Depressing footage on evolution

The brain-washing starts at an early age. The earlier, the better. All religions do that. The methodes are the same, whether children are taught to reject science (evolution) or to hate. And all of it is done in the name of God. Either God is an idiot for demanding his followers to ignore evidence, or he/she/it is enjoying a joke he plays on those who believe in him instead of watching a basketball game on ESPN.

This character was on the 2001 PBS program "Evolution" along with Ken Ham. It really was dismaying. By the way, if you haven't seen the PBS program, it is well worth it's 8 hours. The first couple hours re-enact some of Darwin's life; then each hour examines some facet of evolution. If you don't like a segment, skip to another.

What especially bothers me is when religions which heavily indoctrinate young kids like this then have some sort of "honest questions" class for them when they get to be teenagers, where they are encouraged to "question" their faith. Because Christianity is not about making obedient robots, it really really wants critical skeptics who examine the evidence and think it through rationally. A little doubt is good, because then your faith will come through even stronger than before. After all, this is a *reasonable* religion.

And presumably the incessant rote learning and constant warm-fuzzy associations in early childhood didn't over-influence the conclusions or anything.

I'm not bothered by the kid who wants to be a biochemist because I take that for a net win: I think that the odds are that any biochemist who joins the Institute for Creation Research is driven by demons more serious than this session, while I think that the odds are that any kid who goes off to be a biochemist from this session will lose their faith more quickly than if they'd kept their mouths shut about evolution. So in the case of actual college kids, these sessions are likely to be the cause of more apostasies than support.

Where I consider these sessions to be a net loss is in the kids who never do get to college, but think they know something because they once went to these sessions. It's the indoctrination of the uneducated-to-be in creationism that hurts; I expect the attempted indoctrination of the educated-to-be to backfire spectacularly.

So it's a global net loss, because face it, that audience is far less than 50% college-students-to-be, sadly (not their fault; a combination of economic problems and their congregational community holding them back will see to it on average)

It's truly depressing to see children indoctrinated in anti-science like this:

I find it truly depressing to see children being indoctrinated in anything, whether it's religiously motivated or not. Kids deserve better.

Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done about it. How do you teach anything to kids who know nothing about the topic, not even how to ask the right questions or understand the answers, without it turning into "indoctrination?" The only answer I can find is "teach both sides of the issue," but in some cases that's impossible because there isn't any other side, while in others it's politically unrealistic because the indoctrinators control the curriculum.

I ain't no kin to a monkey, and a monkey's no kin to me. I remember singing that in kindergarten.

Ugh.

You have to admit, that song he sings is pretty catchy.

I guess this is an example of one of those Dawkinsian caricatures of religion that real People of FaithTM do not actually practice. Damn those bigoted fundy atheists and their insistence on recognizing facts that are inconvenient to those who believe rarefied fantasies and moderation are the rule in religion.