Carl Sagan: Science as a Candle in The Dark

Humans are natural skeptics. From the very beginning we have always been asking “why”.  Why are we here, why is the sky blue, why does the moon change its shape in the sky?  This innate drive existing within our species has produced the answers to many of these questions, but this drive has also severely hampered us.  In the quest to produce answers humans have produced catch-all theories to quench their thirst for knowledge with religion being the foremost of these theories.  But certainly there are many other factors contributing to the decline of intelligent skepticism in the modern world.  Factors such as high cost of attending college, the over-hyped difficulty of getting a into a college or university, low levels of desire to succeed, and poor quality of public high schools are all incredibly discouraging dynamics for students in this day and age to reach their full potential intellectually and to have the best chance at fully understanding the true nature of science. According to a recent research project performed by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research a staggeringly low 32 percent of public high school graduates were found to be ready for college.[1] When all of these factors are combined we are left with a population that is undereducated and unsure how to recognize genuine science, but still looking for explanations of their origin, their place in the world, as well as every event that occurs around them during their lifetime.  Instead of relying on logic and science, due to a lack of understanding, they are directed down the path of psuedoscience where they are unlikely ever to return.
    Religion was created in order to provide a solution for all of the tough questions every human ponders , as well as to provide an individual a sense of “oneness” with something greater than themselves.  On the surface, this may seem like a good thing, but it is assuredly quite the opposite.  With all of the answers to the tough questions accounted for, what is left for humanity to do as a race.  If we know everything, there is no longer a drive to stay late in the lab to finish another trial of an experiment, or spend the money on a manned space mission.  A poll conducted by CBS news in November 2004 revealed that an astonishingly high 67% of citizens in the United States believed that the origin of humans on the Earth was completely an act of god, or creationism.[2]  Young Earth Creationism states that the Earth is under 6000 years old, and that the earth was created in 6 24-hour days.[3]    This theory based on the literal  interpretation of the Genesis Creation Narrative and not one piece of scientific evidence.  According to a 1997 Gallop Poll 44% of Americans believed in the theory of Young Earth Creationism, while the same poll, given to American scientists of all fields produced a much lower number of 5% believing in this theory.[4]  This same poll has 55% aligned themselves with a creation theory that has the age of the Earth set at 4.5 billion years.  The theory of such an old earth is based off of many premises, such as the radiometric dating (several methods) of sedimentary rocks on earth, the dating of the minerals within these rocks, and most importantly the Pb/Pb isochron age, derived from samples of the Earth and meteorites.  This measurement involves the testing of three isotopes of lead.[5]  Why such the large discrepancy between the American average and the American scientist?  It’s simple, a scientist’s job is to acquire data  through experimentation and use that data, alongside the data from previous work or other scientists’ work, to come to a conclusion on an issue.  This rational thought process draws the majority of scientists to think that the Earth is at least 4.5 billion years old.  The problem with religion is that it provides the answers to the questions of the age of the Earth as well as many other questions without all of the scientific data and rational thought.  It appeals to the ill-advised general public created by a case of widespread apathy and an improper educational system.  This quote by Anais Nin, “When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.”, completely sums it up.  Whenever we have all of our questions answered, we lose our built in human instinct to learn, explore, and discover, and in doing such we have allowed ourselves to be controlled by Carl Sagan’s dreaded psuedoscience.
    Another major contributing factor to the immense increase of American dependence on psuedoscience is the lacking public educational system we have in place.  As previously mentioned, public schooling in America just does not fully prepare a high school student for college.  The current obsession with standardized testing makes for easier and quicker grading but does a great deal of harm to the student.  In a class in which a teacher tests using standardized testing there are several aspects of that class which make it lesser to classes which use other testing methods. One, being that the teacher must teach to the test, and not to the material itself.  Another being that the tests always require the taker to have some sort of previous knowledge on subject matter other than the subject the test is written on in the form of word problems.  No matter how much they try, the test takers cannot create a test that everyone who takes it has enough prior knowledge to understand all of the questions, this is especially true at younger ages.  Also standardized testing promotes the Rote memorization technique in which a student memorizes the specific information on the content only for one test, then forgets the information shortly thereafter while studying for the following test.  This method of memorization is completely inadequate and does not allow for a student to properly learn, if you’re not appropriately storing all of the information you’re taking in, you’re education is almost completely a waste of time.[6] With those reasons, many could still give an argument towards the use of standardized tests, but the issues and inadequacies that are created by standardized testing go much deeper.  As a student learning and studying in a system that relies heavily on standardized testing, you are forced to study for the test you are taking at the time, and are not allowed to fully appreciate the subject matter, let alone express your thoughts and feelings on it.  Standarized testing creates a banal student generation almost entirely incapable of higher level thinking and problem-solving because they’ve been trapped in a intellectual nightmare of a system in which all eccentricity and personality is destroyed and passion is allowed to shrivel up and die.  Whenever students have their passion for a subject taken away, they lose the drive to study further and learn to come up with their own ideas on the topic.  This lack of passion, brought upon by our educational system is a major contributer to the lack of intuitive reasoning and intellectual prowess in modern students and why so many people are now relying on psuedoscience instead of science to explain all of their lives problems.  A quote from Albert Einstein fully explains the shortfalls of standardized testing, “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.”  In order for our educational system to start producing a large number of capable scholars again we have to overhaul it so that every student is allowed to reach their full potential and be able to focus on whatever subject they feel most passionately about.  The current system of education in place in public schools in America is essentially a cess pool for graduates with little to no ability, but still blessed with the inborn drive to search for the answers to the serious questions, such as origin of life.  This deadly combination is exactly what psuedoscience feeds off of.  Psuedoscience provides all of the answers, with none of the intellectual load.
    We live in a world where intellect and reasoning have taken a backseat to blind religions and banal education systems, and this has allowed psuedoscience to take root and thrive in our culture.  We are facing the consequences.  We now live in a nation that purchases 789,982 tabloid magazines daily, according to The Audit Bureau of Circulation.[7] We now thrive off of the easy fix for all of our answers that takes little more than the ability to read to understand.  Our own intrinsic drive and instinct to search for our origin and the meaning of our existence has dug our own graves.  We have supplied ourselves with the “fast food” equivalent of intellectual stimulation.  Instead of performing research, gathering data,  analyzing it, and sharing your results with your fellow scientist in order to produce a result, we now purchase our science in a magazine or have our planet’s history read to us on a weekly basis.  We wanted all of the answers, and now we have them.