Amateur Brain Surgery

The Nurse has always felt - and thought - that the concept of god was a bit silly. As a small child in the ’70s she was sent home from junior school with a note saying that a girl who didn’t believe in god shouldn’t come to the christmas party. But she stuck to her guns. Logic and science prevailed.

So, a lifelong atheist, The Nurse has followed the US’s acrimonious intelligent design / creationism vs. evolution / Darwinism debate with mounting alarm. Those who control US educators are engaged in a fierce battle about whether or not intelligent design should be taught in schools as a viable alternative to evolution. And in some states, the god squad’s winning. At the same time, science funding in the US is being cut willy-nilly.

Baffled and infuriated by the endless, tedious twists and turns the debate is taking, The Nurse was delighted to discover a beautifully simple expression of the entire argument. A few sentences that encapsulate the fundamental and unarguable truth. 

Heartfelt thanks and admiration, therefore, go to Ken Ligar of Chester, Connecticut, for writing this letter to New Scientist (issue 2660, 14th June 2008):

“While I am not a believer in the theory of intelligent design, I see no reason why it cannot be taught in schools alongside the theory of evolution - as long as it is kept neutral to any specific religion. The entire lesson can be summed up quite easily and will not burden the students with difficult concepts or homework. Here is a sample lesson text that can be used by any teacher: ‘The theory of intelligent design states that an omnipotent being created the universe and that everything in it for reasons that we cannot, and are not meant to, comprehend. There is no quantifiable evidence to support this theory, there are no hypotheses that can be proven or disproven using this theory, and it offers no predictive ability for any past, present or future events. OK, now let’s move on to the theory of evolution.”

Now, that’s not to say that The Nurse has no soul. In fact she enjoys a lively and fulfilling spiritual life. The Nurse has invented her own religion, where deities are irrelevant. And, despite being imprisoned in this hell-hole with all these effing nutters for so many years, she isn’t a bad person. Just ‘troubled’. 

Come on folks… be sensible. Teach religion if you must. But PLEASE don’t teach it as an alternative to evolution! That’s just mad.