When We Want to Know How Old the Earth is Do We Ask a Preacher?

In recent weeks, the Ohio state house of representatives passed a law that allows students to answer questions with religious information and thus can’t be penalized for it.   The law is said to allow a student to write an essay on Jesus if asked about the greatest living human, but it clearly has the ability to challenge the teaching of scientific principles and facts like evolution in public schools.  The idea is that a student shouldn’t have to give up a religious belief for a grade and I agree.  But it looks to many that it can be extended to allow a student to not answer certain questions with a religious response when asked for a scientific one;  that is troubling.  The age of the earth for example is not 6000 or even 10,000 years old, as some believe. 

One can argue that both science and religion explain the way the world works and exists.  In fact there are many who believe that their canonized scripture is the only way and that any discovery that contradicts it is simply wrong.   A sign as you enter the Creation Museum in Kentucky, a so-called museum not far from the Ohio border that teaches the Biblical narrative of creation as fact reads something to the effect of:  Any discovery that challenges the facts of the Bible must be wrong.    

If the most expansive reading of this law is applied, then there is a problem with how grades will be given out.  Holding a belief is not the issue, using it in place of a scientific fact is problematic.  When you take a class and get a grade it is not just for you, but it tells the next person you encounter what to expect of you.  My Organic Chemistry professor put it like this in college “I can give you all As but then the next person that sees you in an academic or work setting will expect you to have knowledge you may not have and you will fail.  Better to learn it now when you have a chance to master it then when there are higher consequences”.  That stuck with me both as a student and an educator.  The grade must be an agreed upon standard.  If you were to allow a student to think the world is 6000 years old and validate it with a grade that could be a problem in the future.  It will also mean that if a student attends a university outside of Ohio they may run into a rude awakening.     

Facts should matter in school and frankly everywhere.  There is a growing trend to elevate so-called alternative facts, as an advisor to the President once said.  The idea that things don’t have to be accurate, if one has a strong belief in what they are saying.  What Steven Colbert once called truthiness.  Facts must be the center of knowledge.  While there are many places that opinion can come into the education process, the facts of science must be known to get a good grade in a science class, even if you reject them for religion.      

I applaud Ohio for trying to clarify that when students bring their faith into their assignments they must not be penalized or told they can’t do so.  Students who have strongly held beliefs who are being educated in public schools do have a right to their beliefs, and they should not be made to change them.  They can discuss them in class within reason, as long as they don’t disrupt other’s education.  But when asked about evolution, the age of the earth, or disease theory they should have to answer with the facts that they were taught.  Even if they reject them.  I am not a fan of Piaget’s theories of development, in fact I think he is wrong.  However, I learned them, I know them, I can be critical of them from an understanding of them, and I passed my test on them in college.   

We don’t know if the law will ever be enacted, nor how it will be applied.  It may open the door a crack to try to bring in alternative views that oppose the scientific view.  It might be a way to protect the religious freedom that sometimes comes under attack in a school setting when ignorance of those rights is the norm.  However, I think there is a way to write a law that protects the freedom without expanding it beyond what education should be.  We will need to keep an eye on this.  Knowledge drives a free people.  Ignorance is easily exploited and we can suffer the consequences of ignorance in the future if we are not careful.  Maybe we already are.

Love and Hate: An Evening in Two Acts

I don't think I have ever been through a more antipodean evening than the other night.  I went to a dinner sponsored by the Immigrant Welcome Center here in Indianapolis.  An organization that is funded to help support the settlement of immigrants and refugees in Central Indiana.  Run by a friend and amazing woman Terri Morris-Downs, who will soon be retiring, the organization has made life alerting and affirming opportunities happen for people who chose the United States as a place to live out their dreams.  The coalition in the room included business leaders, community service providers, religious representatives and a few political folks.  We heard about the importance of the immigrant communities to the greater Indianapolis area and what is being done by such diverse people as the CEO of the Indiana Fever, the Mexican Consul General and a Eli Lilly Scientist.  We also got to see the real work of the organization as many people thanked Terri for her years of dedication to making Indianapolis a welcoming place for people from around the world.  The entire evening was a tribute to the ideal that is so important to our nation, that we are a place of hope for many and many of us who are here now and established owe a sense of gratitude to those ancestors of ours who chose to leave their home to journey to a new world and create a life that led to the future we share that they envisioned in their dreams. 

So I came home in time to watch some news only to see Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) at a Congressional hearing.  Cuccinelli is only in the acting role because even though he is a Republican, he would not have the votes to become the permanent director because of his draconian stance on many issues.  Today he was trying to defend and deflect from a policy change that he, himself, helped create that would end Medically Deferred Action Program (MDAP).  This program allows for immigrants in this country to remain to get life saving medical treatment if being deported would result in them not getting that treatment in their native country.  Basically, CIS sent letters to families earlier this year that gave them a month to leave the country or be in violation, in some cases this would mean a death sentence to a child getting life sustaining care in the US.  In some cases the reason that the family was here was to help develop protocols for treatment for rare disorders.   Meaning that the doctors sought out and brought children to the US to try new ways to keep children alive with a disorder that was so rare that treatment was slow to come.  Now Cuccinelli and his boss President Trump wanted to just kick them out of the country and if they die, well that is the nature of things.  It was sickening. 

Good reporting and a parade of people who are alive because of MDAP testifying on Capital Hill had them change their mind and to my knowledge none have been deported.  However the very notion that we, as a country, would send young people off to certain death, for no reason but that some people thing the only good immigrant comes from a northern European country turns my stomach.  It appears that much of the rhetoric around the idea of illegal immigration and refugees is just cover for an attempt to make all immigration suspect.  These children and young adults who are here to stay simply alive are no threat to anyone.  They aren't taking jobs, they aren't a drag on the economy, they aren't terrorists, but still the government, IN OUR NAME, tried to send them back.  That is wrong on every level. 

There always have been hard and sometimes bad choices made about immigration.  Stories can be told of the people whose families had barely lost their own accents attacking the idea of boats coming to THEIR AMERICA with immigrants who don't speak the language or quickly assimilate.   I wonder if the first Cuccinelli would have been welcomed with open arms by a country that was skeptical of those coming from Italy in the early 20th century.  But we have always found a way to settle new populations and they add something to the wonder that is American culture. 

The other night I found myself morally raised up by the notion of a diverse community of people committed to the idea that we can welcome people in without fear and trembling that they will somehow ruin what we have.  Immigrants have only ever added to the greatness of who we are.  I also found myself struggling that we have allowed the voices of hate and bigotry to get enough power that we have to shame them on a national level before they stop trying to deport children to certain death. 

Of course we need comprehensive immigration reform, of course we need to have a sense of who and why people are coming to the United States, but we can do it without risking the lives of so many to appear to look tough.  In Jewish folklore there are two voices that whisper to us.  The Yetzer Harah, the evil inclination and the Yetzer Hatov, the good inclination.  I felt both yelling at me the other night in the form of Ken Cuccinelli, a man who seems to despise others and Terri Morris Downs, who seems to love others.  I know who I will listen to, I hope you will too.