Sunday, August 21, 2005
The Genome must be Regressive
I am bewildered by the Ridiculous Religious Right's (RRR) attack on science and evolution as exemplified here.
Call me naive. Call me simple. Also, call me a man of faith. Since I was a small boy I've known about and revered science. After all, I'm old enough to have seen both of those Frank Capra films "Our Mr. Sun" and "Hemo the Magnificent" a dozen times before I went to college.
I've never been a scientist, never gotten an 'A' on a Science Fair project, never really saw it as a career choice, but I have always had great respect for those who did make that choice. After all, my mother, who graduated from Denver University in 1939, was a chemistry major and spent her career working in her profession.
Now, I have always seen the marvelous complexity of creation as described by evolution, or the breadth of creation as articulated in the study of the universe, or the subtlety of creation as discovered while studying the human body as proof positive of the existence of God. In fact, the more science explains things, the more I get excited, because science is able to articulate for us the artful existence in which we live. Better yet, scientists are using our Divine gift of observation and deductive reasoning to reach the scientific postulates which illuminate the world for the rest of us.
So the RRR comes along and says that science is wrong or at best misguided. Its response is to throw science out the door and substitute something silly called Intelligent Design. The RRR wants us to relegate our understanding of the world to the 'mysterious' as if God wants us never to really know what He has done for us, as if we will never be able to understand it. What's more, the RRR wants schools to toe the line and ignore science altogether. Teach ID in schools. As if there is something to teach.
What bewilders me is that so many people are falling lockstep into line after these nuts. Suddenly, supporting common, ordinary science is being liberal. PLEASE.
The RRR must be an example of a regressive gene gone wild. Evolution will eventually take care of them. Have no fear.
Call me naive. Call me simple. Also, call me a man of faith. Since I was a small boy I've known about and revered science. After all, I'm old enough to have seen both of those Frank Capra films "Our Mr. Sun" and "Hemo the Magnificent" a dozen times before I went to college.
I've never been a scientist, never gotten an 'A' on a Science Fair project, never really saw it as a career choice, but I have always had great respect for those who did make that choice. After all, my mother, who graduated from Denver University in 1939, was a chemistry major and spent her career working in her profession.
Now, I have always seen the marvelous complexity of creation as described by evolution, or the breadth of creation as articulated in the study of the universe, or the subtlety of creation as discovered while studying the human body as proof positive of the existence of God. In fact, the more science explains things, the more I get excited, because science is able to articulate for us the artful existence in which we live. Better yet, scientists are using our Divine gift of observation and deductive reasoning to reach the scientific postulates which illuminate the world for the rest of us.
So the RRR comes along and says that science is wrong or at best misguided. Its response is to throw science out the door and substitute something silly called Intelligent Design. The RRR wants us to relegate our understanding of the world to the 'mysterious' as if God wants us never to really know what He has done for us, as if we will never be able to understand it. What's more, the RRR wants schools to toe the line and ignore science altogether. Teach ID in schools. As if there is something to teach.
What bewilders me is that so many people are falling lockstep into line after these nuts. Suddenly, supporting common, ordinary science is being liberal. PLEASE.
The RRR must be an example of a regressive gene gone wild. Evolution will eventually take care of them. Have no fear.
# posted by Michael Christopher : 1:18 AM
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