Afterwords Books discussion
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Fool Me Twice
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Fool Me Twice: Comments and Reflections
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I have a few copies that came in yesterday if anyone is interested in purchasing one, $20.79 with the book club discount!
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With that, im skipping ahead forty or so pages to part 3 as it sounds more interesting.
Since this is a Science book, it is one that I really wanted to read critically. Take notes. Ask questions. Find flaws. That lasted for about the first 150 pages and then I realized at the rate I was going I would never finish it on time. Now, I am trudging through the last few chapters like it's homework. Is the topic important? Undeniably yes. Is it fascinating? Meh, maybe not.
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"54 percent [of polled Americans] knew that the earth orbits the sun, and that it takes a year to do it. 51 percent knew that antibiotics don't kill viruses. And 53 percent knew that 'human brings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals'" (170).
In that same section the author notes that 52 percent are unaware that dinosaurs and humans never overlapped.
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I'm not quite finished with the book (I'll finish in the next few days) but I'm not really surprised by what Otto has to say. America is essentially ignoring science for no other reason then people don't want to deal with it. It is so much easier to believe in something than to actually investigate it and understand it. There is that story in the book of the mother taking her kids to the museum and explaining to them that they were going to see dinosaur bones, but not to believe in them because the devil planted them to deceive us. What bullshit!
I'm appalled when I think about how many times this, or similar ridiculousness, takes place. Mountains of scientific data can simply be brushed aside with a simple faith statement. Fossils, climate change, evolution, carbon dating, etc. all apparently are to be believed in or not, just like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
There is so much blame to go around. First, the media. Why explain a story accurately (like "Climategate") when you can just use it as a weapon against something you wish to discredit? Second, average people. Stop watching Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty and flip on some Nova or Science Friday. Also, stop tuning out when you actually have to think about something. If it isn't a clever sound bite or something that affirms our beliefs most of us disengage.
The third group I blame is our politicians, although they are the way they are because we force them to be. No politician will seriously address real science because of the push back they would suffer. They can't afford to sacrifice votes and alienate a whole demographic because they utter the term "evolution." So what happens? They just ignore it, we ignore it, rinse, repeat.
The whole system is absurd.
This rant could easily continue but I'll stop here.
Hope your discussion goes well!
Additionally, once you've finished please record any general impressions or thoughts on the book. You can also use this space for post-discussion reflections. If you haven't finished the book yet be warned, there probably are spoilers!