Posted on 09/09/2006 8:39:07 PM PDT by curiosity
“In the final analysis (God) used evolution to set us free.”
Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller used this quote from his book “Finding Darwin’s God” as a central point in his speech about simultaneously believing in evolution and religion.
Miller spoke to more than 500 people Thursday evening in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
He testified for the pro-evolution side in the recent lawsuit against the Dover, Pa., school district, where a federal judge ruled against the district’s teaching of intelligent design in biology classrooms. He said it was creationism in disguise.
Conservatives on the Kansas State Board of Education approved science standards last year that criticized evolution, but after the August primary election, it appears moderates will regain control of the board and eventually reinstate the former standards.
Miller gained several laughs from the audience during his speech as he described the Dover trial, including a scene when intelligent design proponent Michael Behe asked the judge if he could “move the evidence to the side.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Eric Rothschild had stacked 58 scientific papers, nine books and other textbook chapters on evolutionary evidence supporting development of the human immune system in front of Behe on the witness stand.
Miller said religion and evolution are too often played as opposing forces and incorrectly identified as mutually exclusive. At Brown, a student once told him he could not worship at the university chapel and cited a book that places evolution as the fruit in the serpent’s mouth or a “tool of Satan.”
But Miller said the root of the portrayal of religion and evolution as opposites may come from scientists who have an “anti-theistic interpretation of evolution,” a stance he disagrees with.
“People of faith are shooting at the wrong target. They should not be shooting at evolution itself,” he said.
Miller, a Catholic, said evolution has been remarkably robust in answering criticism through fossil records, the fusing of human chromosomes and other examples.
Instead of attacking evolutionary theory, the argument should be against the anti-theistic interpretation of evolution, he said.
He quoted several scientists, philosophers and religious leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, who has written: “Even the outcome of a truly contingent natural process can nonetheless fall within God’s providential plan for creation.”
“By understanding the mechanics of this world, what one is really doing is praising and glorifying God,” Miller said.
Miller will answer questions from the public at 10 a.m. today at the Hall Center for the Humanities.
The lecture was the first in the “Difficult Dialogues” series on “Knowledge: Faith & Reason,” presented by the Hall Center and the Biodiversity Institute.
Federal Judge John E. Jones III, who ruled in favor of the Dover plaintiffs, will speak Sept. 26.
What difference does it make in context of what we are discussing. If we can evolve into
What difference does it make in context of what we are discussing. If we can evolve into
What difference does it make in context of what we are discussing. If we can evolve intohis image, whatever it may be, then why can we not evolve away from his image.
From reading your posts, it seems to me that you have more faith in evolution, than you do in God.
Maybe it's time for you to choose....
Evolution...buh-wah ha ha ha. What I love about that term is nobody understands what it means.
All life that exists today is all that is left over from billions of years, billions of life forms that are now extinct. What you see today is the left-overs who have managed to survive because they were lucky enough to have that special something. That is evolution. We are all left overs, we are the ones stuck in the mud, everything else has moved on.
We who have survived are the ones who have "moved on." Those who got "stuck in the mud" are extinct.
For those Christians who think God really created the earth in 6 days because it says so in the bible, please read carefully the words of Jesus:
Matthew 16:6-12
"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread." Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
God/Jesus speaks to us in parables. The bible is filled with them. So why are you so hung up on believing in 6 literal days when all of science proves you wrong? Why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? See beyond the words printed in the bible to the important CONCEPTS that lie there.
I have chosen the path of science to explore the wonders of God's Creation. Every day I learn things that make me marvel and wonder at His presence in our World from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic.
I am happy with that. I hope you are happy with whatever path you have chosen.
As long as we end up at the same place does it really make a difference?
I think you're equating philosophy and science here unnecessarily. I would agree that science is not able to comprehend the actions of God, but that is not to say that man, in his reasoning, can not [and understand that reasoning does not necessarily equate to the empirical]
To say, on the one hand, that a process is random, yet on the other hand, say that it is deterministic as directed by the incomprehensible actions of God...is rather sloppy logic, to put it bluntly.
What if God is CHANGE? What if God IS change? Get it?
For by studying the creation, one can gain a greater understanding and appreciation of his Creator.
What concepts? That you are more intelligent than the God who created the heavens and the earth and everything in them? Sorry, I could not find that anywhere in the Bible. Jesus spoke to the disciples in parables. They did not see the big picture because not everything had been fulfilled. We have seen everything fulfilled in His Holy Word. He does not speak to us in parables, He speaks to us thru his written Word. Beware: Revelations 22:19 If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.
Interesting thing about the parables is that Christ spoke to the masses in parables but always explained the parables to his disciples. So we this day have benefit of what he said in parables and what the parables mean.
You are assuming the Bible is referring to physical death. Upon what basis?
You are absolutely right.
You tell me. What does science say about the destination of two different bodies in motion on different vectors.
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