"Blog carnivals" are collections of similar-topic blog posts usually hosted every week or two on different sites. There are lots of special interest carnivals, and probably several that will tickle anyone’s fancy. The carnivals tend to feature the best of what’s out there. I’m too busy to host one, but I’ve submitted to several.
Geek Counterpoint recently hosted the Philosophia Naturalis carnival #3: a collection of blogs entries about physical science and technology. The host kindly included my Plowing Through the Electromagnetic Spectrum essay from the other day, and there are lots of excellent things to read there. Check it out!
November 13th, 2006 at 6:32 am
They chose a good post – it definitely highlighted the way we solve nature’s mysteries and the tools we have at hand to do so. As a segue to that idea, I saw Jesus Camp in the theater yesterday: there was one scene where a mother is home-schooling her son Levi, who is 13 years old, and she’s deriding science and evolution. He replies with what she wants to hear, but I’m not totally convinced he’s totally convinced. But like a good little soldier he will tell other kids evolution is just not so.
In another scene Levi and his friend are watching a creationist program with the title styled like that of Speilberg’s Jurassic Park. I really did think of Phil’s black hole post because black holes are just so fascinating, and to kids they are fascinating. Balck holes are difficult to wrap one’s mind around and kids love mysteries. I know that I went to a planetarium at four years old and was fascinated. (The only problem is that I didn’t quite get what millions of years meant, and thus walked around for three weeks thinking we would all be fried.)
Anyway, the documentary is disturbing, with only a few moments of laughter, such as a part with Ted Haggard asking “What did you do last night?” “I’ll give your wife a $1,000 not to tell.” Ha ha. But seeing these kids writhing on the floor, brought to emotional tearful pitches actually brought me to tears at one point. The three kids they focused on are obviously bright and articulate; think of how those minds could, if they were so inclined, contribute to science, or something. Yet, they are quite clearly being brainwashed. And one day they will be adults.
I hope people will watch this when it gets on DVD. This review is one of the more accurate ones I’ve read. They said in the movie that 43% of Evangelicals claim to be saved by the time their 14 years old. Some of the kids at the camp were about six or seven years old.
At our local observatory kids are excited to look at Saturn for the first time. (50 year old adults, too!) Watching this movie, I just wanted to save all these kids and tell them what science reveals to us, and the good parts and wonders of the human mind.
November 13th, 2006 at 6:38 am
Typo corrections: balck to black; “by the time their 14 years old,” of course should be they’re or they are.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:52 am
The whole idea of an adult being influenced and manipulated by another’s “visions” is something I have a hard time understanding. But kids are something else again. I was around at the start of the Jim Jones cult during the late 70′s, and as the rumors concerning the rituals to which the group’s children were subjected became more widespread, those of us who knew some of the children in the cult (they were in our classes at the local schools) became increasingly alarmed at the stories coming out of the Redwood Valley temple. Jones was pretty wily when it came to keeping his temple doings out of the public eye; he was also a master politician and was pretty much able to convince eager pols looking for a photo op with the newest and very charismatic evangelist that he was legit. When the stories of the abuses and the bizarre sex rituals became too noisy in our small community for Jones to continue to try to placate with denials, he moved the entire congregation to San Francisco. He had the right idea: get them when they’re young. That is the sad part of many of these cults; they get converts from the ranks of the youngest and most vulnerable with the most pliable minds. I don’t think there is any difference between an Islamic madrassa and the Sunday School of Christianity or of any religion – wiccan or Satanism or the rest. The principal goal is indoctrination. But as for the adults in Jones’ cult; I’m still mystified by how most of them had an almost complete lack of credulity – even when they saw what he was doing with and to their own kids during the “prayer meetings” which became an almost nightly ritual at the “church.” It is for this reason that I think skepticism ought to be a required course in every public school in the U.S.
November 13th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
Will, I remember the photos in the news when I was in 6th grade. In my hometown in CT we were all very wary of cults and when we’d here somebody’s older brother or sister left the state and joined one, it was the talk of the town. I’d say we became aware of cults in 4th grade, and back then, events like Patty Hearst getting kidnapped were news we all heard about, among similar events. In 6th grade every Friday we’d watch a slideshow of the week’s top news stories sent over by the New Haven Register newspaper. We’d discuss each story, which I loved. We were informed kids that year!
The camp from this movie has apparently been closed, but one thing that’s disturbing is that the youngest girl they focused on, who whipped herself into a tearful – really emotional – fury at the camp, came from a very nice suburban house and successful family. She had a very large bedroom and tons of toys, and it goes to show that level of success and education is no guarantee that parents will not let their kids be subjected to this kind of mental abuse. My sister is in social work, my father works in the courts, so I’m not naive to the fact that seemingly decent, educated people do rotten things to their kids.
Many years ago in Connecticut, I went with a co-worker to a fundamentalist church there, out of curiousity. In the row in front of me was some 8 year-oldish boy who was fidgeting in his chair. His parents were very snippy with him, and people seemed to be whispering and looking at him strangely. I asked my co-worker what the deal was with this boy. He replied, “He’s possessed by demons.” He was dead serious. The kid kept staring at me – he must have sensed an atheist in his midst – and I thought this is just a typical boy. (Later someone spoke in tongues.) I felt like I needed to shower afterwards. Really. What could I do? Nothing at that juncture. There’s little one can do if parents home-school their kids, too.
In the movie one kid admits that he watched Harry Potter at his father’s house (I assumed his parents were divorced). Even some of these kids are living a lie. It’s nauseating. /-8~
November 13th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Typo corrections…geesh: here to hear, and whatever else. I can’t type today!
November 13th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Melusine is correct. The “Kids on Fire” camp has been shut down, possibly for a few years, hopefully forever.
November 15th, 2006 at 4:21 am
…but they don’t go away. It was nearly 20 years ago that I saw that poor demonized boy and today young kids are speakin in tongues. The numbers of home-schooled children are growing. See this New Scientist article:
Furthermore, it’s something to be concerned about. As I said, these kids become adults. Just because Jesus Camp shut down doesn’t mean all is well with the kids and their families. The church itself hasn’t been abandoned. The New Scientist article points out “grooming”:
Anyway, this was about Phil’s black hole article to begin with. I just hate to see kids’ minds shut off to the mysteries and wonders of the real universe and brainwashed into thinking the human constructed one is “the way.” Like the wonderful documentary, Born Into Brothels,” where Zana Briski brought cameras to kids in Indian brothels opening their eyes to a new way of seeing, I wish someone armed with telescopes would do the same thing with, say, kids in Afghanistan or elsewhere. The more kids have the opportunity to be awed by the natural world, the less likely they are to be victims of ignorance…dinosaurs with saddles are not cool. There’s not much to do about the home-schooled kids, but we can strengthen the public school programs and public outreach…always.