East is East and West is West

And never the twain shall meet. My 7th grade teacher used to say that in class, often enough that it is still ingrained in my head. What did she mean by that? Are there things that are just so polar opposite that they are not destined to ever "meet"?

I began to wonder about the topic of politics and science. The pope has written about the sciences and behaviors of man. Politicians have espoused their opinions on the sciences and behaviors of man. Looks like these two camps are a twain that shall not meet. So it got me thinking about the two.

According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, today's definition of politics is the theory and practice of influencing people, often characterized by artful (manipulative) and dishonest practices. Key word here is influencing people. The definition of science is systematic examination, intellectual practice of thorough examination and observation to obtain an organized body of knowledge. So politics is creating thoughts for people to believe and science is gathering facts on nature and the behavior of man.

 This is not the first time the church has stepped in on science. Back in 1616 the church interrogated and banished Galileo for his views on the earth revolving around the sun. In the middle ages science was stunted by the views of the pope at the time. Galileo never the less went about attempting to influence people to accept his theory and got thrown in jail.

Getting back to the twain that shall never meet. Did the church, via the Pope Francis, just use science of the climate and earth to issue a plea to maintain this planet as a sustainable living environment? Sounds like the positions that were once shunned, such as scientific methods, theories and observations of facts, are now changing from east to west.

 Did our politics change direction? When science is eliminated from textbooks in elementary schools and replaced with religious beliefs, I think it has come full circle. It is a shame how much science is being stripped from education by the power of influence, misrepresentation and artful manipulation. When my child came home and said that the high school teacher is not using the textbook to teach and he has handouts for all the lessons, I wondered what was wrong with the text and what was on his handouts. So I looked at both. The introduction page of the science textbook stated "that science is not truth and students who have religious beliefs may not agree with science. Further that not all scientific theory is presented in this textbook because of religious beliefs." So like it's ok to flunk science if you have religious beliefs?

 What we hear in the news is just a tip of the iceberg. That old Pareto rule of 80/20 is at it again. The Meta-trend of science vs religion will create another dark ages, possibly. But just like in politics, there are opposing twain's of thought, one religious camp (Pope Francis) espoused science to illustrate the harm to humans, and the other religious camp espouses letting religion trump beliefs that man is doing harm. East is east and west is west, the twain shall never meet.
-Tmc

Changing your perspective.

Look at one thing today from the opposite perspective. Instead of looking at the lawn care guy, stand in his perspective and look through his perspective. Instead of talking to the waitress, stand in her perspective and listen through her perspective.