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Why we [should] care about Darwin wars
Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | 1/19/'06 | David Klinghoffer

Posted on 01/19/2006 2:12:48 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator

We can expect more battles about Darwin before school boards across the country. But who cares? Impatient by now with the legal and religious debate around intelligent design, many of us may wonder just that. In fact we all need to care -- Darwinian theory has practical ramifications beyond the narrow question of what mechanism drives evolution.

Darwinists say the evolutionary mechanism must be purely material. ID theorists find evidence in nature of an intelligent purpose shaping life's history. Which view we convey to our children may affect their adult lives.

The scientific impact: Consider our country's role as the leading exporter of scientific ideas. Modern science from its start has been fueled by religious wonder. In his new book, "The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success," sociologist Rodney Stark points out that real science arose only once. That was in Europe at the hands of devoutly Christian scholars: "medieval scholastics, sustained by that uniquely Christian 12th-century invention, the university."

Unlike the ancient Greeks who believed the universe had no beginning and thus no designer, Christians and Jews read the opening chapters of Genesis as an affirmation that nature is God's handiwork. To understand Him, it helps to understand His creation. Writes Stark, "Newton, Kepler and Galileo regarded the creation itself as a book that was to be read and comprehended."

In erasing God's role from the history of biological existence, Darwinism erases a primary motivation to pursue scientific discovery.

The economic impact: In formulating his theory of natural selection, Darwin said he drew inspiration from the work of Thomas Malthus, the 18th-century political economist. Malthus portrayed life as a "struggle for existence," pitting animal against animal. Darwin added that organisms maximized their chances of survival if they possessed favorable variations (later explained as genetic mutations).

In economics, Malthus's view leads to the dismal belief that people are merely consumers, competing with one another for scarce resources. Similarly, Darwin's theory teaches us to think of life as a fierce struggle against others. It thus subtly undercuts the healthy belief that seeking wealth means providing a service to people rather than a way of robbing them. As my friend Rabbi Daniel Lapin points out, humans do best in careers they consider morally commendable. If we want our children to enjoy affluence as we do, it matters what we teach them about the nobility of creating wealth.

The moral impact: In "The Descent of Man" (1871), Darwin spells out the moral implications of his theory, notably that unguided evolution produced the moral laws as much as it did the plants and animals. Such laws could have turned out differently, as the animals could have turned out differently had chance variations led life's history down a different path.

So there is nothing absolute about our ideas of right and wrong. Wrote Darwin, "We may, therefore, reject the belief, lately insisted on by some writers, that the abhorrence of incest is due to our possessing a special God-implanted conscience." If ethics has no such secure foundation, there can be nothing sacred about doing the right thing.

No, I am not saying that Darwinism necessarily leads to scientific, economic and moral breakdown.

On the other hand, one can hardly deny the sad coarsening of our culture. Whatever its merits as science, Darwinism as a philosophy is far from uplifting or ennobling. Today when young Americans could use a little uplift and an appreciation for what's noble, letting them know about intelligent design, an alternative scientific theory with none of Darwin's drawbacks, couldn't hurt and might help.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: creation; crevolist; darwin; education; evolution; id; idiocy; idisfraud; ignoranceisstrength; science
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To: balrog666

"I reject your reality, and substitute my own!"


141 posted on 01/21/2006 7:20:28 PM PST by 2nsdammit (By definition it's hard to get suicide bombers with experience.)
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To: csense

> The fear of external justice, i.e., God/eternal damnation, is the source of the psychotic behavior (your belief, not mine) for which you complain. I

I'm sure in some cases it is. A perfectly normal person can clearly be driven to madness by an overabundance of hellfire and brimstone.

> Expressions of that belief beyond mere words however, may be a problem, such as advocating societal restrictions, which is the only issue I have with you.

I'm not advocating "society" putting psychotics in mental handcuffs. I'm saying it's important for society that they *are* so handcuffed.


142 posted on 01/21/2006 8:00:10 PM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: RobRoy

> Time will tell which group is right

Crom worshippers. They'll be back.


143 posted on 01/21/2006 8:01:04 PM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: Virginia-American

And he hit the nail on the head with that one. The most cherished belief of (pick your religion) is considered ludicrous by most of humanity.


144 posted on 01/21/2006 8:03:23 PM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: Right Wing Professor; Zionist Conspirator; Aetius; Alamo-Girl; AndrewC; Asphalt; Aussie Dasher; ...
"If you're going to post stupid, provocative material, of course people are going to respond."

And you of all people should know, considering the quantity of the above noted material that you post.

145 posted on 01/21/2006 8:05:02 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Atheist and Fool are synonyms; Evolution is where fools hide from the sunrise)
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To: jennyp
All of us nonbelievers will become psychopaths.

Is that better than going to hell?

146 posted on 01/21/2006 8:34:47 PM PST by dread78645 (Intelligent Design. It causes people to lie - joebucks)
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To: Tulsa Ramjet
IMHO, I think God used evolution to create biological life as we know it by the ignition of the universe singularity, thus creating earth. And then at some point, endowed a highly evolved man creature with self-awareness and intellect to understand and accept His rules. This became the God-fearing man that we are today. Problem is, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of life (i.e. discovered human sexuality, this resulted in perpetuation of the new, human state by pregnancy, new responsibilities then occurred, and the subsequent humanly pursuits of desire and greed. Other tribes continued to evolve but they were primitive and animalistic. And then, when the new human continued to get off track, God saw that it was imperative to manifest a representation of Himself on earth in the form of Christ. Christ's mission was to show us how to live on earth while on earth, and thus move on after death into a different state (heaven) per the second law of thermodynamics.

You just made all that up! Unbiblical, to say the least.

Creation will revert back to it's pre-fall condition, which you will notice nullifies Theistic Evolution.

Isa 11:6-9
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Look again at scripture and tell me if things are the way God originally created things.

Gen 3:17-18
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Rom 8:21-22
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

The clincher:

Mar 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. (red letters indicate words spoken by the Christ in Christian)

147 posted on 01/21/2006 8:39:24 PM PST by bondserv (God governs our universe and has seen fit to offer us a pardon. †)
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To: orionblamblam
A riddle for you:
An eagle is in a desperate search for food to feed her staving eaglets. In a field below, a baby rabbit joyously nibbles on some tender sprouts. Catching sight of the bunny, the eagle launches itself from its nest, speeds towards the tiny rabbit, scoops it up in her talons and carries it to the nest as the rabbit screeches in agony. She tosses the helpless rabbit into the nest and proceeds to tear it apart piece by piece, and feed it to her young.
Question: Is this right or wrong?
148 posted on 01/21/2006 8:45:46 PM PST by Mulch (tm)
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To: editor-surveyor
And you of all people should know,

If you would look closer, I haven't posted anything to this thread. I guess you could consider that stupid and provocative seeing as how I didn't get drug into this until now.

I concluded that the Darwinists have their statements of faith that support their belief system, and I should just accept it.

I certainly accept that Born Again Christians have strong faith, and I don't criticize them.

I do, though, wish they would acknowledge it like the Born Again Christians do, and witness that they accept on faith the teachings of their belief system.

149 posted on 01/21/2006 9:51:40 PM PST by Dan(9698)
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To: Dan(9698); editor-surveyor; bondserv
I am late to the "show" also.

I was just reading the first verses of 2Peter ch3. Surely it was just another one of those coincidences.

150 posted on 01/21/2006 9:59:39 PM PST by labette (In the beginning God created....)
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To: Mulch

> Question: Is this right or wrong?

Let me think: the eagle in question is going out of it's way to feed her children, and proceeds to not only procure very appropriate food (at some personal risk), but to carefully prepare the meal.

Sounds more "right" than many welfare moms.


151 posted on 01/22/2006 12:34:26 AM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: Virginia-American

"He who laughs last; laughs best."


152 posted on 01/22/2006 5:32:46 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going....)
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To: editor-surveyor
Maybe you should write a book about how to win friends and influence people?

ML/NJ

153 posted on 01/22/2006 5:55:06 AM PST by ml/nj
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To: editor-surveyor

Or you could read a book on diamond mining. Diamonds are not mined from Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue.


154 posted on 01/22/2006 7:34:29 AM PST by bvw
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To: Right Wing Professor
The point, professor, was my defense of Christianity against your insinuation that we participate in animal sacrifice. A position that you have apparently backed away from.

Nor do I despise education. Over the years, outside of my mortgage, I have invested more of my earnings in education than in any other outlay. In fact, when we lived in the city, my expenses for my children's Catholic School education exceeded my mortgage. It was money well spent.

Rather, it is the educational bureaucracy, so nicely personified by you, that I detest. Your unrelenting and unimaginative attacks on all people of faith strip bare any pretense that academia isn't conducting a war against religion. If calling you out on that is a personal attack then so be it.

Finally, I would recommend to you a small book I came across just yesterday while searching for my copy of "Lives of the Later Ceasars". "Flatland" was written by an eminent 19th cen. scholar named Edwin Abbott. In it he describes the denizens of a two dimentional universe whose philosophy is discommoded by a four dimensional entity, ie a sphere moving in time.

155 posted on 01/22/2006 7:36:02 AM PST by Pietro
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To: orionblamblam

What do you take for granted -- rather I mean what are you aware of that you take for granted?


156 posted on 01/22/2006 7:36:52 AM PST by bvw
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To: Elsie
"He who laughs last; laughs best."

He who laughs last was slow to get the joke.

157 posted on 01/22/2006 7:46:07 AM PST by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
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To: RobRoy

Is salvation a gift from God, or is it a contract?


158 posted on 01/22/2006 7:57:06 AM PST by Junior (Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
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To: bvw

An irrelevant diversion from the topic.


159 posted on 01/22/2006 9:04:17 AM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
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To: orionblamblam

The topic is quicksand without such basics.


160 posted on 01/22/2006 9:07:35 AM PST by bvw
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