Three Vague Words on Pottery Prove the Bible True

Thanks for the very thoughtful commentary, Tony! I actually would have written something a great deal like it only three short years ago. I very much appreciate the importance of solace to a person's soul, and would not begrudge it anyone--so we are MOSTLY in agreement, except in some cases I have recently come to see as exceptions.

I do not respect a comforting belief which causes harm to the believer, and actively dispute one which causes harm to others. Your child's school bus driver is entitled to a belief in Ganesh the elephant god, but he is NOT entitled to believe that because of Ganesh's protection he doesn't need to swerve out of the way of the Mack truck heading straight for him and his forty schoolchildren. The man sitting next to me is entitled to believe in Allah, but not that it's his duty to take over this airplane and fly it into a football stadium. Parents who withhold life-saving medical treatment from their children go to jail, no matter how deeply comforted they are by their belief in the healing power of God. It's not merely a matter of religious belief; when a loved one finds solace in a whiskey bottle or needle, it's not only appropriate to protest but our duty. So I do understand your point, and agree that a comforting belief is usually none of my business to contest; but have come to see how some others are in fact our business after all.

Your example of the teacher who taught the earth was 6000 years old, was not merely heartbreaking, but also highly disturbing, because I find the crippling of young minds an unconscionable act. Neil deGrasse Tyson said about this exact type of incident that preventing it is "not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers." Texas schoolchildren receive an inferior science education due to precisely this pattern, and in such a populous state it drags down the literacy of the entire nation. Not just due to dragging down national averages, but also due to the fact that the textbook guidelines made by the grossly scientifically-illiterate fundamentalist Texas school board are so financially influential, they determine the content of textbooks available to EVERY other state. It is not merely a matter of what brought that woman solace. Your own son was unnecessarily upset (I consider his coming home "fit to be tied" a dreadful thing for that teacher to have done to him), your own parenting interfered with, and the possibility introduced of being ostracized by his peers for failing to cohere. I have heard many stories of children traumatized by fears of hell which were very real to them, or by taunting for failing to share a common belief. I myself believe it is immoral to cause either physical or intellectual harm to a child (like teaching them false information about the world which hinders them from prospering in it) but because it damages our national competitiveness in the sciences and cripples reasoning ability, which has far-reaching implications in every area of life and political policy since poor judgment leads to poor decisions. Imagine instituting a nationwide curriculum whereby all schoolchildren are taught that disease is caused by invisible fairies: would our medical system be improved or degraded by such a belief? If you think this is a fanciful example, it's not so far off--anti-vaccination crusaders have caused the resurgence of several once-rare diseases, and are responsible for the deaths of many thousands of children worldwide. All because they are incapable of distinguishing a fact from a comforting belief.

So an adult who, through a process of reflection and reason, comes to believe the earth is only 6000 years old is entitled to it and I won't begrudge them any more than a person who believes he's visited nightly by Elvis. But to teach it to an impressionable young mind is exactly the "bringing someone to it before they are ready" that you yourself wisely warn me against. You correctly point out that "to insist that they must believe the earth is older, is no better than them insisting on others believing it is not." But there are two little issues I have with the statement nonetheless: first, I don't think I've suggested anybody should insist young-earthers should change their mind, but just that they should not have their belief RESPECTED any more than the Elvis guy, and certainly not permitted to teach it to children in accredited schools. (See http://xkcd.com/154/) And second, I really have to point out that even if I were insisting such a thing, it would in fact be better than them insisting on others believing the earth is not older than 6000 years. Not because I'm morally superior, but because the weight of evidence is so clearly, indisputably, laughably, overwhelmingly in favor of the claim I have made. It is better but for the same reason it is better to insist to your child that he cannot jump off a three-story building and fly, than for her to insist that she can. To claim moral equivalency just because they are both beliefs is like saying that elephants and ticks are the same size because they are both animals. It is actually IMMORAL, in my view, to excuse a destructive belief (and the erosion of our educational system and position among civilized nations is dreadfully destructive) just because it brings its adherents solace. So I definitely understand the spirit of your sentiments, and in most cases actually agree with them. But the ones I now choose to make noise about are the cases where harm is being done, and being given a free pass for it because good folks like you and I so highly value tolerance.