Did you know that Bertrand Russell was one of the (not-so-recent) famous victims of the Science versus Religion battle? I didn’t. Shame on me for I’m an ardent admirer of the man and I know so little of his life. In fact, I bought his Autobiography for a princely sum of $27 AUD, but haven’t got past 100-odd pages over a span of 4 years.

All that aside. On to the main point: Russell was denied a teaching position at the City College in New York City in 1940. The reason? The Church hated his guts. Saying it politely, the Church was angry about his widely-publicized views about religion, marriage, sexuality, and divorce though not necessarily in that order. When he was invited by the New York City’s Board of Higher Education for an appointment to the faculty of the publicly funded City College, little did anyone anticipate the ugly consequences that would follow.

This turn of events was championed by a certain Reverend William T. Manning, the head of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese in New York. He opposed first, via the newspapers, Russell’s appointment on predictable grounds. I’ve reproduced the following quote after shamelessly stealing it from here:

Can any of us wish our young people to accept these teachings as decent, true or worthy of respect? What is to be said of colleges and universities which hold up before our youth as a reputable teacher of philosophy, and as an example of light and leading, a man who is a recognized propagandist against both religion and morality… The fact that he is intellectually brilliant is certainly no excuse for such action.

I won’t deliberate upon this piece of masterful reasoning–the link I provided does it in some depth. The whole affair just goes to show that despite long heroic and bloody struggles against organized religion in favour of free thinking and reason, things haven’t changed much to this day. In fact the violence we witness each day in our world has a lot to do with organized religion which seeks to manipulate men’s minds with… well, lies and superstition. Here is more on the silent devastation that organized religion is wreaking on humanity by taking control of key areas: universities figure prime on the list.

Most by now are aware of how far-right fundamentalist took over the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s and early 90s - what many are not aware of is how they also took over respected Baptist seminaries across the South.

These institutions had accepted historical-critical approaches to studying both the Bible and Christianity. They had adopted the principle of not only academic freedom, but also open theological inquiry where no one was expected to hold to a party line on political, social or even theological issues. They allowed for the traditional Baptist doctrine that each believer must be free to interpret the Bible as individuals and follow the calling of their hearts.

But all of this changed for the worse starting in the early 1990s. Professors who were otherwise well respected and leaders in their field started to be purged if they refused to adopt positions more in line with the political aspirations of fundamentalists. A particularly hot topic was naturally abortion - any professor who held a pro-choice view or even just felt the matter was debatable was in danger.

It didn’t matter if these people violated no contractual obligations and transgressed against none of the Baptist confessional commitments. These seminaries were being reshaped into the propaganda arms of fundamentalist forces and there was no room for even mild dissent. As with Scopes and Russell before them, educators were declared to be mere employees who had to adopt the political and religious resolutions set before them or leave.

Particularly frightening was the hostile atmospheres created by the fundamentalists seeking any excuse possible to expel dissenting academics. Student vigilantes were recruited to monitor classes held by dissenters and report back to the administration. Anonymous hate notes were circulated and lies were spread about what professors really believed - not unlike what happened to Bertrand Russell. Nowadays controversial subjects are rarely if ever broached in lectures.

The last line is significant. We can perhaps begin by asking one question: what are the “controversial” subjects? For an answer, we get this: beliefs held as self-evident, theories which should not be challenged/examined, and topics which threaten an entire industry that has lies, deception and fraud as its basis. For more detailed, proof-backed analyses of how this system works, how people who try to critically inquire into it are treated, I recommend these links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

All these are by Rajiv Malhotra, who has challenged the American University system in the discipline of Indology. While this may have no direct connection with the Science versus Religion battle, it does reveal some vital insights on the subject. The idea of objective study is fast being replaced by tailoring knowledge to suit this or that political viewpoint.

We’re approaching a stage where Knowledge=Propaganda.