Psst… your agenda is showing.
We’ve heard it before but a recent comic nabbed by PZ Myers over on Pharyngula makes it more clear than ever. The attempts by biblical literalists are not just aimed at defending their precious scripture but at undermining science and the public’s trust of science at its very core.
This is not some pot shot “we disagree”, this is an orchestrated propaganda campaign focused at the very heart of science because, the truth is, that literalists are losing. Every year brings numerous discoveries which contradict literal scriptural interpretation while at the same time improving the quality of human lives. The mountain of evidence is so huge now that those on the defensive can no longer refute every individual piece of evidence, the only tactic left to them is to destroy the foundation.
The bronze-age myths of the past are being swept away, the reality is there for anyone who bothers to look. We are the Greeks who have reached to top of Mount Olympus only to find some rocks and lichen. If, of course, that lichen cured disease and those rocks contained veins of precious metals.
The gifts of science are numerous, on my desk alone are literally over one hundred of examples of the ways science has improved our lives, from the computer I type this on to the latte in my coffee cup to the metallurgy which allowed this pair of scissors to be both effective and cheaply manufactured.
The gifts of religion are much more ephemeral, and could all be done away with and replaced by philosiphies which are much more liberating and less divisive quite easily, it is a decision made at the individual level, all we have to do is accept it.