1. Vote Republican and get that warm and fuzzy feeling of triumphant complicity, or 2. Vote Tinypowerlessparty and get that sinking feeling of complete irrelevancy.
If evolution, well understood within the context of science theoretical and practical, does not prompt one to question the necessary existence of a deity, then what would? At the very least, a sound understanding of evolution would require a complete revolution in one's understanding of a deity and its relationship to its purported creation -- something that the French paleontologist and Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin managed, but who's insights the Magisterium of Roman Catholic Church hasn't been able to fully digest (yet). While an understanding of evolution may allow for the non-essential existence of a deity as a kind of floating sidecar for those who feel the need for such, the kind of deity that a complete understanding of evolution and science allows is not the kind of deity that most theists will be comfortable with: a deity not prone to miracles... a deity comfortable with millions of generations of fear, flight, slaughter, and death... a deity which seems more prone to hiding than revealing itself... a deity which has a necessary existence of precisely zero... and a creation (including its human elements) that does very well without its deity.
Honest dialogue is a two-way street. Opening a door like this in the adamantine wall between science and religion will affect science little, but that door has already allowed science to irremediably change religion. Evolution is part of science, but so is physics, psychology, sociology, biology, and, more broadly, the historical sciences. Open that one door and the rest fly open. Open that one door and deities and their ways must forever bow in humility to science and its understandings. Evolution may allow for the existence of a non-essential deity, but it will not allow for the existence of a deity called YHVH or Elohim that created the universe in seven days less than seven thousand years ago that planted a garden in Iraq where it made a male human out of dirt. "Reconciling" evolution and religion will demand the reconciliation of all science with religion, and that will be a much greater disaster for religion than for science.
This can of worms may start with evolution and an abstract notion of deity, but it can only continue with the A.P.A. and homosexuality, and end with archaeology and a mythic godman. It's a bad, bad precedent that will sneak a Trojan horse straight into the heart of religion and eviscerate it from within.
Which, to this former theist, is quite okay. Science sneaked in, turned up the heat, and religious doctrine evaporated. Fundamentalists should be exceedingly cautious about what they desire from "science", for it is a potent psychotropic that will alter their religious perceptions beyond their wildest fears.
And not only is the Internet a dangerous tool in the hands of terrorists, but so is free speech (Down With Free Speech!), democracy (Down With Democracy!), apple pie (Down With Apple Pie!), and motherhood (Down With Motherhood!). Oh, and frying pans. And kitchen knives. And kittens (Down With Kittens!). And sharp, pointy sticks.
Homo sapiens has a remarkable ability to address design faults, waste management problems, and other messy issues after the fact, but too often demonstrates little foresight, even in the face of alarming evidence.
This issue will be dealt with after their first mistake involving faults with intelligent weapons systems.
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Well then, next time around you can:
1. Vote Republican and get that warm and fuzzy feeling of triumphant complicity, or
2. Vote Tinypowerlessparty and get that sinking feeling of complete irrelevancy.
Don't you mean " ... is another piece of evidence that the intellectual health of the country is basically screwed"?
Honest dialogue is a two-way street. Opening a door like this in the adamantine wall between science and religion will affect science little, but that door has already allowed science to irremediably change religion. Evolution is part of science, but so is physics, psychology, sociology, biology, and, more broadly, the historical sciences. Open that one door and the rest fly open. Open that one door and deities and their ways must forever bow in humility to science and its understandings. Evolution may allow for the existence of a non-essential deity, but it will not allow for the existence of a deity called YHVH or Elohim that created the universe in seven days less than seven thousand years ago that planted a garden in Iraq where it made a male human out of dirt. "Reconciling" evolution and religion will demand the reconciliation of all science with religion, and that will be a much greater disaster for religion than for science.
This can of worms may start with evolution and an abstract notion of deity, but it can only continue with the A.P.A. and homosexuality, and end with archaeology and a mythic godman. It's a bad, bad precedent that will sneak a Trojan horse straight into the heart of religion and eviscerate it from within.
Which, to this former theist, is quite okay. Science sneaked in, turned up the heat, and religious doctrine evaporated. Fundamentalists should be exceedingly cautious about what they desire from "science", for it is a potent psychotropic that will alter their religious perceptions beyond their wildest fears.
And not only is the Internet a dangerous tool in the hands of terrorists, but so is free speech (Down With Free Speech!), democracy (Down With Democracy!), apple pie (Down With Apple Pie!), and motherhood (Down With Motherhood!). Oh, and frying pans. And kitchen knives. And kittens (Down With Kittens!). And sharp, pointy sticks.
Well done! You have discovered a true substitute for spanish fly.
Homo sapiens has a remarkable ability to address design faults, waste management problems, and other messy issues after the fact, but too often demonstrates little foresight, even in the face of alarming evidence. This issue will be dealt with after their first mistake involving faults with intelligent weapons systems.
G.I. Joe is a doll made for little boys of all ages who cannot imagine coming back from war looking like Ty Ziegel, http://www.ninaberman.com/index3.php?pag=prt&dir=m arine, rather than "John Triton", http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film/55/3755/gal248 3/08.php.
You may call it radiation -- we call it ... life!