Posted on 02/05/2002 8:18:30 AM PST by JediGirl
For those of us who are constantly checking up on the crevo threads, why do you debate the merits (or perceived lack thereof) of evolution?
If you ever figure it out, please share. (;>)
I don't expect to "convert" anyone into believing in evolution. It's not conversion that I'm after. That's a religious activity, getting folks to swap one set of dogmas for another. My only purpose is to present information, and to receive some as well. I want people to think for themselves, not to recite what they've been brainwashed to believe. I can't change anyone's mind. People change their own minds, if they have the information and if they are willing to think.
Those who are curious and rational-minded will find this information useful; those who are not won't, which is fine with me. I don't want to force my opinions on anyone. But I agree with Thomas Jefferson, that free debate and the use of reason is the best way to resolve these matters. Of course for some, free debate and reason are just to horrible to contemplate, and should be stiffled. I understand this point of view, and I oppose it.
As far as the issues which unite all of us (taxes and freedom and the US Constitution and all that good stuff) I'd much rather have a well-reasoned position than a well-rehearsed litany. We are stronger when we think. I'm really not thrilled to have someone support the Constitution or the free enterprise system on blind faith, or because some preacher told him to. Why? Because that kind of person can get "converted." He's not thinking. Such people can be manipulated, and it's not healthy. Not for them, not for the republic. Democracy can't work unless the people can think things through for themselves. That is why these threads are far more important than the specific subject matter we debate about. People who cannot think cannot live in freedom. Not for long.
Do I disagree with creationists? Of course I do. The entire creationoid position is that creation is a miracle. They pretend to talk in terms of science. They sling the vocabulary around. They pretend they're really interested in the details of carbon-14 dating, and they mutter about the 2nd law of thermodynamics (without knowing the 1st or 3d laws, or any other scientific principles), and they say: "Gosh, if only you guys could come up with just a few more fossils ..."
Even though you explain evolution to them, very carefully, they keep claiming that there is no explanation; even though you point to warehouses full of fossils, all neatly dated, they keep claiming there's no evidence.
Personally, I think their technical quibbles with evolution are all BS. Pure and simple. Because all they really want is to return to the good old days, the Dark Ages, when everyone believed that creation was a divine miracle -- a magical, incomprehensible, inexplicable event. If our origins can be explained, and understood, they're sunk; their fragile worldview instantly collapses. And the real world, where people do their own thinking, and run their own lives, and live in freedom, and write Constitutions like the one we have, that world is utterly terrifying to them, so they insist on maintaining their comforting fantasies. Evolution is a major threat to such people. But then, I believe that unthinking people are a threat to all of us.
To them, I sound like a zealot. To me, they sound even worse. So what's to be gained? I may not be making much progress here, in fact sometimes it seems I'm making no progress at all, but the issues are important. It's also useful -- very useful -- to demonstrate to the lurkers that conservatives aren't all brain-dead whackos.
Becky
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