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Ignorance
By Truman Bashore
According to the website Online Etymology Dictionary (Harper, Douglas,
2001-2016) the origin of the word ignorance is “lacking wisdom or
knowledge; unaware; not known of, pay no attention to, knowing nothing
of good manners”. In today’s political arena ignorance can be
found in the argument for expanding oil drilling, the denial of climate
change, and that homosexuality is a choice.
To begin, recent reports have shown that Oklahoma has now surpassed
California in the number of earthquakes registered. This anomaly
is the result of “not paying attention” to the results of fracking
which undermines the subsurface of the earth by extracting the crude
and replacing it with a hodgepodge of chemicals that weakens and
poisons the earth’s substrata. The oil companies often use “eminent
domain” to grab land from its owners. The ignoring of science in “drill
baby drill” is lacking the “wisdom or knowledge” that harms the earth
by denying the science of geology and chemical reactions in order to
bring more profit to the oil conglomerates.
Through science we have come to know that those actions that subvert
the environment have caused the polar ice caps to melt raising the
water level in our oceans. Because the oceans are warming,
whales, sharks and the other fish of the sea are migrating closer to
our shores. Indeed, whale and shark attacks are on the
rise. Further, the desire to kill these sea dwellers for food is
also harming their existence.
Our weather patterns are changing as well. Due to drought conditions,
we are witnessing more forest fires in the west. Torrential rains
are causing flooding in this country as well as in countries around the
world. We have witnessed record snowfalls due to the changing
weather patterns.
The Orlando murders have shown our ignorance about those in the Gay
Community. In Live Science, Being Gay is not A Choice (March 5,
2015) Ben Carson (presidential hopeful) had argued that homosexuality
is choice but he later had to back off this argument because science
has proven that gay individuals are born with an extra hormone that
designates a sexual preference. According to this article If
being gay is truly a choice, the people who attempt to change this
orientation should be able to do so. But most people who are gay
describe it as deeply ingrained attraction that can’t simply be shut
off.
It amazes me that those who believe in a God greater than themselves
refuse to incorporate scientific knowledge into their beliefs and
scriptural writings. Some argue that “God doesn’t make mistakes”
but I would counter that anomalies in nature are part of the evolution
of all species. More importantly, to say that God is Great and
then not use our brain to its fullest to find more environmentally
friendly uses of energy, to ignore the changes in our weather patterns,
to end the bigotry and ignorance concerning homosexuality, is the
biggest sin of all!
Truman Bashore
June 2016
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