A new BigThink video featuring theoretical physicist, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, is circling the internet. The video was released on Jan. 30 and is titled, “Lawrence Krauss: Stop Validating Ignorance.”
In the video, Krauss takes issue with Republican Senator Marco Rubio’s statements about the age of the Earth. In an interview with GQ, Rubio said:
“I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.”
In one part of the video, Krauss responds to the Senator by talking about the notion of teaching religious beliefs next to settled science in this way:
“If you think about that, somehow saying that, well, anything goes, we shouldn't offend religious beliefs by requiring kids to know - to understand reality; that’s child abuse. And if you think about it, teaching kids - or allowing the notion that the earth is 6,000 years old to be promulgated in schools is like teaching kids that the distance across the United States is 17 feet. That’s how big an error it is.”
The overall theme of the video isn’t really about Senator Rubio. It is aimed more toward science denialism in general. In the video Krauss puts it this way:
“The last thing we want to do is water down the teaching of biology because some people don’t recognize that evolution happened. Evolution is the basis of modern biology and, in fact, if a lot of people don’t believe it, it only means we have to do a better job teaching it. So once again, I repeat, the purpose of education is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome it. And to overcome a situation where a United States Senator can speak such manifest nonsense with impunity is vitally important to the healthy future of our society.”
The full video can be found on the BigThink website for your viewing pleasure. It has a running time of three and a half minutes. Krauss’s book, “A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing” is available on Amazon.com and anywhere else books are sold.
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