why science is bad

Dr. Stephen Asma (I have to thank Sperwer for introducing me to his site) sent out a shotgun email to announce his appearance on a recent Scientific American podcast (is "appearance" the right word?). He was interviewed about his visit to a new "anti-evolution" museum that opened recently in Kentucky. Asma had written an article about his visit, so most of the podcast dealt with the content of his article. I found the interview quite intriguing. Asma does his best to be gracious in his descriptions of the fundamentalist Christians who run the museum, but even he can't paper over the fact that he disagrees with them on almost every point in their agenda.

I'm happy to report that my Christian friends are well-grounded folks... but this museum reminds us that there are plenty of believers out there with some very whacked-out ideas about the cosmos. Young-earth creationism-- one of the ideas the museum is trying to sell-- is a meme that should have died out by now; unfortunately, it lingers on. The museum's exhibits also contend that science's claims about the age of the universe are contributing to social decay. Read Asma's article or listen to the SA podcast to find out how this is so.

NB: Dr. Asma hasn't updated his blog in a year. When I got the shotgun email from him, I emailed him back to ask why he hadn't been updating. His answer:

Thanks for your interest in the blog. I regret that it is now defunct --I can't find the energy/time to keep up with it, especially when I have paying writing gigs coming in. I'm trying a podcast thing now... Half-heartedly.

Alas. I'm going to have to either nix it or reroute the link to his main site. Probably the latter.


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