Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory provided a stunningly revisionist view of history in comments defending the teaching of creationism in public schools. In typical Republican fashion he attempted to throw some doubt into the settled facts of science, but I don't think even Republicans saw this one coming. It should be noted that the legislature was debating a bill to repeal the euphemistically titled Louisiana Science Education Act, a law that allows creation to be taught side-by-side with evolution.
There was a time, sir, when scientists thought that the world was flat. And if you get to the end of it, you’d fall off.
There was another time when scientists thought that the sun revolved around the world.
And they always thought to ensure that anyone who disagreed with their science was a heretic! People were burned for not believing that the world was flat. People were really badly treated.
My point, sir, is that not everyone knows everything. And, in a school, there should be an open exchange of ideas. Knowledge only grows when people can talk about and have this intellectual back-and-forth, this discourse, with all ideas on the table. To restrict ideas is against knowledge and it’s against education. Therefore, at the appropriate time, Mr. Chairman, I move that this bill be involuntarily deferred. Source: The Friendly Atheist
Now at one time, in the darkest of ages, the prevailing belief among the uneducated may have been that the Earth was flat, just like at one time being a barber/surgeon was a real profession. But the thing about real scientists is that they question everything and when, through the process of observation, experimentation and peer review, evidence is discovered and proven to be fact, that contradicts previously held beliefs, they adapt their thinking and add the new fact to the body of accepted scientific knowledge.
Scientists do not and did not burn those who believed the world was flat. That was the job of Christians. What Senator Guillory does is replace the word Christians with the word scientists, perhaps thinking no one would notice. Fortunately Sen. Jean-Paul J. Morrell, D-New Orleans, was there to politely rebut his colleague's ignorance, ending with a quote from the brilliant Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Just a quick addendum to my good friend Sen. Guillory’s comments. Actually, you talk about the world being flat and not the center of the universe? [It was] Galileo and it was the Church that locked him up for nine years for advocating that theory.
So, although I appreciate your comments about [how] there are alternative theories, when you look at history, oftentimes, when science pushes the envelope, the leading person to lock that person up, is oftentimes religious leaders. And, at the end of the day, I think when you talk about a fair exchange of ideas, as long as those ideas are based in fact, I think you really don’t have a problem. At the end of the day, we want to have a logical discourse about things that are provable.
I want to say a quick quote that I’ve been saving for this measure. It’s from Neil deGrasse Tyson, who I’m sure many of you are familiar with: The good thing about science is that it’s true whether you believe in it or not.
And with that, I make a substitute motion to report the bill favorably.
Republicans continue to provide proof that God could not exist.
Sat May 09, 2015 at 10:28 PM PT: As many well informed commenters have pointed out the ancient Greeks had concluded the Earth was spherical and not flat, and that most educated people in Europe were not of the opinion that the Earth was flat.