Evolution Causes Regression

Apparently evolution causes subtle regression in certain people. There are always a few members of a species who just aren’t quite right. This is natures way of trying new things or just plain messing up. We see these things as retardation, physical disabilities, mental deterioration and, unfortunately, conservatives. We must help the ones we can, but before I do, I must ramble.

This issue of teaching evolution in public schools is really starting to annoy me. If you want your child to learn fiction then send them to a parochial school. I don’t know how this issue works in other “free” countries where the nation’s predominant religion touts some other explanation for our existence, but this is America. We shouldn’t be wasting our time having these debates. Seriously. People are hungry, without health care, dying in unnecessary wars, lacking employment, etc . . . (all god’s will?) and the elected officials of states like Kansas and Pennsylvania are using tax payer dollars to combine church and state, the separation of which forms the very foundation of this country.

This is part of a broader issue I have with the way the U.S. has been operating the last few years. America’s success and position as the world’s only superpower is hurting us because of the Bush Administration’s bullying attitude toward those who disagree with it’s inexplicable actions. Take one new trend that’s going to impact this country immensely in the next few decades. We are now failing to attract the top scientific minds in the world at the same rate as in the past. Students from Europe, Africa and Asia are choosing to study, work and conduct research in their home countries or destinations on the continents aforementioned. Fewer and fewer of the scientific breakthroughs (ergo patents, ergo $$$$) of the next century are going to occur in the U.S. Sure, our universities and the pharmaceutical juggernauts that exploit the average citizen will continue to produce results, but the concentration of intelligence on this planet is clearly shifting. It has always been the case that the few lead the many, and America is no different. The people in power, the people with the money, give the rest enough to prevent unrest and reap the surplus. But imagine a future where the country that spends the most per person on health care has to import an obesity drug from Sweden or China. Either of these countries could charge the U.S. anything it wanted since obesity is and will be a major drain on health care resources domestically.

How we behave on domestic issues, while either alienating our own or doing our best to protect each and every American, is seen by foreigners. If we are to continue attracting foreign attention to our culture and if we expect the rest of the world to continue financing our debt we must keep America the epitome of not just freedom, but education. This administration’s ignorance of education as an vital issue and our states’ ignorance in keeping education truly public and untainted by religion will harm us more than we know. How can a government take a Buddhist citizen’s tax dollars and teach Creationism? Evolution is the truth. Debate whether the first bacterium in the primordial soup was random or devine at home, not at school.