The more things change...
Thank you again, Keith, for stating the obvious. Sorry I've been gone so long,
but I've been without a computer since July. If I've missed anything, I'll do
my best to catch up.
Keith Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm a Christian who believes in one God, the Creator. I also fancy
myself a scientist--and a scifi nut to boot. This means I'm fine
learning about evolution and things like C-14 dating that show the Earth
is four billion years old...I'm also fine with the Bible as a moral and
allegorical guide to living..I'm also okay with the idea of life on
other planets...and I don't believe that Christianity is the only way to
"salvation". Do I think that a Creator had a hand in the way the
Universe is shaped and evolves, as religion says? Yes. Do I think there
is trully a thing called "science" that can be used to understand the
universe? Yep. Do I think the two are mutually exclusive? No. Given
the wonder and mystery of Life itself--that we have self-awareness, that
we live in a reality of gravitation, energy fields, and expanding
universes, that ANYTHING can exist at all (since I still can't wrap my
mind around the concept of existence coming from a nothingness)--it
feels natural to me to believe in a Mind behind it, a being that shapes
reality according to a grand idea. And seeing that we understand so
little about the nature of reality, it doesn't really cause me too much
grief to bring God into equations that are already strange and
inscrutable--such as the weirdness of the quantuum world, the concept of
zero point energy, self-awareness, etc. Whether you believe in a
Unified Field Theory--or a god that unifies all fields--you're still
entering realms that are mystical and magical to my mind. How do we know
that God isn't the force that we perceive as wave/particle duality, that
God isn't the stuff of which energy in a vaccum can exist, that
superstrings and M-branes aren't the body of God, that Uncertainty isn't
just an aspect of God's unknowable Mind? It may not be right, but it's
no more wrong than scientific theories that perforce change and evolve
over the years. So no, I have no issue with beliefs in a higher being
(or beings, if you will) managing the ebb and flow of reality itself.
But do I want this taught in the classroom? DEFINITELY NOT! If you
want to speak of religious and mystical matters, they should be confined
to religion courses. The last thing you need is discussions of gods
entering into classes on astronomy, physics, and biology. Aside from
fact that Creationists should no more be allowed to dispute science with
their theories than a scientist should be asked to go to my church on
Sunday and prove God is a lie, the question is *which* belief structure
is taught? Do supporters of Intelligent Design believe in only the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or the one that fathered Christ, or one
from Hinduism, or one of the many African belief structures? Which
creator is the right creator, and how do you decide? If a kid told his
science teacher that he believed in ID, and that the creative force was
Brahma, what would the teacher say? Suppose the kid said the creative
force in the universe was actually a gestalt mind formed from all the
mental energies of all the sentient beings in the multiverse: that is,
that WE are actually God? Would that go over well? Would the teacher say
"Okay, cool--whatever you think?", or would the kid then be slapped with
a bunch of Christian doctrine, or, at best, an irritated admonishment
NOT to discuss the particulars of who or what is behind ID, just to
accept that something is? Then we have an unsatisfactory and incomplete
conversation. If you're going to mention ID, then you must be allowed to
discuss the being(s) behind ID, and *then* you're gonna have to decide
what diety or force is behind it. In other words, you have to be allowed
to go into a religious discussion, and now you've crossed the line.
Unless everyone agrees there is a Creator or Creators, the discussion
has no place in science. Unless everyone agrees on only one Way to only
one God, the discussion has no place in science. Unless we can prove the
existence of God, the discussion has no place in science. So let those
teachers who feel they must discuss God start teaching religion. Let
those parents who can't bear to have their kids taught evolution, send
those kids to church on Sunday. I grew up struggling with the sometimes
conflicting concepts of science and religion, and reconciling the two
didn't destroy me. In the end I see this as another way to dumb down
America, to control the world through controlling what people think. And
we can't allow that to happen.
[Story from Yahoo News follows...]
Professor slams intelligent design in Penn. schools
By Jon HurdleWed Oct 12, 7:03 PM ET
A professor on Wednesday slammed the teaching of intelligent design as a
blow to science education as he testified in a lawsuit over whether the
theory should be introduced in schools as an alternative to evolution.
Teaching intelligent design is "probably the worst thing I have ever
heard of in science education," said Brian Alters, who teaches science
education at Harvard University and McGill University in Montreal and
was called as an expert witness by parents suing the Dover,
Pennsylvania, school district.
The federal court trial over teaching theories of human origins in U.S.
schools pits Christian conservatives, who say nature is so complex it
must have been the work of a God-like creator, against teachers and
scientists who back Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The case, seen as a major test of the issue, has echoes of the famed
Scopes Monkey trial of 1925 when lawyers squared off in a Tennessee
courthouse over the teaching of Darwin's work.
In Dover schools, ninth-grade biology students are given a
four-paragraph statement suggesting intelligent design as an alternative
to evolution and steering them to a book explaining the theory. The
district says the policy does not amount to teaching.
The 11 parents bringing the federal lawsuit say the policy is
religiously based and illegal because it violates the U.S.
Constitution's separation of church and state.
Alters testified the statement amounted to teaching because it was part
of the learning process and that teaching the theory may force students
to choose between God and science.
"Evolution does not deny the existence of God," he said. "It's not about
God. You can play the game of science and still have your religious
beliefs."
Alters warned that high school students who were taught intelligent
design may suffer a loss of credibility in college academics by mixing
theology and science.
"It engenders misconceptions not only about evolution but also about the
whole process of science," he said.
Alters cited a recent survey by the 50,000-member National Science
Teachers Association showing that 31 percent of its members reported
being under pressure to teach creationism or other nonscientific beliefs
in science classes.
In at least 30 U.S. states, proponents of intelligent design are trying
to introduce it into classrooms through school boards, state education
standards or state legislation.
The trial is in its third week and is expected to last into November.
The defense is expected to begin presenting its case on Monday
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