Posted by
Steve on Friday, January 19, 2007 8:33:48 PM
We have a report that a member of the American Meterological Society is proposing that any person that does not believe in global warming be decertified by the organization. That is getting pretty serious about something with no evidence. The person advocating this position is obviously a liberal. Liberals think their position is the only sane position. Therefore, anyone not subscribing to that position is obviously making a mistake or worse.
Liberals fail to take into account that someone may actually hold a differing opinion. This is usually not a problem as liberals tend not to mix too much with conservatives. It does cause a problem when the two groups do have to interact. Conservatives usually acknowledge that people can disagree. Holding that position allows them to accept the fact that people will disagree with them Liberals, on the other hand, do not hold that position. They feel everyone does agree with them. They are constantly surprised when someone actually disagrees with them. They usually do not take the disagreements with a very good attitude.
I work at a college. I have to tread very lightly when discussing my positions on global warming and other environmental issues. My approach is to tell my students that I am challenging them to think. I do not expect them to agree with me and I want them to support whatever position they take with scientific facts. This latter idea will entirely fluster the liberals. They have no facts to back up their positions on global warming.
I am teaching a class in ecology this semester. I am having fun with the students. I wrote some challenging questions on their discussion boards in the class. I told the students that the questions were there to challenge them. The questions need to be answered with scientific facts if they are available. It will be interesting to see how well the students in the class handle the challenge.
The thing I am trying to do is to educate my students in alternate ideas about the environment. If they can acknowledge that there are alternate possibilities out there, they have a chance to become open minded. That will be good to see. I would love to leave a few open minded students behind. Their flustering of teachers in the future would be interesting to see.