As has been pointed out, by this point in excavating our 10th-grade textbook for home-schoolers, World History and Cultures In Christian Perspective, we all know that the correct answer will always be “Jesus.” Nonetheless, we will press on, because it’s still a laugh to find out just how many problems with reality these guys have. As you may recall, last week, we looked at why liberalism is ther greatest threat to Western Culture (because not enough Jesus, duh). This week, we’ll look at why a lot of science is not really scientific (spoiler: Because not enough Jesus).
Just to make sure their discussion starts off on a sound footing, the editors start with a bit of scripture, since that’s where all real science comes from:
During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, several liberal philosophies arose in the name of science but were really “science falsely so called” (1 Tim. 6:20).
The lovely thing about this choice is that now the editors are even cherry-picking within their own Bibles: Paul isn’t warning Timothy to avoid astrology, telephone psychics, or even evolution; he’s warning about the influence of gnosticism, which the early church considered heretical. And it’s only the King James version that translates gnosis as “science” here; almost all other Bibles, and even the KJV in 28 other instances of gnosis, translate it as “knowledge.” But it sounds like Biblical authority to pick and choose among sciences, so sure, let’s tell the kids that.
These pseudosciences (Greek pseudo: “false”) and their founders all related to one another in their desire to strike down absolute truth and rebel against God.
Never mind the irony of people who insist that Noah’s Ark explains the Grand Canyon using the term “pseudoscience”; we can only imagine how terrifying it must be to live in a world where it feels like everything around you is a trap designed to tempt you away from God’s absolute truth. (Your Doktor Zoom was raised Catholic, so sin was, of course, everywhere. But we seldom heard that entire professional fields were founded on heresy.) The real problem with a lot of science, the editors say, is that it’s based on all these dumb assumptions about reality:
The false philosophy that linked many of the pseudosciences together was positivism, the teaching of French philosopher Auguste Comte [1798-1857]. Positivism states that nothing can be known except observable scientific “facts,” an idea similar to the older philosophy of empiricism (the belief that experience is the only source of knowledge). According to Comte, all knowledge was confined to what could be observed only by the human senses; anything that was considered spiritual was ignored. In fact, Comte declared that history showed how mankind had “progressed” from belief in God and the supernatural to “positive, scientific knowledge” . . . Comte later coined the term ”sociology” for his new “science” of human society.
Any science that fails to account for the possibility that angels might be jumping down on the scales or slaying microbes is therefore incomplete and invalid.
Excerpt above from the latest installment in Dr. Zoom's series on the text book World History and Cultures In Christian Perspective, "a 10th-grade history text which the publisher’s website says 'stands on the conviction that God is the Creator of the world and the Controller of history.' "
Below are the links to the previous installments:
A ‘World History’ Textbook To Rescue Your Homeschooled Child From The Modern Age - "20th-Century Liberalism: Retreat from Authority and Responsibility. Yes, that is literally the chapter title."
A ‘World History’ Textbook To Make The World Safe For Theocracy - "The Titanic! World War One! The Flu Epidemic of 1918! The Rise of Modern Liberalism! Guess which one the editors consider the worst disaster?"
A Cold War “World History” Textbook For Your Fallout Shelter / Homeschool - More about commies under the bed.
This ‘World History’ Textbook Is The Opiate Of The Homeschooled Masses - More of history’s greatest monsters: your Godless Commies.
A ‘World History’ Textbook That Redistributes Reality To Home-Schooled Children - Marxy Marx & The Fundie Bunch
With This ‘World History’ Textbook, Your Homeschooled Babies Will Not Evolve - Charles Darwin, one of history's greatest monsters
The Sun Never Sets On This ‘World History’ Textbook For Home-Schoolers - The lovely Victorian Era
A ‘World History’ Textbook For Home-Schooled Child Laborers - the exciting world of the Industrial Revolution
A ‘World History’ Textbook To Haunt Your Home-Schooled Dreams - England escapes the Age of Reason, but not the American Revolution
A ‘World History’ Textbook For Your Home-Schooled Darlings - The Age of Enlightenment
Things You Can Learn in a Christian ‘World History & Cultures’ Textbook (Part 3)
Things You Can Learn in a Christian ‘World History & Cultures’ Textbook (Part 2)
Things You Can Learn in a Christian ‘World History & Cultures’ Textbook (Part 1)