Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Planet of the Apes

I finally got around to reading the Time article on "intelligent design." My first reaction was, "I thought we'd settled all of this." Nevertheless, I lied awake for awhile last night thinking about it.

The fear of an idea, when widespread, usually leads to some form of persecution or oppression. On one hand, I can't find fault in George's statement, and on the other, if we mandate a disclaimer on one theory, then we should mandate disclaimers on all theories. But let's go back to hand number one:

Why does anyone have an opinion on this? How is it that we know about the Stokes Monkey Trial, Darwin, Creationism and evolution? Have we, as adults, been privy to some arcane, black market knowledge which is hidden from persons under eighteen who attend public school systems? Is it only a recent discovery that there was, indeed, controversy about The Origin of Species?
Personally, I learned about it in history class in high school, because the controversy has become a part of our nation's history. In the process, I heard both sides of the argument. Afterward, I drew my own conclusion, and siding with Darwin had no relevance to or affect on my faith. Maybe we could trust that if our children were to hear two sides of an argument that they would think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. Maybe there would then be something of mutual interest to discuss at the dinner table.

Webster's New World Dictionary defines faith as "unquestioning belief that does not require proof." Why, then, should learning how things work threaten religion? Christianity didn't diminish when the masses accepted that the sun did not rotate around the Earth. This is no different. I tell you, I like Webster. He always clears things up for me.

At the same time, my initial reaction was the opposite; I believed we were going backwards, retrodding muddied ground. It is inconceivable to me how, in spite of all of the evidence that has accumulated in support of the theory over the years, anyone can raise a doubt. But, perhaps this is an argument that each generation needs to realize in order to appreciate the conclusions.

Let go of the fear, kids. There is a very real and dire reason that we need the first amendment. We have to trust that the American people can hear opposing views and still draw an intelligent conclusion.

(I recommend the original Planet of the Apes, with Charlton Heston, and a bowl of popcorn.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if hindsight was really twenty twenty , i would have eye's in the back of my head . . .
the eyes have it !
(yaaaaaay !)
good bloggin from your noggin .
'im starting to get a little grey matter at the temples .
great koogilly - moogilly !
you are fuzzy .

Cynthia Bronco said...

Gracias Hermano!
I'll be visiting your sites soon.

Don Singleton said...

Regarding your comment on my blog:

I think hailing the idea as a threat to our economy is extreme.

I agree it is extreme. I understand his point, which is the more time that is spent teaching things that students dont need to be competitive in the world economy means they are not spending time learning the really important things, like Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. I would be very happy if they left out all of the left wing brainwashing they attempt to teach rather than the basics, and if they just taught the parts of evolution that can be proven (like how a species can adapt or evolve based on its environment), and did not claim that one species "evolves" into another species (which cannot be proven) strictly by random changes to its DNS, then I would be happy if they also did not mention the ID version of creation of a new species

In regards to your saying Personally, I learned about it in history class in high school, because the controversy has become a part of our nation's history. In the process, I heard both sides of the argument. Afterward, I drew my own conclusion, and siding with Darwin had no relevance to or affect on my faith.

I too learned about it in history class, but unfortunatly schools today teach a lot differently than they thought when we went to school. Even history is distorted to present the left's view of things.

I also believe that most of what Darwin said is consistent with my faith. I dont agree with the Creationists that the story in Genesis is the literal truth (although I respect them for their beliefs, and would not mind if a little time was spent saying what they believe.

Personally I believe that God did create the universe, and everything in it, including Earth and life on earth. And I believe that the life He created used evolution so that spieces could adapt themselves to their environment. I just dont think He used evolution to create one species from another. He used the same building blocks on each species, but he created each of the species of fish, and then he created each of the species birds, ach of the species of livestock, etc, all from the same building blocks He developed.