I bet the movie “Da Vinci’s Code” is going to a big hit in India. I saw the trailer for the dubbed version. They don’t dub stuff like this unless there is a reason.
Try picturing the expectations of those “modern” Indians…. Most of my Indian amigos think this is a big deal. Come on man! You get to stone the america’s religion! Most of them think this is something that will tear Christianity down from navel to nose. Picture those long speeches at the church about boycotting the movie.
They don’t realize there were christians in India 300 years before there was a single christian in Britain. And this movie is not going change anything. The stylish talk & hype about Da Vinci Code would make the less curious think that the big controversy is whether everything christians belive in has been a big lie. No. The real big controversy started by the movie is whether Jesus had sex or not… !
Most of us dont’t realize there have been theories like this floating around for 2000 years. Why the sudden interest in the truth that lies in a story about a theory which may be a rumor?
In my experience, people are always hugry for a different understanding.
Enter Dan Brown. But Brown’s novel is still: A NOVEL. A work of fiction.
I see similar reactions in people when it comes to science.
Why do people care about scientific controversies?
No, seriously, why do people care about scientific controversies?
The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science, the very latest controversies, are worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? By the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time. If it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes the problem controversial and attracts all the media attention. So the reporters show up, and hear the scientists speak fascinating words. The reporters are told that “particles” are “waves”, but there is no understanding of math for the words to invoke. What the physicist means by “wave” is not what the reporters hear, even if the physicist’s math applies also to the structure of water as it crashes on the shore.
And then the reporters write stories, which are not worth the lives of the dead trees on which they are printed.
But what does it matter to you? Why should you pay attention to scientific controversies? Why graze upon such sparse and rotten feed as the media offers, when there are so many solid meals to be found in textbooks?
If this is what happens to science among general public, what do you think will happen to faith? And why should we care about religious controversies?
