God Created Gravity: Why the U.S. Can't Keep Pace With Slovenia

Is American Exceptionalism destroying the greatness of the USA??

This blog on Huffpost argues that it is:

American religiosity has become an existential threat, undermining the foundation of our future prosperity by contaminating our educational system with superstition, fable and myth. We see this with evolution, vaccines, climate change, energy policy and a host of critical issues that should be based in science but instead are hijacked by ignorance. We are 17th in the world in science, but instead of improving our education, we continue to fight battles more appropriate to the 16th century.

as an outsider the argument certainly has some cachet - news from America is often about the seemingly insane politics of the Tea Party and other "right wing" or "conservative" groups.

I have a few relations living in the US, including a sister who is now a naturalized citizen & they are happy to be raking in the "big bucks" in good jobs, and equally happy knowing that they can leave and "come home" any time they want if/when it all turns to carp.

I know people on here seem to be very pro-TP & what I would conventionally call "right wing" & expect to get lambasted for this - but it certainly seems to me to be part of US Political Madness!!

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


The vast majority of technical innovation and scientific discoveries in the world come from the USA. So what's your point.

reply to post by yamammasamonkey


Yeah it came from the US...past tense......and increasingly (future tense) it is coming from immigrants and not "natives".

and my point is clearly contained in the OP - y'all are screwing up your educational system with religion!

Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by yamammasamonkey

 

Yeah it came from the US...past tense......and increasingly (future tense) it is coming from immigrants and not "natives".

and my point is clearly contained in the OP - y'all are screwing up your educational system with religion!

.. or perhaps we are screwing up our educational system by allowing idiots to be in charge of it who do not have the best interest of our youth or nation at heart. Like U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by yamammasamonkey

 

Yeah it came from the US...past tense......and increasingly (future tense) it is coming from immigrants and not "natives".

and my point is clearly contained in the OP - y'all are screwing up your educational system with religion!

Sometimes it feels like we're in danger of being like that guy who peaked in high school and ends up a fat balding loser with a crappy job and no prospects.

Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by yamammasamonkey

 

Yeah it came from the US...past tense......and increasingly (future tense) it is coming from immigrants and not "natives".

and my point is clearly contained in the OP - y'all are screwing up your educational system with religion!

To be frank, religion is kinda down the list of things that are messing up our Educational System. While there are plenty of things wrong with our educational system, the U.S. still is a magnet for the best and brightest. We are a nation of immigrants.

pavil

Aloysius the Gaul
reply to post by yamammasamonkey

 

Yeah it came from the US...past tense......and increasingly (future tense) it is coming from immigrants and not "natives".

and my point is clearly contained in the OP - y'all are screwing up your educational system with religion!

To be frank, religion is kinda down the list of things that are messing up our Educational System. While there are plenty of things wrong with our educational system, the U.S. still is a magnet for the best and brightest. We are a nation of immigrants.

Hi. What do the stats in your graphic signify? Thanks. As for religion playing havoc with American education, folks should remember that most textbooks are geared to mirror what the Texas school boards want them to mirror. Much of that is based on a set of religious values which, even though usually not spoken, then shape American children's thought processes and future.

They should teach more religion in school, more philosophy too, all the major ones at least.

Science and math are fine for creating new technologies (often used by the military first) but religion and philosophy create more knowledgeable and well-rounded people. We need to teach people spiritual and moral concepts or we create a society of sociopaths that lack empathy for anything outside themselves.

The Tea Party is on the decline. Younger generations are becoming less religious. The majority of religious crap comes from Bible belt states, which really don't count, since the vast majority of innovation, research, and advancement comes from more secular states.

The religious right is undergoing its terminal stages, so I am not to worried.

Aleister

Hi. What do the stats in your graphic signify?

Sorry, it shows the nationality of Nobel Prize winners, according to a website.

I seriously doubt if Christianity is spoiling science and tech or education.
A Christian invention, basically majority of inventions in usa have been
from Christians

reply to post by yamammasamonkey


US produces a lot of the innovations, although I have high doubts that majority of these are done by Americans. A lot of the innovation comes from engineers/minds sourced in to US. Whether US companies or even universities, often they are dependent on foreign talent, when it comes to innovation. Of course, certain talent also comes from US, although that is normal considering the size of the US. The problem lies in the fact that there should be more of such people due to size. When I have taken a look at different studies in my field of expertise, it is rare to see American names in them, despite American universities creating them. Either international students working under visa or legal immigrants who have gained citizenship. That is somewhat similar in majority of the fields, especially STEM fields. Although considering US size alone, majority of innovations should be done by Americans. EU in total has 500 million people, although the highest population in European country is less than hundred million, merely a third of US. Per capita startups are relatively low in US, compared to majority of other advanced nations.


I personally see the issue at the education system, as well as children´s system. Especially the smaller nations are dealing with the issue, as let us be honest,for a country of less than 10 million, the amount of talent produced is not high. Even when they used all their talent, considering let us say 1 in 10 has the potential, then it would be 1 million people with the capability of becoming world-class at their field. This seems a lot, although however you want it, at the end many will drop out due to different reasons. Even when 1 in 300 in US was able to maximise their potential, this would be significantly higher than in the small nation. That is the reason why these nations are focusing on their child development more - often long-term usually paid mother leave for certain amount time as first years of child matter a lot (differs by nation, here it is 3 years of paid mother leave), opportunities for every child, whatever their background - whether rich or poor, city or countryside child, they have exactly the same opportunities for quality education - strong public education with free lunches, cheap/without fee universities (in some fields for everybody, in some just for poorer students with good grades, scholarships so they wouldn´t have to waste their education while having to work at some menial jobs during university etc). US has a lot of potential due to their size, but the country is wasting it, focusing on only the kids from better backgrounds - middle class or higher. Even when somebody from poorer background is very talented in US, they are severaly disadvantaged compared to kids from richer families and have to work very hard to even get the opportunities that the others are granted by their family. That is what many countries are focusing on to lose. Whether your father is a billionaire or homeless person, as long as you are both smart, you get the same opportunities for education. The public schools are very strong and quite equal when it comes to academic standards, private schools system is inexistent. As long as the son of homeless person is smarter than the son of a billionaire, he has more opportunities when it comes to university. The only way the billionaire can affect his son´s education is by hiring private teachers and getting outside materials for development of the child, no other way.


To OP:

I agree religion can affect the schools a lot, especially fundamentalism. There are many families, who even their children as if science was anti-god. This can lose lots of motivation to learn, especially physics or biology. Whether god should get attention at different science lessons, is a 17th century battle.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


I really hate how conservatism in this country is coupled with being religious. I'm a Libertarian which has many conservative beliefs, but I'm also an agnostic atheist. I do believe that religion is one of the many things holding our country back. I also believe that there would be more conservatives in this country if the stigma that you are some bible thumping yokel if you vote Republican (conservative) was dropped.

Aloysius the Gaul
Yeah it came from the US...past tense......and increasingly (future tense) it is coming from immigrants and not "natives".

The US is a Nation of Immigrants

Did the OP just blame the Tea Party for holding back new scientific discoveries? How can you have a serious conversation with a topic like this? It's hard to type I'm laughing so hard.

Ah yes, Religion, the scape goat for #ty schools.

Its religions fault that School funding is cut first in every municipality when there is a short fall.

It is religions fault that schools are over crowded.

It is religions fault that schools in poor areas get less tax funded support.

It is religions fault that College cost more than most poor can make in a life time.

Yep, all religion.

How about some basic concepts like You get what you Pay for.

and IN america the last thing anyone seems to want to fund is Education.

Lets start there before we start throwing out scape goats for blaming.

Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
The majority of religious crap comes from Bible belt states, which really don't count, since the vast majority of innovation, research, and advancement comes from more secular states.

I see something really deep and profound within this. And I'm not even high.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

I really hate how conservatism in this country is coupled with being religious. I'm a Libertarian which has many conservative beliefs, but I'm also an agnostic atheist. I do believe that religion is one of the many things holding our country back. I also believe that there would be more conservatives in this country if the stigma that you are some bible thumping yokel if you vote Republican (conservative) was dropped.

The X-ian nutjobs are all right wing & also conservative - but not all conservatives are right wing and x-ian.

but it IS the x-ian ones that do the stupid stuff and so get the headlines.

jjkenobi
Did the OP just blame the Tea Party for holding back new scientific discoveries?

No

How can you have a serious conversation with a topic like this?

it is easy if you are capable of understanding the OP.....

It's hard to type I'm laughing so hard.

Your post is more of a tear jerker