According to Pew Research, we as an American Public are far more

partisan/polarized than we've ever been. It affects who we live next to; where
we shop and worship (or not); where our kids go to school; who we
befriend/follow on social media. I think it affects how we take in knowledge,
how we measure knowledge and what we count as knowledge.

I had the unfortunate experience of two epic battles of logic versus conferring
any credence to the fantasies of Mr. Ken Ham (aptly named) and his "Answers
in Genesis" boondoggle. The two individuals were practicing, as I titled last
Sunday, Cognitive Dissonance.

Now, a new estimate of the age of the Earth being 60,000,000 years
older than previously determined by Clair Patterson, a geochemist who
worked on banning lead in gasoline (causes brain damage, and possibly the
downfall of the Roman Empire, kind of important). He also invented the Clean
Room (also the title of the episode), in which many a computer chip for cell
phones and laptops get manufactured. I work in one, and have worked in
several...

Aha! There, you see? (I can hear said.) Dr. Patterson estimated 4.5 billion
years = 4,500,000,000, so this is a FLAW, and the Bible says it's only 6,000
years old.

Except it doesn't: The statement isn't supported by science or scripture.

Remain calm, and do the math: 4,500,000,000 + 60,000,000 =
4,560,000,000. So call it 4.6 billion if you're a round up stickler. Still pretty
darn close to Dr. Patterson's original.

The 6,000 year estimate never shows up in any scripture or verse, but was
PRINTED in the KJV Bible once upon a time...

Back around 400 AD, St. Jerome, the Italian scholar and priest made a
6,000-year estimate for the age of the Earth, as did the later scholars,
Venerable Bede and Scaliger. In 1642, Dr. John Lightfoot, English minister,
rabbinical and linguistic scholar and later Vice Chancellor of Cambridge
University, wrote that Man was created at 9 am. Two years later, he wrote,
on the basis of further studies, that the Earth was created on Sunday,
September 12, 3928 BC.

But the really well-known estimate came from James Ussher. He was a
gifted linguist and prolific religious scholar. He entered Trinity College in
Dublin at the age of 13, received a Master's Degree at the age of 20, was
ordained as a priest at 21, and was appointed Professor of Theology at
Trinity, when he was only 26. He was also twice Vice Chancellor of Trinity.
He was appointed Archbishop of Amargh, and by 1634 was Primate of All
Ireland. So he was a smart dude.

In 1650, he published "Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first
origins of the world", in which he stated that the world was created
on Sunday, Oct 23, 4004 BC. In 1710, this estimate found favour with the
publishers of the King James Bible, who placed his dates in the margins of
the appropriate pages of Genesis, where they remained for centuries. The
fact that this "best estimate" appeared in the Bible made it "Gospel Truth" for
most Christians back then, and for a much smaller percentage today. 1

The first problem with this is the logical fallacy of Appealing to Authority.
Also, from St. Jerome to Dr. Lightfoot finally to James Ussher, there was a
thought it should be 6,000 years old. When the King James was printed -
actually the first book to BE printed for the masses - it was passed down as
fact. This is known as Confirmation Bias. 2 People saw what they thought
they'd see.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Hebrews 11:1

Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic
enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable
explanations and predictions about the universe. In an older and closely
related meaning, "science" also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type
that can be rationally explained and reliably applied. A practitioner of science
is known as a scientist. 3

As near as Jerome, Lightfoot and Ussher had - they did estimate and measure
based on what they had at the time. The problem I have - and anyone should
have - with creation science/intelligent design is the self-definitions held up
quite simply conflict with one another.

Science follows its method, and subjects every new idea to incredible, rigorous
debate to fight falsehood and confirmation bias before publication in journals
and wider usage by academia, industry and the general public. Examples:
Einstein didn't like Quantum Mechanics and its viewpoints AT ALL; nor did
he believe the results of his own General Relativity that massive suns would
become black holes; John Archibald Wheeler - who coined the term - initially
didn't either. 4 Yet, both are now accepted in Astrophysics, Physics and
Science Fiction. Courses are taught on it; you can see animations on the
Science Channel at least once a week. The "Ham on Nye" debate was not this
at all: it was fanfare; cable and You Tube fluff minus any credible peer review.
Peer review is not for the squeamish of heart.

However, from the perspective of the Civil Rights movement in the US, a kind
of "now' faith was needed to collectively move forward (secular and non
secular), not testable explanations and predictions. Quite simply, if you
showed up and defied the Jim Crow signs, tried to vote or sit at a lunch
counter or ride a bus, it was pretty easy to figure out the violence that would
transpire, and that your lives were on the line. No hypothesis or
experimentation was needed. Ample American experience informed that fact
of life.

We have lost the commons of working towards the greater good. We still
segregate neighborhoods and access to knowledge, critical for a future where
information is growing exponentially, and competition for employment is
measured globally. We do not teach critical thinking or conflict resolution
skills K-12, which would immeasurably help society without a signal jot or
tittle of the 2nd amendment being affected. There's a shooting every week
now; out of 26 high-income nations, there is a 20X greater likelihood in the
US of dying by gunshot. Japan, South Korea, Iceland: nothing! Israel is the
next safest country (look at the graph, and let that sink in). I'm waiting on
when the rest of the G-8 countries quarantines the United States for the sake
of market stability (and as a dangerous place to travel).

We're atomizing each other with every Tweet, obnoxious Facebook post and
zinger; we've become "us versus them"; a great cabal plots in the dark and
everything that doesn't agree with our twisted worldview is a "false flag" or lies
from Beelzebub. We cannot discuss alternative energy, climate change, gun
control, health, space travel without pulling into our respective corners for the
bell to ring and come out swinging. We only want our
tribe/sex/group/culture/party to prevail and have not evolved to think of
ourselves as a human species, with common ancestors and goal of survival on
the only world we've so far known. We'd better figure out, as Dr. King would
say, "to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." The silence
from the heavens may be ET ignoring us, or perhaps reaching the very end of
the Drake Equation (L for civilization lifetime)...extinct from their own
defeating arrogance.

"Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge
which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals
mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.
They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley
of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents
science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral
nihilism." 5

1. ABC Science: Young Earth - Dr. Karl's Great Moments in Science
2. Science Daily: Confirmation Bias
3. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
4. "Of all the implications of general relativity for the structure and evolution
of the Universe, this question of the fate of great masses of matter is one of the
most challenging,"...Such implosion "does not give an acceptable answer." Kip
Thorne, Black Holes and Time Warps - Einstein's Outrageous
Legacy, Chapter Six - Implosion to What?, page 210
5. Huffington Post: Dr. Martin Luther King: Science Advocate