Posted on 09/18/2006 1:51:27 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
According to a 2005 Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of evangelical Christians believe that living beings have always existed in their present form, compared with 32 percent of Protestants and 31 percent of Catholics. Politically, 60 percent of Republicans are creationists, whereas only 11 percent accept evolution, compared with 29 percent of Democrats who are creationists and 44 percent who accept evolution. A 2005 Harris Poll found that 63 percent of liberals but only 37 percent of conservatives believe that humans and apes have a common ancestry. What these figures confirm for us is that there are religious and political reasons for rejecting evolution. Can one be a conservative Christian and a Darwinian? Yes. Here's how.
1. Evolution fits well with good theology. Christians believe in an omniscient and omnipotent God. What difference does it make when God created the universe--10,000 years ago or 10,000,000,000 years ago? The glory of the creation commands reverence regardless of how many zeroes in the date. And what difference does it make how God created life--spoken word or natural forces? The grandeur of life's complexity elicits awe regardless of what creative processes were employed. Christians (indeed, all faiths) should embrace modern science for what it has done to reveal the magnificence of the divine in a depth and detail unmatched by ancient texts.
2. Creationism is bad theology. The watchmaker God of intelligent-design creationism is delimited to being a garage tinkerer piecing together life out of available parts. This God is just a genetic engineer slightly more advanced than we are. An omniscient and omnipotent God must be above such humanlike constraints. As Protestant theologian Langdon Gilkey wrote, "The Christian idea, far from merely representing a primitive anthropomorphic projection of human art upon the cosmos, systematically repudiates all direct analogy from human art." Calling God a watchmaker is belittling.
3. Evolution explains original sin and the Christian model of human nature. As a social primate, we evolved within-group amity and between-group enmity. By nature, then, we are cooperative and competitive, altruistic and selfish, greedy and generous, peaceful and bellicose; in short, good and evil. Moral codes and a society based on the rule of law are necessary to accentuate the positive and attenuate the negative sides of our evolved nature.
4. Evolution explains family values. The following characteristics are the foundation of families and societies and are shared by humans and other social mammals: attachment and bonding, cooperation and reciprocity, sympathy and empathy, conflict resolution, community concern and reputation anxiety, and response to group social norms. As a social primate species, we evolved morality to enhance the survival of both family and community. Subsequently, religions designed moral codes based on our evolved moral natures.
5. Evolution accounts for specific Christian moral precepts. Much of Christian morality has to do with human relationships, most notably truth telling and marital fidelity, because the violation of these principles causes a severe breakdown in trust, which is the foundation of family and community. Evolution describes how we developed into pair-bonded primates and how adultery violates trust. Likewise, truth telling is vital for trust in our society, so lying is a sin.
6. Evolution explains conservative free-market economics. Charles Darwin's "natural selection" is precisely parallel to Adam Smith's "invisible hand." Darwin showed how complex design and ecological balance were unintended consequences of competition among individual organisms. Smith showed how national wealth and social harmony were unintended consequences of competition among individual people. Nature's economy mirrors society's economy. Both are designed from the bottom up, not the top down.
Because the theory of evolution provides a scientific foundation for the core values shared by most Christians and conservatives, it should be embraced. The senseless conflict between science and religion must end now, or else, as the Book of Proverbs (11:29) warned: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
We have one who claims oil companies just drill where other companies have already found oil.
How does this work? These must be the radical Christians Rosie O'Donnell warned us about.
Do your own research.
All of us, whether we are creationists, evolutionists, or adherents to intelligent design, approach our guesswork about origins with a set of preconceived notions. None of us starts with a blank slate, no matter how much we may try to tell ourselves that. All human beings have a worldview, a way of viewing the world around them.
Ignoring the fact that their are people on all sides of all issues that are willing to manipulate findings and facts to apply to their preconceived notions is being rather naive don't you think?
Science progresses precisely because the preconceptions that people bring to their speculations wash out in the iterative process of investigation, testing and refining of hypotheses.
It appears difficult for people accustomed to apologetics to understand and appreciate how new and different science is as a method and an instution, compared to previous methods for acquiring knowledge.
No actually, what you mean there is "Do *my* own research". You made the extraordinary claim that there are "many" instances of "present" "evolutionists" who "have all the answers figured out" and are "bending facts every which way to make things come out the way they want.". You back it up with some actual evidence. Or withdraw the slur.
All of us, whether we are creationists, evolutionists, or adherents to intelligent design, approach our guesswork about origins with a set of preconceived notions. None of us starts with a blank slate, no matter how much we may try to tell ourselves that. All human beings have a worldview, a way of viewing the world around them.
I think I am starting to see your error. Science isn't guesswork. Its hypotheses are tested via predictions and falsification tests. Hypotheses that pass enough of these tests are promoted to "theory" which is the label that scientists apply to established knowlege. Perhaps your beliefs are guesswork and you are projecting.
Ignoring the fact that their are people on all sides of all issues that are willing to manipulate findings and facts to apply to their preconceived notions is being rather naive don't you think?
The thing is, when scientists do this they get caught out by other scientists. It doesn't happen often, and when it does happen it is career-ending for the perpetrator. No second chances.
And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he [is] unclean unto you. [Lev 11:5]
Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon [all] four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth; [Even] these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. [Lev 11:21-22]
They're all from the same chapter of the same book.
Bats & birds:
http://www.carm.org/diff/Lev_11_19.htm
Note that the defender claims that the Bible ISN'T a scientific text. Hmm.
Rabbits & cud: Leviticus 11:6
Insects with 4 legs instead of 6: Leviticus 11:21-23.
That evolution is a lie is pretty simple. This is the greatest country on earth simply because of the constitution and bill of rights. Your rights and my rights were declared by christians to be ordained by God - not government. However (most probably within this lifetime) all of those rights will be stripped away by the government - maybe ours or maybe a worldwide govenrment.
Now to go a step furhter evolution does pave the way for this too. The U.S. Government is the number one supporter of funding for evolutionary studies - in my humble opinion.
Furthermore this issue is truely relevant simply b/c evolutionary theory blasts christianity at the very foundation.
There are many things that you simply can not explain (might start with the links page on my profile) but truly God's Word from 1st Corinthians 3:18-21 sums it up very succinctly.
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men.
The government also funds the teaching of arithmetic.
Is this an example of creationist logic?
The only places I know of where people are routinely killed for their beliefs are those countries with theistic governments. Historically, this has been true when Christianity was the religion combined with government. A good many of the early settlers in this country came here to escape Christian monarchies.
<< Snort of Contempt >>
Find some examples or withdraw the claim.
Ignoring the fact that their are people on all sides of all issues that are willing to manipulate findings and facts to apply to their preconceived notions is being rather naive don't you think?
It happens, but it's much more common for anti-evolution activists to lie than for scientists to lie.
Find some examples or withdraw the claim.
Apparently you know very little of the Muslim/Islamic belief system - or it is just convenient for you to omit? I have never advocated a government forced religion so you apparently go there just to obsfucate my post.
Regarding arithmetic - the government stopped teaching with the old tried and true methods - now they teach 'new math' in addition to teaching 'whole-word reading' rather than phonics.
Maybe you are also unaware that the more government has tried to 'help' the school educate the masses better the lower the SAT scores have dropped while at the same time taking higher and higher percentages of taxpayers money to 'fix' the problem(s)...
Personally, I prefer baked catfish to non sequiturs.
And you may want to note that neither the text of the Constitution nor the bill of rights refers to God. The rights of US citizens are ordained by law. Hence, I am not required to attend your church, nor you mine.
Not extraordinary at all. Try a google search for "evolution fraud" and you get about 9,960,000 results. Use "science fraud" and you will find about 20,700,000 results! Try "religious fraud" and you will get 3,130,000 results. Do you see a trend here?
No the trend I am trying to get you to see is not that there are more reports on scientific fraud than on religious fraud. It is that there are numerous reports of fraud on all sides. There are just too many that are willing to further their cause by any means.
You seem to have a preconceived notion that scientific thought is of a higher standard or more virtuous than others. We are all human and we are all fallible. There are honest and dishonest men in all camps.
Choosing to ignore this, I dare say, is a tad bit unscientific.
Not exactly. Our rights are divinely ordained - a reference to God - not judicially ordained.
Typical evo response though trying to redirect my statements that somehow I'm trying to require your church attendance.
The links on my profile provide all the support I feel is necessary - but then you apparently have not bothered to read them let alone disprove them.
For me the Bible is God's Word inspired by the Holy Spirit and recorded by man - therefore imho whatever contradicts the Bible is a lie b/c God can not lie.
Not extraordinary at all. Try a google search for "evolution fraud" and you get about 9,960,000 results. Use "science fraud" and you will find about 20,700,000 results! Try "religious fraud" and you will get 3,130,000 results. Do you see a trend here?
Hilarious! Proof by Google hit counting. Has to be the stupidist argument I've ever seen and I've seen plenty. Try "Christian Fraud". You'll get 17,000,000 hits.
No the trend I am trying to get you to see is not that there are more reports on scientific fraud than on religious fraud. It is that there are numerous reports of fraud on all sides. There are just too many that are willing to further their cause by any means.
It doesn't prove anything of the sort. It simply proves that those words appear in numerous documents. Well, I get about 10,000,000 hits for "alien invasion", and 2,000,000 for "tinfoil hat". How many alien invasions do you think there are?
You seem to have a preconceived notion that scientific thought is of a higher standard or more virtuous than others. We are all human and we are all fallible. There are honest and dishonest men in all camps.
I don't have that preconceived notion. Do you make a point of not reading what people post? You missed the point. Science has a system of checks and balance. If another researcher cannot duplicate your results you get caught, and your career ends.
Choosing to ignore this, I dare say, is a tad bit unscientific.
Failing to comprehend that I have already addressed this point is simply dimwitted. I note that you have still failed to supply a single example to back up your claim. I won't respond further unless you do, because I have better things to do with my time.
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