Defending the Obvious
Well, this cover story in this month’s National Geographic (and the article’s first page) sums it up pretty nicely (via Waxy):
Here’s the opening paragraphs of the article :
Evolution by natural selection, the central concept of the life’s work of Charles Darwin, is a theory. It’s a theory about the origin of adaptation, complexity, and diversity among Earth’s living creatures. If you are skeptical by nature, unfamiliar with the terminology of science, and unaware of the overwhelming evidence, you might even be tempted to say that it’s “just” a theory. In the same sense, relativity as described by Albert Einstein is “just” a theory. The notion that Earth orbits around the sun rather than vice versa, offered by Copernicus in 1543, is a theory. Continental drift is a theory. The existence, structure, and dynamics of atoms? Atomic theory. Even electricity is a theoretical construct, involving electrons, which are tiny units of charged mass that no one has ever seen. Each of these theories is an explanation that has been confirmed to such a degree, by observation and experiment, that knowledgeable experts accept it as fact. That’s what scientists mean when they talk about a theory: not a dreamy and unreliable speculation, but an explanatory statement that fits the evidence. They embrace such an explanation confidently but provisionally?taking it as their best available view of reality, at least until some severely conflicting data or some better explanation might come along.The rest of us generally agree. We plug our televisions into little wall sockets, measure a year by the length of Earth’s orbit, and in many other ways live our lives based on the trusted reality of those theories.
Evolutionary theory, though, is a bit different. It’s such a dangerously wonderful and far-reaching view of life that some people find it unacceptable, despite the vast body of supporting evidence. As applied to our own species, Homo sapiens, it can seem more threatening still. Many fundamentalist Christians and ultra-orthodox Jews take alarm at the thought that human descent from earlier primates contradicts a strict reading of the Book of Genesis. Their discomfort is paralleled by Islamic creationists such as Harun Yahya, author of a recent volume titled The Evolution Deceit, who points to the six-day creation story in the Koran as literal truth and calls the theory of evolution “nothing but a deception imposed on us by the dominators of the world system.” The late Srila Prabhupada, of the Hare Krishna movement, explained that God created “the 8,400,000 species of life from the very beginning,” in order to establish multiple tiers of reincarnation for rising souls. Although souls ascend, the species themselves don’t change, he insisted, dismissing “Darwin’s nonsensical theory.”
Unfortunately, all the “facts” and “evidence” about evolution are match for the persuasive power of Jack Chick :
It’s astounding to think that there are still people who think Eve was made out of one of Adam’s ribs or that Noah built a big boat and put two of every animal in it. I try to be sensitive to people’s faith here, but this is as absurd as believing in the three little pigs or something. Of course, nobody’s trying to force science classes to replace their curriculum Aesop’s fables.
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And that little Chick chick says “Jesus”, not “God”, created god and apes.Guess Jesus just got a promotion.
Comment by TomF — October 29, 2004 @ 1:32 pm
Greg, you’ve got a very good post here. I was watching TBN last night. The discussion centered on the importance of voting - damn right! Then the three hosts began discussing why things were going badly for the United States in the last few years. Turns out there’s “a spirit of the AntiChrist” afoot in America. It’s purpose? To make it difficult for Bush to complete his God-ordained work. This spirit works by making Bush look bad and givign him difficult problems to solve.
This is where magical thinking leads. If there’s a devil out there, then everything you don’t like is the work of the devil. And when the crazy idiot whose president continuously screws up for four years, that’s not because he’s a bad president, it’s because satanic forces are trying to fool you into voting against him.
This is what we’re up against, and this is why all the scandals in the world aren’t going to hurt Bush until the thought processes of his followers are challanged. And calling them on their anti-scientific doubts about the “theory” of evolution is the first step.
Comment by Joe — October 29, 2004 @ 3:01 pm
Well, one of the articles of Christian Belief is that Jesus and God are the same, but different, but the same, but different. Or something.
Comment by Ross A Lincoln — October 29, 2004 @ 3:01 pm
RA Lincoln….
Yeah thought of that but don’t quite get it either. I thought God was forward-compatible with Jesus, but Jesus (as in “God 2.0″) isn’t backward compatible with God 1.0, therefore you can’t give Jesus credit for creating man, etc.
Throw in “saints” with their quasi-godlike miracle skills and you really confuse me…
Comment by TomF — October 29, 2004 @ 4:26 pm
RAL and TomF, you guys must not enjoy LoTR or Harry Potter either. im not saynig its not confusing, but its a faith, so you have to believe in it and take nothing literally. God knows i dont :)
Comment by R.Cynic — October 29, 2004 @ 5:05 pm
You know, there’s an enormous difference between works of fiction, and religious texts that millions of people actually do take pretty literally. And in fact, I’m pretty sure that in order to be a christian, you have to believe that the trinity is a literal truth. It’s one of those non-negotiable parts of the faith.
On the other hand, a lack of belief in the literal existance of the one ring doesn’t diminish your ability to enjoy the LOTR series. Plus, unlike the Bible, Tolkien’s narrative is internally consistent. You don’t constantly have to make excuses for it.
ZING! Thanks ladies and germs, I’l be here all night.
TomF, I think God is like the Gameboy color, while Jesus is more like Gameboy Advance SP. They’re forward, but not reverse compatible. Plus, you can link them together and play Apocemon.
Comment by Ross A Lincoln — October 29, 2004 @ 5:45 pm
St. Patrick explained the trinity through the shamrock–three branches, one leaf. Get it?
Doesn’t make it real, but it’s not that difficult a concept.
Comment by Amanda — October 29, 2004 @ 7:04 pm
i think we need to be less linear in our thought process when it comes to evolution and creationism. i am by no means classifiable as far as any religion is concerned, however i am capable of objectively looking at how life has come to be on this plane of existance. it would be a shame to just reduce life down to first came this then from that came this leading to the conclusion that man started as an ape or a dwarf or a hobbit or whatever form science and evolutionists and religous scholars choose to construct from their findings or beliefs (beliefs are a part of scientific theory no matter what they tell you in school).
life is complex and is not as simple as taking one form and morphing it into something else. this is of little value especially when this line of thought is purely based off of speculation, there is no scientific observation in real life or time that proves evolution or creationism. i remember sitting in biology using cladograms to lend justification to the idea behind evolution and quite frankly find it just as far fetched as those claiming that one day there was a man in its current form walking the face of the earth.
one thing we can be sure of right now is that not in our time has anyone witnessed a species changing from one form to another. darwin noticed that birds may have changed in habbits and apperance to a degree due to seperation from the flock and environmental factors but never did he write that he saw a bird turn into a lizard or a lizard become a bird due to a change in either of these factors or any other factors for all that matters.
it is time to look deeper into what is this thing we call life. what is the essence of life. it far exceeds the physical form that we have found ourselves trapped into believing is life. we are more than a machine. there is a power behind life that allows for things to occur the way they do, a power that we have yet to understand. we had better be willing to change the way we think or we will not be able to progress. remember we once accepted the theory that the world was flat, that the sun revolved around the earth and that newtons theories were undisputable till einstein came along and showed us a different way. even einstein had his limitations, and in the future what he had to say will be challenged and revolutionized.
nothing is ever black and white. evolution has its values and truths but lets not be sucked into this vortex of thought exclusively. that would be the same as being sucked into strictly believing creationism. in between the two the truth can be found, but only if we are willing to look.
thanks for the space
Comment by life_is_good — October 30, 2004 @ 9:14 am
There was a great show here a little while ago called John Safran VS God. Without going into it too much, at the end of every episode, he’d spew some rant at the camera. One of the rants reminded me of this:
I admit there’s some people smart enough to understand science and the Big Bang and all that stuff, and therefore have enough insight and knowledge to be an atheist. But let’s face it ? you’re not one of them. Why? Because you’re a Humanities student with an Arts degree. Let’s not play any games here, if I came over to your house right now and asked you to explain why the Big Bang theory is more rational than Genesis, you wouldn’t be able to even stutter out a semblance of an answer. So where do you get off sniggering at Christians like they’re stupid and you have some amazing insight? Sure, you bought a copy of Stephen Hawking’s “Brief History of Time”, but I think if you waddle over to your bookshelf, you’ll see that the bookmark is exactly where you left it nine years ago… on page three. Face it ? you’re too stupid to be an atheist.”
Comment by Ruth — October 30, 2004 @ 10:38 am
8,400,000 species? And they brought aboard seven of the clean species, two of those not clean… let’s just wimp out and call it two of each. 16,800,000 animals? Plus people? How big was the dang ark again?
And how does anybody swallow a fish story like that, anyway?
Comment by Kip W — October 30, 2004 @ 4:11 pm
part of the problem is that the interpretation of the bible is far to literal. language has changed so much since the original writings that much of the meaning has been lost due to inaccuracy of language. understanding of the bible requires a lot of inward searching and a desire to understand the very essence and vibratory nature of life. it is not the physical interpretation of the word but the vibratory nature and essence of the word being spoken. we have to be able to transcend what we currently believe to be our senses and know that there is more.
we must be able to follow our hearts not just our heads. it has been shown that the heart has its own “field of energy” this field extends 3 feet from the body. in fact EKG readings can be taken three feet from the body due to this field. it is also well known that the heart releases peptides that have an impact on the function of other organs within the body. this response is seperate from the brain. current research is investigating the potential effects that these peptides and the energy field has upon the brain.
why do i bring this up? because it shows how little we really know about how our body functions and how our sensations work. evolution only deals with physical properties and known chemical identifiers to try and prove correalation between humans and a bottom dwelling sea creature from eons ago. we cannot really understand the origins of life and this body until we really know how the human body operates. we are far from being able to comprehend such a wonderful and marvelous creation, despite whether we believe this form is due to evolution or divine creation.
quite a marvelous thing we have here the human body. trillions of chemical reactions coordinated and constantly re-coordinating to allow for us to survive. while on the surface of this body we are scarcely capable of tabulating 100s of millions of votes in an organizational manner so as to determine who is fit to be leader of the chaos we have created.
this has to lead one to at least consider the posibility of a grand organizational power that is responsible for the continuation of life. not even the sceintists understand this, that is why they constantly ignore trying to define what life is and concern themselves with its origin, and that pursuit is limited to dealing with physical life, not the essence of life.
physics is the science that is at the forefront of discovery as to what is this power or force called life is. this science is the science that discusses the big bang theory yet still has questions left unanswered: such as what is the force behind the big band and if that question is answered than what is the force behind that and the force behind that and the force behind that… and so it goes on and on.
i may not be as intelligent as a physicist, hell i struggle with spelling, but i do realize that the true marvel of science is that there is always another question to answer. it is when we no longer have questions to answer that we have reached the pinnacle of life and the full expression of life. at this point all questions will then seem irrelevant and petty in nature.
thanks for the space
Comment by life_is_good — October 30, 2004 @ 7:43 pm
Ruth surely is a mean woman. She must be the sort of Democrat that makes all of us look like idiots. She seems hateful toward anyone that is “normal” in their beliefs and values. It too bad that she feels anyone that does not share her atheist views is stupid. If that’s what most atheists believe, maybe that explains why there are so few of them… elitest bastards.
Truth be known, atheists are not very smart. They’re like a ostrich. They assume that because their head is buried and they cannot see anything, that nobody else can see anything.
It takes far more “faith” to be an atheist; absolute “faith” to believe that humans evolved from apes; and, much more “faith” to believe in a scientificially ridiculous notion that there was a random event resulting in unprecedented order being created out of chaos, called the Big Bang Theory, than it does to believe the Bible, or to believe in Divine Creation.
Even the belief that there was a Creator leaves room for the Creator to use a “big bang”, ex nihlo (create from nothing), snap of his fingers, by His Word, or anything the Creator chose to use to bring the universe into existence. Leaving the whole thing up to chance or accident is not scientifically or mathematically feasible.
Where things get really tricky is “why”. Nothing happens for no reason. The Bible teaches we were created by God for God. He created us because He wanted us to have a relationship with Him.
Those smart enough to know that this spinning rock was not created by mistake might also be smart enough to know that the Creator can take it apart just as easily as He put it together. Those smart enough will also understand that it’s not a matter of “if”, but “when” the game is over.
Then, all of the theories about creation and evolution and false religions (including atheism) will be as irrelevant as those who invented those things. Then, all that will matter is what you chose to believe about the Creator, His Son and His Word.
Think about it. Can you afford not to?
Comment by John Kerry Sucks — October 31, 2004 @ 3:17 am
Hello John Kerry Sucks
“Nothing Happens for no reason”
It is amazing how much that little phrase says about you.
For your information (or possible education), The mind of man is too small (or limited) to understand the infinate mind of an infinate creator. Any finite understanding of god’s mind is little more than a fun house mirror, a distorted reflection of the self.
If you expect that, when you die, you will meet an old man with a long white beard who wishes to know if you were presbeterian, you will be disappointed.
Comment by kamachanda — October 31, 2004 @ 6:25 am
kamachanda, well said… it is the limitation of mans mind that gives us the distorted images that religion promotes as truth. “a distorted reflection of the self.” outstanding observation.
Comment by life_is_good — October 31, 2004 @ 11:58 am
John Kerry Sucks,
Erm, I thought I made it pretty clear what I said in my post was a quote. It was from a comedy show, and the writer was actually having a go at self-righteous athiests. The point wasn’t “you’re not good enough to be an athiest because we’re special”, it was “if you don’t understand the big band any better than you do genesis, then get off your high horse about it.” Incidently, the writer himself isn’t an athiest. I just thought some people here may have gotten a laugh out of it.
On a different note, I thought the line “She must be the sort of Democrat that makes all of us look like idiots” was very interesting. I’m not really a Democrat, because I’m not an American (though for the sake of the rest of the world, I sure as hell hope Kerry wins), but I think that statement really highlights the problem in mixing religion and politics. What I said (and quoted) was a completely apolitical statement. YOU brought politics into it. Presuming that athiest = leftie is illogical and inane. The two should be seperate debates, and mixing them taints both unfairly.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure Greg doesn’t want his comments being clogged with this shit.
Comment by Ruth — October 31, 2004 @ 7:15 pm