The Way of the Brontosaurus

When I was in elementary school, my father took me to the Met, as in NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art from the front entrance on 5th Avenue.. The architecture of the building was a bold statement that even people that have never been to New York recognize.  It's an icon often used on TV.  My favorite exhibit was the dinosaurs and my favorite dinosaur was the Brontosaurus.  We knew they traveled in herds, are plants and were bigger than a T-Rex.  The sight of the skeleton was humbling.  Then in 2012, a discovery made the Brontosaurus go away.  Just like that one of my favorite "animals" was gone, much like Pluto was no longer a planet.  Did I scream denying conspiracy theories all over YouTube?  No.  Rush to fight over school books and lesson plans?  No.  Scream that scientists were wrong?  No.  Frankly, because I'm not an idiot and it's not my field of expertise. A couple years later, the Brontosaurus was back, because science had found another piece of evidence that proved there were three, not two, similar animals. I was quite pleased. So I understand some people have a hard time wrapping their minds around "new" science, and how things like the disappearing, reappearing Brontosaurus might be confusing 

Sometimes things exist or are accepted to exist until something proves it was incorrect. Certain things have been proven.  Gravity for example.  Sir Issac Newton "discovered" gravity, that it had a fixed rate of acceleration on Earth and a formula that has been proven consistently over and over.  There's no doubting gravity. Yet suddenly we have people believing in "flat earth" nonsense.  (I'm just going to call it what it is.)  These people want it taught in schools to your kids.  Forget that gravity wouldn't actually exist without the rotation of the sphere we call Earth.  Forget that Magellan sailed around the world literally in 1519, 500 years ago, proving the Earth was round. US Navy carrier groups often do *world cruises". Thousands of Marines and sailors each time would have to lie and/or be fooled on every single one for more than 2 centuries.  Yes, that's how absurd the flat earth conspiracy "theory" is.

So one huge problem?  We need to stop calling these "theories".  Theory in science means it's been hypothesized, then verified by multiple other sources. A hypothesis hasn't been proven and independently verified. Scientific theory has been verified by multiple scientists and data.  We have done a great disservice by using the term "theory" colloquially for any lame brain idea that pops into some idiot's head and gives their conspiracy nonsense some semblance of reality, even with every known fact flying in the face of the nonsense. Flat earth conspiracy is just one of the dumb ideas nutjobs around this country want to teach your kids. 

Who cares?  Why do I need to know?  Because these snake oil salesmen are pushing schools to teach this garbage and the current GOP is making it happen. How dumb do you want future generations of Americans to be?  We are talking 3rd world level hocus pocus, fear based, nonsense that would weaken our nation.  How can we compete if the next generations are basically educated like this is 1620 instead of 2020?

Maybe the most horrifying is the story of Adam and Eve  Creationism is on the rise again.  Most educated people are familiar with the monkey trials in 1950's Tennessee. This was already decided. Creationism is a religious thing. It in fact is an Abrahamic thing; only Christianity, Judaism and Islam believe the world was created this way.  Buddhists do not believe God created the world. The world just is. It has no end and no beginning. It is ever changing much like the shoreline does as tides roll in and out. The universe as a whole just ebbs and flows.  Wicca believe Mother Earth created the world as we see it but nature only. It's unclear who created the rock nature is built upon.  Neither of those religions agree with the Abrahamics. In fact, no other religion agrees.  These 3 can't even agree. Christianity, the youngest of the 3 claims the Sabbath is on Sunday. Muslims claim Friday. And Judaism is Saturday. All 3 have the exact same book of Genesis as their reference.  Even if their views were exactly the same, why as a Taoist would I want my kids taught what I find completely unacceptable both from my religious beliefs and scientific knowledge?  More importantly, why would any Americans want our kids to be taught something that has no basis in actual science in a science class?

Back to flat earthers. What is this?  Complete nonsense. Yet, 650+ attendees at the last "Flat Earth" convention.  It's like Scientology minus Tom Cruise.  It's one man's ramblings on YouTube rather than in a book. Nevermind if  lthe flat earth conspiracy were true, you couldn't fly from Hawaii to Hong Kong in 12 hours and to San Francisco in 5 hours. They cut the Pacific in half.  So you could do one or the other but not both. The whole premise of a flat earth is idiotic. Yet people who are "home schooling" their kids are teaching this crap because they don't have the educations to be teachers in the first place.  This YouTube clown is convincing them even though we have over 500 years of proof he's an idiot.  Worse?  Now, he wants your kids to be taught this garbage in real schools.  As if it couldn't get worse, some GOP elected officials believe this nonsense and agree with him.

Now, if flat earth and creationism don't scare the bejeebies out of you?  There's also a group that teaches the moon is a hologram. Nevermind we don't have the technology to create a hologram that large.  Seriously, these people don't believe we can build rockets capable of going to space but they believe we can create a hologram hoax of the moon for thousands of years.  Nevermind the proven fact the moon's mass controls the ebbs and flows of the tides--because that's all faked too on flat earth.  Nevermind its gravitational pull is what keeps our atmosphere just right.  The moon is a hologram. The moon landing was a hoax.  The pictures astronauts and cosmonauts alike have taken from the space station of the beautiful sphere we call Earth are all faked. You've got to be thinking this is ridiculous.  However, think back to the dumbest kid in your 3rd grade class, not paying attention, and only listening to the dumbest people in his family, now 40 something with his own YouTube channel.  Voila. Suddenly that guy has got all kinds of people believing this nonsense and wanting to teach it to your kids, in public schools you fund with your taxes.  Never happen?  Yet 7% of Americans believe this and are home schooling their kids and... and vote almost exclusively GOP. 

Sure 7% is pretty low and most people don't believe that garbage.  Yet, 20 years ago only about 30% of Americans believed in Creationism.  Today?  Around 40%.  *eye roll* How is that even possible?  Does it even matter?  Yes, it does  In the SE USA we allowed the states to teach that African Americans liked being slaves all the way up into 2010's in one state.  As a result, I know people in their 40's and up that still believe that because that's what they were taught IN school.  Nevermind the idea of being a slave goes completely against our own American Doctrine that happiness is tied to liberty and freedom.  Only a complete idiot would believe anyone liked being a slave, right?  But kids are basically idiots with a sponge for information. If the information you put in there is garbage, they will think the garbage is true for what may be the rest of their lives. 

Hell, scarier? Yes these conspiracies get even more ridiculous.  How old is the Earth?  Geologists say 4.5 BILLION, yes billion, years. Yet, 40% of Americans now believe it's only 6000 years old. That we lived and rode dinosaurs.  Obviously people who have never actually seen an actual Brontosaurus skeleton. 

These people aren't screaming to reopen libraries and schools. They are screaming for us to reopen churches and bars. That tells you everything you need to know about them. Make no mistake; some college educated are this undereducated too. They majored in business, basket weaving, even some in engineering and sciences (although so minute in comparison).  They just didn't pay attention in elementary to high school, or worse, this is the crap they were taught not just at home but in schools. So they want to take a giant leap backwards as every other westernized nation moves ahead of us in the sciences because we are letting these conspiracies run rampant thinking facts will win out.

When you vote for a Republican, and especially Trump which is crazy since he doesn't even go to church at all (unless we count Twitter), this is what you are voting for.  Not just the dumbing down of America. Complete and utter stupidity where we will have multiple generations of people so undereducated they will be slave labor for everyone else on the planet. Science may be taking a beating and starting to look like the loser here.  But it's time for a big comeback like the Brontosauruses, for the sake of our kids, multiple generations of Americans to come, and for God's sake, for truth. God didn't make fools. They choose to be and then they want to spread it like a cancer.  I've used a quote from the Dalai Lama before in similar blogs. "If science proves (a fundamental religious belief) is wrong, then we simply quit believing in it.".