Posted on 02/12/2009 7:07:25 AM PST by Ed Hudgins
by Edward Hudgins
February 12, 2009 -- Of the two famous men born on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln is the one known as a political liberator.
But the other man, Charles Darwin, also deserves recognition on the bicentennial of his birth for his own form of Emancipation Proclamation.
Darwin’s Origin of Species was published in 1859 and set forth the thesis that the various kinds of living organisms were not fixed and eternal but, rather, evolved from other, often less complex organisms over millions of years. In the century and a half that followed, this discovery has had a truly liberating effect on humanity.
We Want to Know
Understanding evolution has helped us satisfy that quintessential human longing expressed by Aristotle: “All men, by nature, desire to know.” As self-conscious beings, we have a thirst to know the deepest truths about the world around us, its origin and ours, and our place in it. We are pattern-seeking animals who delight in discovery. Such understanding and, indeed, our very survival require us to exercise our rational capacity, the attribute that most distinguishes us from the lower life forms from which we evolved.
Observations, conceptual thinking and critical analysis have, over the centuries, allowed us to replace primitive superstitions with knowledge of objective reality. Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein have helped us understand the physical realm: that it operates with regularity in accordance with causal laws; that it is composed of infinitesimal atoms; that it is vast and includes planets, stars and galaxies; that it is billions of years old. And, of course, knowledge gained through this rational approach allows us to create all of the technologies needed for our survival and flourishing.
Darwin helped us understand the biological realm. He showed how small variations that naturally occur in living ...
(Excerpt) Read more at atlassociety.org ...
Ya, Hitler was into it!
“...dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom....”
—Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863.
“But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?”
—Charles Darwin, Letter to William Graham, 1881. Died 1882.
In the century and a half that followed, this discovery has had a truly liberating effect on humanity”
*******
Gee, what a surprise coming from the so-called objectivists.
“Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!” Ps 2:3
Hitler also understood the law of gravity. Perhaps you have a disagreement with that, too?
Touché!
I don't know about that
Why don't you ask him when you see him?
Ho ho - I’m rubber, you’re glue!
Matthew 12:37.
Oh, no, no, no, no!
For, you see, I'm atheist.
:^)
Nonetheless, you are mentioned in the Bible:
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1:22-23
Well, people can write anything. You’d not want to know what’s written about you in my mind’s book.
So does your faith burden you with the belief of your intellectual superiority over those of religious faith, a common flaw among atheists?
The Bible says that because people refused to believe in Him, He gave them over to strong delusion that they would believe a lie.
The Bible says we are made in God’s image; God is not a bit of slime that we evolved away from. The Bible says that God created all living things including animals, vegetation and people with a seed to reproduce after its own kind. The scientific evidence and pure observation show it to be true that once something begins to grow, it grows according to a pattern (DNA) for that creature or that parent seed. The Bible says God created animals, fish, birds, and people fully formed with a seed to reproduce. Evolution does not know how, where or why the first (being) of our beginnings came about. It would also follow, they would not know how two of the same things found each other and determined to mate. It does not say what parts were added that show a chain of what it would become. There is no evidence that things are evolving, no observable transitions in man or beast. Similar plants even have very different seeds. If the things cannot come to the second, third and fourth stages of development before dying, how did they find the mates to continue beyond that? Evolution has no proof; it is reserved for those who do not believe God’s word means what it says.
Most scientists are now generally in agreement that evolution has no base in reality. See: Reasons To Believe, Astrophysicist, Hugh Ross gives scientific details how evolution is impossible. Creation Evidence Museum, Dr. Carl Baugh answers other questions.
No. In fact, it's quite a relief!
"...with the belief of your intellectual superiority over those of religious faith..."
Only in areas where applicable. Such as how it was illustrated at the top of this thread.
"...a common flaw among atheists?
Not a flaw.
Well, Ford says their cars are the best.
There are a lot of open questions concerning evolution, human consciousness, morality and the like that deserve serious, honest and critical examination. We should apply a rational methodology in all cases and to all questions. After all, socialists will not be able to uphold their beliefs if this method is applied. But when religious conservatives abandon it in favor of faith on an issue like evolution, they perpetuate the irrationality that harms the culture and allows bad guys on the left to make headway.
Being an agnostic would be the only true rational belief, relying on no faith of any sort. Atheism takes work, almost as though there's an emotional need to be against something for no real purpose.
Only in areas where applicable. Such as how it was illustrated at the top of this thread.
The Hitler comment had flaws, but extrapolating its posting to be proof of intellectual capability is a reach. Darwinism is and always been a core belief that underpins all eugenics, including Hitler's drive for the creation of a master race. A response to Hitler's actions, the consideration of forced sterilization of Germans after WWII, because Germans couldn't be trusted to refrain from starting huge wars was a product of similar flawed thinking.
Not a flaw.
Closing oneself off from ideas based on a belief is a flaw.
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