by Splendid Elles

So I was going ’round the local Asian supermarket today which seems to be a hotspot for missionaries of all kinds from Krishna to evangelical Christians. I picked up a little booklet telling people that the only way to avoid Hell was to accept Jesus into their hearts and included this little prayer:

God, I am a sinner.

I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again so that I can be forgiven of all my sins. I open my heart to you right now. Please come into my heart. Jesus, please be the Lord of my life from here on. Please be with me until the day I enter Heaven.

I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I began to wonder, what if I stood out front and asked people “are you ready to accept the scientific method into your heart?” I could even hand out booklets with this prayer:

Science, I am an irrational being.

I believe that double-blind controlled experiments are the best way of learning scientific facts, so that we can have the best evidence to provide reasoning for the decisions which we make. I open my mind to you right now. Please come into my mind. Science, please be my light of truth from here on. Please be with me until I return to the abyss of non-existence.

I act in the name of scientific truth. Think.

Ok, perhaps I wouldn’t actually do it. Science isn’t my religion any more than logic, reason, or rhetoric is. They are just tools to find truth.

But I do think it would be interesting to have some people, instead of standing outside of supermarkets on Saturday afternoons trying to convert people to their religion, handing out scientific literature, giving candy to little kids and telling them about the Solar Nebular Theory, sending them on their merry way perhaps with instructions for an experiment to try when they get home.

What if we had people standing outside of supermarkets behind little tables where they dissect fish purchased within to show the little children their anatomy? What if we had microscopes with pond water, full of all sorts of good microbes for them to examine? What about a telescope set outside at night to show them Saturn’s rings or the cratered moon? Air powered rockets? Vacuum chambers? Fossils or fossil casts to touch?

I want to make it absolutely clear that my intent here is not to say that science should be or is followed religiously, but what would be wrong with immitating the methods of supermarket missionaries? Why not have a little table to share a bit of science with children?

Of course, some postmodernist would come along and sneer “you’re just trying to convert people to your socially constructed creed making you no better than a religion” ignoring the fact that the only real doctrine of science isn’t what you can believe but how you come to determine if a belief is true.

But what would be wrong with sharing a little bit of science with kids from 0-110 coming out of Asian supermarkets?

Just an abstract thought…