Over at The Panda's Thumb has a realization about the Intelligent Design crowd that parallels my own discovery about racists.:
I am beginning to understand that the core motivation driving the supporters of such proposals is fear. Not fear for themselves � they are too strong in their faith to be corrupted by evolutionary science. It is fear for their children and in particular, fear for their children�s souls. There is a genuine belief that accepting an evolutionary view of biological phenomena is a giant step on the road to atheism, and in learning evolutionary theory their children are in peril of losing salvation. Given the beliefs they hold, this is not a silly fear. From their perspective, atheism is a deadly threat, and evolution is a door through which that threat can enter to corrupt one�s child. No amount of scientific research, no citations of scientific studies, no detailed criticism of the Wellsian trash science offered in �teach the controversy� proposals, speaks to those fears. If one genuinely fears that learning evolution will corrupt one�s children and damn them for eternity, scientific reasoning is wholly irrelevant.[P6: emphasis added]
This is a subtle realization.
Black folks tend to think that racism = hatred because we feel hated when we run into it. But parents do not teach their children racism out of hatred. They do it out of love, and a true belief in what is being taught.
Now, just try changing someone's mind about something they were taught by someone they love and trust.
Again, the central problem is ignorance. And though short term the struggle is largely political, the long term strategy will involve people learning the old ways are less efficient than the ways knowledge makes possible.
Posted by P6 at May 25, 2004 12:28 PM
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Comments
Speaking as a Euro-American, the parallel is not entirely clear to me. Do you mean this?
'There is a genuine belief that accepting human equality as a contingent fact of history is a giant step on the road towards the "mixing" of the races, and the loss of "superior" white genes and culture. By learning not to be racists, their children are in peril of losing the "great" western civilization that has been passed down to them and their great grand children. If one truly believes that learning to believe in human equality will corrupt one's children, their children, and damn them for eternity, scientific reasoning is wholy irrelevant.'
Would you put it that way or a different way?
I see a correlation here, but not a parallel.
Unless you equate "western" civilization with Christian faith, which I guess a lot of people might do, but I know I would not.
The reason I don't see the parallel is that most justifications for racism are not based on religion and faith (white Jesus aside) but rather on the type of junk science you see in books like The Bell Curve. When a belief is based on junk science or folk lore (i.e. "everybody knows....") it seems to me that it is inherently disprovable in time. In fact, it's already been disproven! See the evidence of our recent common ancestors in Africa, The Mismeasure of Man by Gould, or the numerous rebuttals of The Bell Curve.
Since the social contruct of race, I hope, is uniquely of this Earth, it can be proven or disproven unlike belief in heaven or hell.
Of course, human equality is slightly more difficult to prove scientifically without evolution as a starting point - but still.
On second thought, maybe it is not important if the fear if based on faith or not.
Fear is fear. Stupid is stupid. Ignorant is ignorant.
Posted by Mike at May 25, 2004 09:16 PMActually I'd have rephrased the original post. I'd say it's love for their children rather than fear that motivates the Intelligent Design crowd as well as the racist crowd.
The trick to understanding people's motivation is to recognize they always think they're doing good.
Always.