Last week was the "Creation Lesson" in Sunday School. The teacher did a fantastic job of keeping the lesson doctrinal, despite attempts by some class members to veer off into tangents.
On one of those tangents, someone makes some remark about scientists, and someone else, a long-term member of the ward and an attorney, says "scientists think they know everything; they're so prideful."
And the retort: "And lawyers are so humble." I wish I could have been the one to say that, but that award goes to the local statistician.
Seriously, with a past in science and a future in law, I think I have a unique perspective on the subject. Any group is going to have pompous jerks (even Sunday School classes may have them). Sure, some scientists are prideful. But if you want to find large amounts of pride in well-educated groups, you'll have much more luck finding it among politicians, economics and business people, and lawyers.
Scientists are well-aware that they don't have all the answers. If they did, they'd be out of a job. And the majority of the many scientists I have met have been wonderful, humble people.
And I've met a lot of nice lawyers too, in the past 18 months. Dozens. Some wonderful people. And some incredibly pompous, arrogant, soulless jerks. Who's more prideful, on average? No contest.
Oh, the irony of a lawyer calling scientists prideful...
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By the way, no one in that ward fits the category of "soulless," although a handful are certainly clueless and/or paranoid. Just didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea...
I am personally acquainted with one soulless lawyer, that claims to be active LDS. But he had a lot of other issues as well as being soulless.
I thought that was a great moment in Sunday School too! So funny and ironic, and I was glad someone provided the clear perspective on scientists.
I walked out of that lesson. Our ward quickly turned from the lesson manual to bashing evolution. Despite someone asking if we could stick to the lesson that we were supposed to have. I stayed quiet, I wanted to put some people in their place and I might have but we meet in the chapel and I didn't want to bring that spirit into the chapel.
Sorry to hear that.
I'm in a great position to both insist we stay on topic and state that good Mormons accept evolution--I took courses on evolution at BYU, and I'm the EQ president. The first means I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the science (and the fact that it must not be so bad if the church school teaches it); the second means that (at least hypothetically) I'm integrated enough into the ward to not be out of place to comment on it.
It's harder when you're new in a ward.
If they're bashing evolution, the wrong spirit is already there--I figure the only way to cast that spirit out is to get back on topic. It can definitely be hard though--I attended my parent's ward over Christmas, and the EQ lesson there was off-base, but being a visitor no one knew, I didn't feel comfortable calling them out on it.
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