re: #82 Lidane

THIS.

We live in a country where a substantial percentage of the population believe in a Young Earth and deny that the universe is billions of years old. They think that a scientific theory is just a hunch. Explaining the “simple rules” of science and giving a sense of scale for the universe at large and how it’s amazing that we’re even here at all is a good start.

All too true at even the higher levels.

I’m taking the Coursera Human Evolution course (week 7 of 8) and it’s a solid 100 ~ 200 (~ maybe 300 in places) level college course. Reasonably challenging for a bright undergrad without too much previous exposure to the topic. Still we have crap like the “Aquatic Ape” theory come up in the class forums. Even people who are reasonably well educated can still fall for the silliest shit imaginable.

But I’ve gotten my hands on a great textbook, some amazing video lectures and pdfs of some of the most important papers in the field for my efforts and I’m happy as a clam :) That directory is getting pretty big!