Digital Tonto: The visceral abstract
Last week, Paul Broun, a US Congressman on the Science, Space and Technology Committee, asserted that evolution, embryology and big bang theory are “lies straight from the pit of hell.” A recent Gallup survey suggests that 46% of Americans agree with him.
Many would tend to give the Congressmen some slack. After all, what we can not observe is a matter of faith. However, while we tend to consider beliefs personal and beyond reproach, denial of observable facts is not faith, but ideology run amok.
In the modern world, the visceral abstract plays a central role. Without Darwin’s theory, there can be no modern medicine. No big bang, no iPhone either. Nearly every facet of our lives is governed by some strange notion that is far removed from everyday experience. Ideas matter. Those who deny science are, in fact, denying the modern world itself.