Screwtape's "Age of Darwinian Scientism"

The Daley Times-Post ^ | Jan. 27, 2006 | Linda Kimball

[bvw]

There are midgets and giants amoung us.

[peyton randolph]

However, not everyone was pleased with the Biblical model.

I agree with this statement. I'll pass on the rest.

[orionblamblam]

> It was Biblical religion, and more specifically the Genesis account of creation, that overthrew the classic pagan worldview model with its all-powerful State controlled by totalitarian god-like Promethean men.

Actually, it was Biblical religion which overthrew the democratic republican worldview that held sway in the Icelandinc republic and replaced it with an impoverish theocracy with the King's (you know, he of Divine Right) boot on the peoples throats.

[bvw]

Point the first. It's obvious, that if there were radical steps of development within a species or into a new sepcies, say reptile egg to hatchling bird, turtle egg to chicken, that those would come about during the process of forimg the zygote. Yet we don't have any chickens or repitles in observed natural history that break out of an egg into novel species-hood, tmk. And that includes observed periods and populations in extreme stress. Does that raise any alarm-bells to you?

Point the second. If some Jungian-like super-consicousness of the group was savvy enough to intuit that birds popped out of reptile eggs at some point in natural history what do you think the possibility is that that super-consciousness would encode that finding into a creation legend of turtle upon turtle upon turtle "all the way down", eh?

[Jack Black]

Cool. What's a good one volume history of Iceland?

[AMHN]

"Both religious and secular "authorities" are used by them and it's unwise to mistake the cause from the effect."

Your bolts are a bit tight, Spinestein. Just because your experience with gold has been tainted with alloy does not mean that pure gold does not exist.

But, it does bring up a very good point. To what depth has Screwtape influenced those whom God "So loved that He sent His only begotten Son" to save. And Why?

Jealousy, the sister of envy is the why.

"Let Us create man in Our image and after Our likeness" Gen 1:26

What God is by nature, man shall become by grace. A message, not only of salvation, but one of purpose. Man, a partaker of the Divine gift has what Screwtape can never obtain. Therefore, misery loves company. The irony...by man's own free will.

The depth however, I must concede, does include all the counterfeit religions found in the world today. Gold tinted with worthless alloys. Tinted to the point of being unrecognizable. Tinted to the point where again by man's free will, and lack of searching from a shipwrecked heart, he becomes as far off course as those purporting evolution.

Worse, two ships, hopelessly off course and destined for doom, collide in the courts of human pride and foolish wisdom, while Screwtape looks on from the Emperors chair in the arena, satisfied that his outcome will prevail.

TRUTH does exist and can be found if one searches for it with all their heart. Not accepting counterfeits along the way. With a willingness to bend and flow where TRUTH leads them.

For those truly searching for TRUTH, may I suggest the following link:

http://www.orthodoxpress.org/parish/river_of_fire.htm

For all others, it will just be a river of fire.

[RedBeaconNY]

bump for later

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

There are midgets and giants amoung us.

Acutally, there are whole communities of midgets (pygmy) and giants (watusi) among us.

But, the relevent and revealing question is; have they always had this form with no changes to their physiology whatsoever from the time they were created until now?

It's a simple "yes" or "no" question.

[orionblamblam]

> What's a good one volume history of Iceland?

Here's a brief introduction to this *particular* issue:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/long1.html

[bvw]

Well answer it then.

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

It's obvious, that if there were radical steps of development within a species or into a new sepcies, say reptile egg to hatchling bird, turtle egg to chicken, that those would come about during the process of forimg the zygote. Yet we don't have any chickens or repitles in observed natural history that break out of an egg into novel species-hood, tmk. And that includes observed periods and populations in extreme stress. Does that raise any alarm-bells to you?

The question was: Were all animals created in their present form with no changes whatsoever to their physiology from the time they were created until now?

[Ol' Dan Tucker]

Well answer it then.

I can answer for myself, but do not presume to speak for you.

That's why I asked for your opinion.

[bvw]

I avoid opinions to the extent I can and still be polite in society.

[bvw]

Don't hold back, be coy, etc. What is the answer?

[Siena Dreaming]

Very interesting post. I find it fascinating that Marx and Engels may have gotten their theories from a study of Darwin.

USSR: 20 million deaths China: 65 million deaths Vietnam: 1 million deaths N. Korea: 2 million deaths

Suggestion...you may want to add 3 million deaths in Cambodia to that list.

[mlc9852]

I believe God created the heavens and the earth. However, I think this article gives Darwin a little too much credit for all that is wrong in the world.

Why can't science remain separate from philosophy and politics?

[AMHN]

"So, no Christians ever held dominion over another human being and decided their fate? So, no Christian ever owned another human being to be used as an animated tool or animated sex toy? So, no Christian American ever owned slaves or treated those of another race as inferior and the equivilent of animals?"

Answer: NO! They may receive grace as did the thief on the cross; but as for being Christ like...NO! Christ owned no slaves...he set them free (those enslaved to sin)! Christ gave dominion and free will! Christ came in complete humility to all races; as a sheep to the slaughter!

But then one must ask what really is a Christian? One just because they claim to be one...walked to an alter one night 20 years ago and professed Christ as Savior? One that comes in Christ's name and says "Did we not prophesize in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and performed many wonders in Your name?" To which Christ will reply "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness".

No. A Christian will be known by their fruits. Those of the vine whose fruit resemble those of Christ.

[Siena Dreaming]

So, no Christians ever held dominion over another human being and decided their fate?

The end of the christian worldview is peace and goodness. Many christians fail along the way, but the worldview doesn't lead them there.

However, the other worldview's end is destruction.

[illinoissmith]

Where to start...

The Prometheus story is distorted to fit with your Lewis-inspired noble savage utopianism.

(As far as the myth goes, importantly 'Prometheus' means forethought, and the myth is more honestly taken, not as fodder for Lewis primitivism, as much as artful commentary on the nature of a key capacity which distinguishes humans from animals. As far as reality goes, humans invented technology, from fire to computers, on their own, quite in line with the laws of nature (and thus, nature's God). If you use religion to set up a dichotomy between Good and Technology, you are really advocating an authoritarian return to primitivism; if you mean to do that, at least be overt about it (even the relevant faction of the left is more honest about this than you are here). As far as your insinuations about people striving for absolute power over others - that is not striving for God-like power (God is, if anything, notably hands-off), but animal-like power. That's how chimps act. Don't elevate totalitarianism to divine levels when it is really the most cheap, blunt, animalistic social dynamic in existence.)

You regurgitate a factually incorrect picture of black-and-whie opposition between the ancient Hebrews and the entire rest of ancient mankind. Most every social group of the time thought that it was the best and most favored. One tribe happened to write it down. Not every tribe engaged in cannibalism and the other dark things to which you allude (although most in the area of the Hebrews did engage in human sacrifice, IIRC). Around the world, people had moral codes... some worse, some better than those of the Hebrews (ancient Egyptians, like ancient Hebrews, did not engage in cannibalism or human sacrifice, but further, they allowed women to own land (for example); and yes, both groups allowed the immoral institution of slavery). What you present on this topic is not an argument or evidence, but simply inherited ancient bigotry.

You confuse evolution with communism (which clearly does not work to allow life or human happiness to flourish, very non-mystical sorts of standards, for reasons that could be made clear with reality-based economic analysis; no mysticism needed), and you confuse it, apparently out of ignorance, with the belief that nothing of import differentiates humans with animals. (Sane monists are just as capable as dualists of noticing the fact that humans and animals are importantly different; monists just tend to be honest about what makes them notice the difference; dualists tend to revert to mysticism and dogma).

You confuse evolution with the idea that families should be disarmed to make them easy prey to criminals? You, who believe in a character who *demands* you turn the other cheek when attacked? You, who believe in a character who demands that you abandon family to follow him?

I suppose I should find this disjointed repetition of false connections satisfying, in a way. Non-pacifist Christians are like moderate Muslims. Life's only hope is that they continue to ignore the actual demands of that in which they claim to believe (cf. Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is Within You"), and continue instead, in ignorant defiance of their supposedly-favored text, to follow their inner moral compasses. This particular cognitive dissonance seems to be what keeps the bulk of Conservatives pro-gun and pro-military, and thus keeps us all from takeover from violent Islamofascists and the like... but I'm wary of what the latent wickedness might again spawn, as it has spawned socialism and communism and Nazism before it (ideologies as out of joint with reality as only spin-offs of mysticism can be... go trace the real roots of communism an Nazism; you'll find Hegel and other German mystics inspired by and working in the intellectual framework of... guess what?).