More on Intelligent Design and the people who love it...
Following the discussions last week about Intelligent Design, triggered mostly by Bush comments on the subject, I read articles which assert that nearly half of Americans believe that the Genesis account of Creation is the literal truth. In other words, that the universe came to be in a span thousands of years in the past, that humans sprang forth full blown from the head of the deity, and evertything else that implies. Six days, for example.
My practical partner, Mary, pointed out that polls are increasingly suspect since fewer people respond or respond honestly.
While I grant her point, even with a margin of error, that's a sizable number of people who are saying that the physical evidence to the contrary, and ultimately the scientific method that drives it, are wrong. This isn't an argument about 'theories' but about knowledge vs belief. For example, scientists find consistent evidence all over the world of critters and plants that are millions of years old. The methods for determining this are well established and generally accepted. The SixDayWonders simply say it aint so or assert that God made it look that way during the creative ferment. And that takes us to the crux of the issue. There's no way to 'test' the latter assertion. You can only believe it or not.
Members of the SDW group are nothing if not incosistent. Daily they act on the premise that they can count on their cars to run, the lights to come when they turn a switch, and gravity to keep their feet on the ground. All these things are premissed on science similar to archaeology. Yet I don't hear angry assertions that this science is problematic. On the other hand, I guess there are glimmerings that an SDW does not trust science. The bumper stickers suggesting that the rapture might leave their car driverless are an example. And the idea that God sticks a finger obtrusively into the time/space continuum to change individual fortunes.
So does a confidence in science and a consistent view of the world fly in the face of belief in God? Not according to millions of other believers who find God's hand in the billion year long creation and raveling of the universe. Or who believe that miracles happen without announcing themselves with a media campaign.
"The Center cannot hold..." is often quoted. And in the middle of this divided view of the world, I think are seeds of difference that have no common ground. Science has been taught in our schools and promoted in our communities for at least a century. And yet, it seems, it is tolerated but not accepted by a large minority of us. That is a cause for deep thought.
My practical partner, Mary, pointed out that polls are increasingly suspect since fewer people respond or respond honestly.
While I grant her point, even with a margin of error, that's a sizable number of people who are saying that the physical evidence to the contrary, and ultimately the scientific method that drives it, are wrong. This isn't an argument about 'theories' but about knowledge vs belief. For example, scientists find consistent evidence all over the world of critters and plants that are millions of years old. The methods for determining this are well established and generally accepted. The SixDayWonders simply say it aint so or assert that God made it look that way during the creative ferment. And that takes us to the crux of the issue. There's no way to 'test' the latter assertion. You can only believe it or not.
Members of the SDW group are nothing if not incosistent. Daily they act on the premise that they can count on their cars to run, the lights to come when they turn a switch, and gravity to keep their feet on the ground. All these things are premissed on science similar to archaeology. Yet I don't hear angry assertions that this science is problematic. On the other hand, I guess there are glimmerings that an SDW does not trust science. The bumper stickers suggesting that the rapture might leave their car driverless are an example. And the idea that God sticks a finger obtrusively into the time/space continuum to change individual fortunes.
So does a confidence in science and a consistent view of the world fly in the face of belief in God? Not according to millions of other believers who find God's hand in the billion year long creation and raveling of the universe. Or who believe that miracles happen without announcing themselves with a media campaign.
"The Center cannot hold..." is often quoted. And in the middle of this divided view of the world, I think are seeds of difference that have no common ground. Science has been taught in our schools and promoted in our communities for at least a century. And yet, it seems, it is tolerated but not accepted by a large minority of us. That is a cause for deep thought.
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