Lie for Democracy! or, Why I Support the Teaching of Creationism in Schools.

I’m distraught to see the furious debate over Intelligent Design. Most everyone has a very strong opinion on whether ID should be taught in highschool. The fact that there is an argument at all is, frankly, sickening. To attack ID is to pluck a leaf from the tree of stupidity, where we need to attack the roots.

What do they teach in highschool science classes, anyway? The fact that this argument exists at all has led me to a depressing conclusion: they teach “scientific fact.” They teach the accumulated scientific knowledge of our species. Not a bad idea as far as it goes, and important stuff, but on the way they must be completely missing the fundamental and ultimate foundation of humanity—rational thought.

A democracy demands skepticism. The 2004 US election disaster proves that without critical thought, there’s really no point in trying to maintain the illusion of a “democracy.” If you ask uneducated, uncritical, stupid people to vote, they will by definition not be able to intelligently evaluate the issues. How will they vote? For whatever is fashionable, whomever promises them the chance to make more money then their neighbours, whomever looks better in a suit. In the laughable US “election” system which doesn’t even allow the candidates equal access to the public, the winner will be whomever buys the most advertisements!

Under scrutiny, the insinuations and vague promises that politicians get away with cannot stand up. This alone is enough to prove that the majority of US voters are incapable of independent thought, but this is not the place where I go into why that is not a circular argument. For now it is sufficient to point out that politicians are not held to any standards of truth or logic. Since most voters believe the nonsense that politicians spout, they are by definition too gullible.

The first step in saving democracy, then, must be to make the voting population less vulnerable to manipulation and lies. Countless well-meaning societies have used schemes in which tests must be passed in order to vote. In the best scenarios such a scheme could work pretty well, but too often the test has been skin colour or sex, which are probably completely unrelated to gullibility.

For better or worse, taking the right to vote away from any group will not work. But isn’t it the law that all Americans must attend school until some age? Can’t we use this window of opportunity to build citizens who are capable of running a democracy? I stated above that the most important intellectual contribution in history is critical thought. The first and constant lesson of a good science education is how to think—how to ask questions and how to go about answering them, how to distinguish good logic from bad, how to be skeptical. Scientific “fact” is a wonderful thing to include in a scientific education, but it is icing on the cake. First the method, then the results.

People will always lie. Even (especially) charismatic, power-hungry megalomaniacs in nice suits, although this is not a requirement. But the fundamental necessity for a democracy is a voting population who can tell reasonable ideas from stupid ones on the basis of the idea, and not on the basis of the person telling it (incidentally, this is exactly why I regard faith and patriotism as ultimate evil).

How are skills taught? Practice! What if the skills are important? Practice harder, under as realistic situation as you can arrange. What if the skills underpin our whole politicial system? Practice as if the life of everyone in the world depended on it!

The single most important lesson that children must be taught in school is that no-one will provide only correct information. Not their teachers, not their parents, and certainly not charismatic businesspeople, used car salesmen, or priests. Throughout the school system, teachers should present facts, lies, and the whole spectrum in between, on an equal footing. Children should be forced to critically examine all information to which they are exposed. It should be habit, because it is the most important habit they will ever have. Without it they are about as useful to a democracy as sheep.

“Trust no-one”? NO! Trust yourself first, know how far you can trust a new idea, and the question of whom you can trust becomes largely moot.

Remember creationism and “Intelligent Design”? They would be fine examples in any elementary science class. Children who learn ID as scientific fact can be reasonably expected to see that its claim of explaining everything is an empty promise. History is full of such myths posing as science, although even Aristotle did better; I’m singling out ID only because it’s topical. If a school teaches ID and anyone comes away confusing it with science, then the school is failing, since it is teaching fact and not method. But if a school doesn’t teach kids how to respond to half-baked ideas, then it, the kids, and the world don’t stand a chance.