Taking Life Pass/Fail

By golly, let us teach what the most ignorant and the least studied among us know to be true, because we outnumber the scientists. And for good measure, let it be known to all nations as "intelligent."

Let us not teach science as being our best guess about what is true — a guess we know will improve as we continue to ask questions and organize in pursuit of the answers. Let us fill gaps in our knowledge with what we want to be true.

Let us invest in discovering what will sell, what will get us elected, what will confirm what is already "known" — and call it truth.

Let us not teach faith as faith or theology as theology. Let us teach it as science. And let us not just do it in our own church-sponsored schools, but require it in all, for the benefit of all mankind.

Let us not be challenged — by people who are prejudiced or by people who know more than we do. Let us go to school and not be shaken, not be transformed, not be elevated.

Let us burn books and censor teachers. Or vice versa. And let us put stickers discrediting those things we cannot burn or censor.

Let us close the libraries.

Let us see education as our triumph, not the triumph of knowledge.

Let us reject the results of the scientific method, built and tested discovery by discovery and experiment by experiment, subjected to inquiry over hundreds of years. Let us demand infallibility and attack as a weakness the strength of science —which is to continuously question its assumptions and explore the limitations of its understanding.

Let us seek evidence supporting our conclusions, rather than draw conclusions from the evidence, and call it neutrality.

Let us ignore inconvenient facts today and leave the consequences to future generations.

Let us shun rigorous inquiry and call ourselves shunned.

Let us reject evolution as a theory, but ruthlessly practice social Darwinism, celebrating the survival of the fit.

Let us call evolution "a theory in search of a soup" and put forth instead our theory of the Great Soupmaker, without subjecting it to the same skepticism.

Let us win at all costs, because might makes right.