There were two articles in this week’s Newsweek that got me thinking.
The first was about women in science. It was discussing the controversy surrounding Lawrence Summers remarks about inherent differences in men’s and women’s ability in science. First of all I think that his comments are probably being taken out of context. He was hired to give a thought provoking speech on gender in science. Looks like he accomplished his mission. From what I understand he proposed inherent differences in understanding as a theory for why there are more male scientists than female. It is too bad that the world has gotten so PC that you can’t even put an idea up for debate without getting slammed for it. As for the female professor who walked out of the speech and then alerted the media – childish. The appropriate response if she disagreed would have been to stay and debate it – not to run out yelling “Mommy, he said something mean!”
As for the substance of the debate I have to say that I agree to a point. I was a biology major and chemistry minor in college so I had all the science and math courses. I was very good in math up through calculus. But I hated every minute of it. The happiest day of my life was when I finished my last required college math course. I went to a small school so I knew the abilities of each of my classmates pretty well. I was a great biology student. One male classmate and I always got about the same top scores in biology classes. But when it came to physics he blew me away. He just seemed to get it. I’ve always thought that the men had a better innate understanding of what was going on. I don’t know if that was because of the way it was explained or what but I know that when the women were looking at each other with WTF? looks the men were nodding in understanding and our test scores showed the difference.
The second thought-provoking article was about the Catholic Church’s process to make saints. This is a concept I’ve never understood. Just because a group of people say you are a saint that automatically makes you one? What if they are wrong? Personally if their God wants them to have saints as they define them I think they should leave it up to him to pick the best candidates. The article was about saints needing to do miracles after death to be made into a saint. They have to be proven miracles. How do you do that? What if a sick person is praying to several people? Do they all get credit if the person gets well? What if the person dies? Shouldn’t that count against them like a negative miracle? Then they’d need two confirmed miracles to get back into positive numbers. The whole thing is just amazingly stupid to me. If dead people do have these miraculous powers don’t you think that they’d have more important things to do than trying to get their quota of miracles up for a committee? My understanding of Christianity is that all glory for miracles should go to God anyway. Isn’t this whole concept blasphemous?
I guess I didn’t make my sarcasm heavy enough in that statement.
“Personally if their God wants them to have saints as they define them I think they should leave it up to him to pick the best candidates”
Just how exactly would “God” go about doing so, and how would he let “us” or “them” know? This seems as flimsy as what you are arguning against
Very well put. I especially like your line, “Mommy, he said something mean!” I just do not get these militant women who don’t seem to get it that there are differences in the male and female processing mechanisms. Notice I didn’t say that men were smarter, as I don’t necessarily subscribe to that theory. Because the men in my life are better at mechanical tasks or physics balances with women being significantly better at tasks that require multi-tasking and expression. I used to say that I did not support the Equal Rights Amendment because I did not want a law that lowered my status to equality with men. I liked being on a pedestal. I am 59 years old and served on the front lines of the gender revolution of the late sixties and throughout the seventies. I watched the movement get hijacked by the militant women of NOW and unfortunately the lesbian community as well. We were working for equal pay for equal work, for the right to establish credit in our own names, and the right to be seen as indpendent from our fathers and husbands in the marketplace and in the courtroom. Never was our original intention to establish the sameness of men and women. This is such a foolish attitude and one doomed to failure on every level, not the least of which is with our children. Men and women are different and those differences help create a whole.
1. Different strokes for different folks.
2. “Knights are but the breath of Kings.” Anon?