"Protestantism in the US south tends to have a strong anti-intellectual background"

[SlimShady]

No…


I think there’s a big push to say “I’m smart and they’re all stupid” when it comes to political disagreements in this country, coming from both sides…

In this case, the person quoted was a conservative living in the US south, talking about the churches she had attended which taught non-scientific positions on evolution and other subjects.

A religious view on the effect that birth control has on promiscuous behavior isn’t really one based on intellectual ability… it’s a disagreement on world views.

[mommy_jules]

Yes, and this quote explains most of it if not the majority.

“We listened to Rush Limbaugh, a radio host known for his controversial opinions on topics such as race, LGBT rights and women, and I would hear him every day for two hours.“
2 hours a day every day for years is hard to combat.

[mommy_jules]

In this case, the person quoted was a conservative living in the US south, talking about the churches she had attended which taught non-scientific positions on evolution and other subjects.

I mean evolution is just a theory anyways. I teach my children that creation is the truth not evolution BUT they are also quite well educated on the theory of evolution and comparing and contrasting the two is a favorite pastime of my oldest. They didn't learn about evolution in church though it came from home. And the theory of evolution is always changing so what is considered the truth today may not be the truth tomorrow.
It's not the church's job to teach scientific viewpoints on things it's there to teach the religious viewpoints.

A scientific theory is a substantiated explanation of facts. I really don’t know why people, who choose to believe in creationism, seem to think that both could not co-exist. For all you know, Adam and Eve could have been the first Neanderthals or the first Homo Sapiens. Species evolve to adapt to their environments if they don’t they risk extinction.

https://biologos.org/common-questions/what-is-evolution

[mommy_jules]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-co ... lical-mind

Trying to get a snippet of the article is proving to be difficult on my phone, but it is an interesting read for anyone interested in this topic.

[WellPreserved]

Yes and no. Most fundamentalists regardless of which religion reject science and education (the definition of anti-intellectualism). This is not unique to fundamental Christian Protestants or the South but only speaks to the singular experience of the woman quoted in the article.

Sure, the South has a fairly large share of Christian fundamentalist churches and church goers but there is not a huge difference between Christian fundamentalists, ultra Orthodox Jews, and fundamentalist Islam when it comes to the rejection of science and education.

[SisterSomeone]

Perhaps I wouldn't cast as wide a net as to say "Protestantism", as a whole. Perhaps I also wouldn't stereotype a very large and varied group of people based on having interacted with the worst of them.

That said, from my purely anecdotal experience, all of the most proudly stupid people I've ever had the misfortune of speaking with have been Southern white evangelicals.

[RIZZY]

As opposed to Catholicism?

[RIZZY]

Or do you mean Protestantism in the US north?

[Aletheia]

evolution is just a theory

Often people use the word "theory" quite imprecisely, and usually this doesn't matter.

When it comes to discussing science, it is better to stick to the official technical definition.

Terms Used in Describing the Nature of Science

Fact: In science, an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as "true." Truth in science, however, is never final, and what is accepted as a fact today may be modified or even discarded tomorrow.

Hypothesis: A tentative statement about the natural world leading to deductions that can be tested. If the deductions are verified, it becomes more probable that the hypothesis is correct. If the deductions are incorrect, the original hypothesis can be abandoned or modified. Hypotheses can be used to build more complex inferences and explanations.

Law: A descriptive generalization about how some aspect of the natural world behaves under stated circumstances.

Theory: In science, a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.

Source: An official statement by the American National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, that they published back in 1999 and which has been universally adopted since by scientists. https://doi.org/10.17226/6024.

[Aletheia]

I teach my children that creation is the truth not evolution

And that is what we mean by being "anti-Scientific".

For a start, I suspect you don't even know the correct definition of the word "evolution", and conflate it with things like abiogenesis.