Evolution?
Let Us Prey
for release 08-29-05
Washington D.C.
by Lightning Rod
Willful ignorance has forever amazed me.
I mean the kind of ignorance that goes directly to the root of the word – to ignore; the kind of ignorance where you blinker yourself with beliefs and refuse to accept new or pertinent or even obvious evidence from the real world if it collides with these beliefs.
When I came across this LA Times article describing how the creationists are adopting the dinosaur as their new mascot, I had to figure that it was only natural in the topsy-turvy world we inhabit for delightful absurdities like this to proliferate.
It seems that there are two wings to the Creationist Party. The radical wing believes, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that the heavens and the earth were created in six days 6,000 years ago just like it says in the Genesis myth and that there were dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden and on Noah's Arc. That might not have been a completely ignorant thing to think if you lived in oh, say 1750. But today we have better information. The Theory of Evolution is not a fantasy. There is forensic evidence to support it. With our own eyes, we can count the layers of sediment. We can see the fossils.
The more moderate wing of the Creationist Party is called Intelligent Design. Those who believe in intelligent design actually believe the same thing that any other creationist believes but they make a feeble attempt to couch it in scientific terms. The president, and several other politicians who are pandering to the weaker minded among us, are even suggesting that we teach this nonsense in our public schools as an 'alternative view' to the science of evolution. That would be like teaching the flat-earth theory as a companion course to geography. Let's just let the kids make up their own minds. Let's give them the choice between astronomy and astrology, mathematics and numerology, chemistry and alchemy."Dinosaurs lived in the Garden of Eden, and Noah's Ark? Give me a break," said Kevin Padian, curator at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley and president of National Center for Science Education, an Oakland group that supports teaching evolution. "For them, 'The Flintstones' is a documentary." – LA Times
"Intelligent Design Theory." That has sort of a scientific ring to it, no? And it has the word 'intelligent' in there, so that lends credibility to it. But don't be fooled into thinking that it has anything to do with science. It's religion masquerading as science. And it's not a very good impersonation at that. There really is no theory to IDT. There are only assumptions.
What amazes me is that evolution vs. creationism continues to be a controversy. I thought they settled it at the Scopes Trial. The bible is not a science book. It's a book of legend, history and parables. How hard is that to understand?
In some respects science and religion are nearly interchangeable. They both require that you take the word of others who have made the actual observations. I have never done a carbon14-dating test. I wouldn't know how to count the isotopes. I choose to believe 'on faith' that the information obtained from these tests is reliable. I take scientist's word for it that this particular piece of charcoal is from a human campfire that burned thirty thousand years ago. One of the reasons that I choose to believe that the tests are reliable is that they can be reproduced by other researchers. Independent verification is one of the tenets of traditional science.
Darwin's theory of natural selection was not a pre-conceived assumption. It was a deduction based on meticulous observations. Intelligent Design is one of the strange new 'scientific theories' that seem to be based on revelation rather than observation. It's the type of 'science' where the conclusion comes before the experiment.
The Poet's Eye sees no problem if you want to believe in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus or that the earth was created in six days or that pigs can fly. Just don't try to teach it to my children in school as science. And while we are on the subject, Mr. President, where was the intelligent design when you invaded Iraq and expected them not to fight back, for generations if necessary? Amen.
Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong,
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song.
When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, yeh, yeh.
--Stevie Wonder
