishment conceivable.
At the other end of the spectrum[…] is “Progressive Theology”. This religious view of the world is built around the idea that understand (sic) of (the) God(s) is incomplete and one of the best ways of advancing it is through increasing our knowledge and understanding of “Creation”.

Many religious people need to feel threatened. It is one of the supreme ironies of our time that in the USA, easily the most religion-soaked country in the so-called “First World”, religious leaders get worked up into a frenzy about how Christianity is under vicious attack from a minuscule number of militant secularists. And of course the Pope joins in, to try to whip his flock into line. For these religious leaders, science – especially evolution – is, literally, a Godsend! The greater the progress of science in explaining the origins of the cosmos, the emergence of life on our planet, and the evolution of one rather curious species of hominids, the better they like it.
In part, I suspect, it’s a matter of tradition. The semi-mythical founding figure of Jesus is represented as a revolutionary, persecuted by Jews and Romans alike, and like other wacko sects during the latter part of the Roman Empire the Christians were a subversive underground movement. ((Odd that the Rick Warrens of this world seem to skate over that awkward fact.)) And fear is a great way of building solidarity. Once Christianity had achieved a near monopoly of power, it was forced to build up various forces – Satan, demons, witches, the mentally ill – as omnipresent threats, simply to instill fear and obedience. The rise of Islam was another Godsend – if Mohammed had not been born, the Pope would have had to invent him.
How many religious leaders do you hear in the USA (or Europe, for that matter), saying, “Relax; it’s OK. A handful of ‘new atheists’ may be selling a few books, but Christianity isn’t under any serious threat. In fact we’re being more and more successful in persuading politicians to pander to our prejudices and accomodate our unconstitutional demands. So chill, my flock; keep tithing and enjoying your SUVs and reality TV. There’s no danger from secularism.”
Are you kidding? That’s no way to energize the masses!
(And yes, I could have written almost the same account of Islam. I’ll leave the substitutions as an exercise to the reader.)