Ineffective, isn't it?
The Voice of Russia (formerly Radio Moscow) has a much more interesting web presence than Voice of America. It's personal, inviting and interactive, just as R. Moskva had been in its shortwave heyday. I wrote to R. Moskva twice in the early '60s, trying out my self-taught Russian. They replied pleasantly, correcting my grammar and answering my questions.

On the new web version, a feature on Darwin's 200th anniversary reveals a surprisingly positive fact about human resiliency in the face of anti-Christian totalitarians.

As for Russia, half of my countrymen believe that the human beings were created by God and a quarter think that humans were parented by apes. The rest – a quarter of those surveyed – offered “hard to say” for an answer. Russian sociologists asked also this question: “What subject should be taught at school – Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Divine creation idea, both of them, or nothing at all? Only 20% advocated for Darwin’s theory as a school subject. 13% were in favor of the Divine creation as the only school subject. But the majority – 43% believed that both concepts should be offered to school kids. It will be a mission impossible for school teachers. One out of ten thinks that nothing should be taught on this controversial point.

According to this Pew article, Americans feel the same as Russians about Darwin in general, but our position on school curriculum seems to be more nuanced or uncertain. The closest version of the question is this one: "I'm going to read some areas of instruction that high schools might offer. Please say whether you think each one should be required instruction, could be offered as an elective, or should not be taught at all." Evolution gets 28% for required and 49% for elective; creationism gets 25% for required and 56% for elective. So roughly half of Americans think both views should be presented, which is slightly higher than the Russian 43%.

Overall, this means that anti-Christian schools and culture aren't nearly as effective as the elites would like. Russia had 70 years of anti-Christian schooling (1920 to 1990) and America has suffered 40 years of anti-Christian schools (1962 to present). Despite all that effort and money by Communist elites in both countries, only a quarter of the population firmly adheres to the establishment's "settled science."

This also decisively kills the idiotic notion propounded by Super-Idiot Lawrence Krauss, that ignorance of science leads to totalitarianism. Both USSR and USA taught ONLY EVOLUTION for several generations, and during that time USSR moved away from totalitarianism while USA moved toward it. So we have tested your theory with a controlled experiment, Super-Idiot Krauss.

Same treatment + opposite results = No causation.

= = = = =

Happy sidenote: Russia has not merely ended anti-Christian public schooling; it's now moving into church-school partnership!

The official paper on cooperation between the Orthodox Church and the Education Ministry was signed at the end of last year. Both the church and the school want the youngsters to learn moral principles. “We’re removing the 100-year gap between the Russian Orthodox Church and school education, — acting Education and Science Minister Vasily Kostyukevich says. – Russian literature and culture is impossible to perceive without Orthodox tradition”.

Labels: Experiential education, Krauss

  ¶ 6:19 AM