- Science vs. faith
This is the first paragraph of the book and while, on the surface, it's about the Moon, it's actually setting up the thesis statement -- and perpetual paradox -- of the entire textbook. This is a science textbook struggling at all times to find the balance between science and faith. And here, they establish their default position on that issue, which is actually deviously clever: Forget popular opinion, science and faith are not mutually exclusive. In fact, because none of us was there to witness the origin of things, science IS faith. And we operate under that paradigm for the rest of the book.
Now, sure, to make that work, it takes a fast-and-loose (and condescending) definition of science and the outright dismissal or ignoring of generations of facts, data and evidence. But still, damn clever. We'll get a lot more into my feelings on that cleverness in the 11th point. - How old is the Moon?
I want to pick this apart, I really do -- but all I could think of when I saw this one was the famous Who Wants to be a Millionaire? screenshot...
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