Posted on 01/25/2005 6:15:41 PM PST by gobucks
Ken Miller is an interesting guy. He is co-author of the nation's best-selling biology textbook. It was on his book, "Biology," that schools in Cobb County, Ga., slapped a sticker casting doubt on its discussion of evolution theory. And it was this sticker that a federal judge recently ordered removed because it endorsed religion. Miller, who testified against the label, gets a lot of hate mail these days.
But Miller is also a practicing Roman Catholic. "I attend Mass every Sunday morning," he said, "and I'm tired of being called an atheist."
A professor of biology at Brown University, Miller does not believe that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution contradicts the creation passages in the Bible. And he will argue the point till dawn.
"None of the six creative verses (in Genesis) describe an out-of-nothing, puff-of-smoke creation," he says. "All of them amount to a command by the creator for the earth, the soil and the water of this planet to bring forth life. And that's exactly what natural history tells us happened." (Miller has written a book on the subject: "Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution.")
Still, today's emotional conflicts over teaching this science in public schools leave the impression that Christianity and evolution cannot be reconciled. This is not so.
In 1996, Pope John II wrote a strong letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences supporting the scientific understanding of evolution. That's one reason why students in Catholic parochial schools get a more clearheaded education in evolution science than do children at many public schools racked by the evolution debate.
American parents who want Darwin's name erased from the textbooks might be surprised at the father of evolution's burial spot. Darwin was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey, an Anglican church and England's national shrine.
Not every illustrious Englishman gains admission to an abbey burial site. Darwin died in 1882. Two years before, friends of George Eliot wanted the famous (female) writer laid to rest at the abbey. Eliot had lived immorally, according to the church fathers, and was denied a place. (She is buried at London's Highgate Cemetery, not far from Karl Marx.)
But Darwin had been an upright man. The clergy were proud both of Darwin's accomplishments and of their own comfort with modern science.
In 1882, during the memorial service for the great evolutionist, one church leader after the other rose to praise Charles Darwin. Canon Alfred Barry, for one, had recently delivered a sermon declaring that Darwin's theory was "by no means alien to the Christian religion."
Nowadays, Catholics and old-line Protestants have largely made peace with evolution theory. Most objections come from evangelicals — and not all of them.
Francis S. Collins is head of the National Genome Project and a born-again Christian. He belongs to the American Scientific Affiliation — a self-described fellowship of scientists "who share a common fidelity to the word of God and a commitment to integrity in the practice of science." Its Web address is www.asa3.org.
But back in Cobb County, the debate rages. The sticker taken off Miller's textbook read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
Why should Miller care that the Cobb County School Board — having bought his book in great quantity — pastes those words on the cover?
First off, he says, "It implies that facts are things we are certain of and theories are things that are shaky." In science, theory is a higher level of understanding than facts, he notes. "Theories don't grow up to become facts. Rather, theories explain facts."
Then, he questions why, of all the material in his book, only evolution is singled out for special consideration. Miller says that if he could write the sticker, it would say, "Everything in this book should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
Clearly, many religious people regard evolution theory with sincere and heartfelt concern. But theirs is not a mainstream view — even among practicing Christians. Most theologians these days will argue that the biology book and the Good Book are reading from the same page.
Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com
Human beings.....specifically created in HIS image, God-breathed, possessing reason and intellect, commanded to rule over the rest of creation.
If one believes that man evolved, and was not created, one does not believe in Scripture, period.
You cannot twist the Bible into man's evolution from animal without denying it's validity in every other area.
I don't know a creationist who doesn't believe there has been evolution within the species. But believing that man evolved from animal is completely contrary to God's word.
I won't find out the details until I'm with the Lord in the NEW heaven and the NEW earth...........perhaps, the way it was created in the first place.
If you meant to make the connection you seem to be making, you are sick.
I haven't seen any mention of this in the various threads. Has anyone pointed out that men and women haveequal numbers of ribs and the entire story harks back to a Sumerian tale involving The Lady Who Makes Live, where the word for "makes live" was written and probably sounded the same as the word for rib ?
It has been narrowed a bit so that Catholicism is outside the Evangelical orbit, as are many Pentecostal, Reconstructionist, and Unitarian groups.
Some folks think it applies only to Christian bodies that use ONLY the New Testament as a guide to faith and morals, but that's not quite right.
The Evangelical churches were persecuted mightily in the time of Louis XIV. Hundreds of thousands of members escaped France and fled to other nations in Europe and to America. The French government, in a report of some sort, recently noted that in the areas where the Evangelicals were most heavily persecuted (and murdered by the French government) there continue to be few, if any, Evangelical churches.
The French government, to this very day, maintains barriers against the construction of buildings to be used as Evangelical churches of any sort.
I already posted something suggesting that mutation likes like a random walk. There are no intrinsic scales for random walks. Structures arise of all sized. For evolutionary theory, these structures not only extend over space, but over time. The example of the convection cells (in hot oil for example) show that seemingly regular structures arise merely by the input of energy. Such structures (from molten rock) can be seen frozen at the Devil's Postpile (California) and the Giant's Causway (Northern Ireland). I've seen both; they look like hexagonal bathroom tile laid out inexactly.
There's no evidence that evolutionary processes are linear. Selection is quite arbitrary. Mutation may have non-linear consequences also.
Did bacteria and viruses die? Did nails and hair grow? Did the grass eaten by a cow not die in the cow's digestive system?
This is what Creationists want taught in science classes?
Yes, and most physicists realize that one day relativity could be replaced by something better... just as relativity replaced newtonian physics.
I'm always dismayed by the "scientific theory doesn't mean... like... you know... theory" argument.
Scientific theories are useful. Most branches of scientific study couldn't even exist without theories. But Theories Are Replaceable...
I'm not saying we've yet found the theory to replace evolution... (i.e. We shouldn't be teaching ID in science classrooms.) I'm not even saying for sure that we ever will (but we probably will). But emphasizing that evolution is a scientific theory is not the same as saying "we know for sure that natural selection caused the different species just like we know for sure that [insert favorite theory here] happens". We're sure of neither and probably will never be.
Get real. You have no power to decide what faith another believes or does not believe.
If the shoe fits.
No, I haven't seen that.
Man was created for fellowship with God. Animals were created to be eaten by man. Man has a soul. Animals do not. Man can reason. Animals cannot.
We all need to study Scripture and pray for understanding as to what passages are literal, for all ages, and which are cultural or allegorical, but the fundamental problem with the theory of evolution, is that it denies the God-breathing, in God's image aspect of man. And if you do that, you cannot believe the whole of Scripture.
Everyone, in your view, who believes that God created the heavens and the earth, is a "religious fantatic" and on the same level as a mad man who murders thousands?
That is what you implied. Do you have the courage to state it outright?
As a scientist, I can say that the author's statement you quoted is 100% correct.
Here's a website:
a href=http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Mesopotamia/Epic_of_gilgamesh/biblical_parallels_in_sumerian_l.htm
What happened to evolution? That was the subject. One can believe in evolution and also believe that man was created in the image of God.
Man was created for fellowship with God. Animals were created to be eaten by man. Man has a soul. Animals do not. Man can reason. Animals cannot.
Man was originally a vegetarian and was NOT to eat the animals. Go read Genesis. Only when they had a food shortage did God realize Noah need to eat animals to survive.
By that logic it's just a short leap from owning a gun to shooting someone with a gun. And from shooting someone with a gun to becoming a mass murderer.
It's just a short leap from proselytizing to persecution. And from persecution to Bin Laden.
By that logic it's just a short leap from owning a gun to shooting someone with a gun. And from shooting someone with a gun to becoming a mass murderer.
Ownership of an object is not logically equivalent to attempting to convert others to one's religious beliefs.
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