[wallcrawlr]

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Revelation 4:11
See my profile for info

[BibChr]

When I saw the subtitle, To teach faith as science is to undermine both, I thought it might be a critique of the Darwinian establishment that has done just that for decades.

Disappointing.

Dan
Biblical Christianity BLOG

[MEGoody]

But nothing could do more to undermine this most salutary restoration than the new and gratuitous attempts to invade science, and most particularly evolution, with religion.

Nothing could do more to undermine the integrity of science than to undermine and suppress questions regarding the theory of evolution.

Oh, they're already doing that.

Nuff said.

[BenLurkin]

The real problem is that we are being taught science as faith.

[ICE-FLYER]

What a laugh. They see nothing wrong with teaching THEORY as FACT. What is undermined there? Scientific integrity, thats what.

The Evolution THEORY is just that, stop teaching it as rote fact and I do not have near the problem with it.

[RegulatorCountry]

"To teach faith as science is to undermine the very idea of science"

... which is as good an argument against evolution as in favor of it.

[kharaku]

To assume that faith is scientifically impossible is both stupid and faithless.

Anyway i'm off to chase a guy that spontanously morphed from an ape.

[narby]

Brilliant Statement: "Faith can and should be proclaimed from every mountaintop and city square. But it has no place in science class. To impose it on the teaching of evolution is not just to invite ridicule but to earn it."

[plain talk]

I know of no one who wants to teach faith as science. I agree with that. I also believe we should not teach science as faith either.

[Dumb_Ox]

Crappy op-ed.

One of the polite fictions of American life is the idea that science can be studied in isolation from history, theology, philosophy, ethics, and so on. Tearing away such a mask threatens our modus vivendi of mental compartmentalization. That's one reason this controversy is so protracted.

[Alouette]

Here's a little exercise.

Visit the public library. Check out a few books on evolutionary biology. Issues of "National Geographic" are good too.

Open one of the books or magazines and start reading. Keep reading. Yes, I know that it is boring as all get out, but soldier on.

Eventually, you will come to a phrase like "The Plan of Evolution," or "Nature's Grand Design" or "Nature's Creation" or "Evolution's Clever Strategy" or even "THE MIRACLE OF EVOLUTION!!!!"

Now, if Evolution (or "Nature", the terms are used interchangeably) is nothing but random accidents, how can random accident have a "Plan" or a "Grand Design" or a "Clever Strategy"? That would imply (gasp!) a HIGHER INTELLIGENCE.

Yet the Evolution writers use this terminology all the time. That is very religionist for supposedly "pure scientists."

[thejokker]

i stand with science and the things it has given us. anti-evolutionaries are the conservative equivalent to michael moore, moveon.org, now, DU wacko nut-jobs.

everytime radical christians open their mouths on this issue they lose credibility and votes for the conservative movement.

[Rockingham]

Krauthammer has misunderstood the evolution issue and Catholic faith and teaching. Evolution, whether in Darwinian or other terms, is not the problem. Rather, the issue is the assertion that evolution in any sense proves scientific materialism and disproves the existence of God or of Christianity as a faith.

When pressed, mainstream scientists necessarily concede that evolution makes no such claims, but atheists commonly do, especially atheists who are scientists. Why should it surprise or alarm anyone that a Catholic prelate should object to the teaching of evolution as scientific proof of materialism and atheism? And especially so when evolution is is taught to Catholic schoolchildren in that fashion?

As a Catholic with great respect for Judaism and Jews, I nevertheless have come to suspect that Krauthammer and many Jews have a profound difficulty in recognizing the full dimensions of evolution as an issue for Christians and the dangers of letting evolution be taught in public schools as if it supports materialism and atheism. When Jews become materialists and atheists, they still remain Jews and tend to remain within the embrace of Judaism's mostly wise and humane culture.

When Christians become atheists, they tend to turn to alternative outlets for the innate human religious impulse: radical leftism; New Age Mysticism; extreme nationalism; and notoriously toxic ideologies, such as Nazism and communism. As the old warning goes: deserted altars do not long remain vacant -- they become occupied by demons.

The sincerity and fervor of Christian fundamentalists can be offputting, their view of evolution is often ill-informed, and their attacks on it tend to be misdirected. But they are utterly correct in the larger strategic sense: evolution as actually taught by an aggressively secular and faith-hostile public school system is a profound danger not just to faith but to our very survival. Genuine science is to the good and poses no conflict with faith, but science perverted through bad teaching into an attack on faith is bad science and offers horrors in its wake.

If one finds fault with or does not follow the above argument, consider the choice in practical terms: even if you agree with evolution in every sense and agree with Krauthammer, if you were in a desperate way and going door to door among strangers for help, would you rather try it among Christian fundamentalists in evolution hostile rural America, or would you prefer to seek help in a tony, faith hostile, evolution friendly urban neighborhood in Blue state America? Ideas have consequences.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Too bad he wasted so much time arguing based on a false premise.

[Ohioan]

The essence of Science, is the open mind. In a science course, students should be free to explore, and be exposed to any and every explanation of phenomena, for which someone is willing to make a rational argument. There should be no dogmatic refusal to consider alternative explanations. This is absolutely basic to the scientific quest.

Frankly, I have never understood the fear of a debate. To quote Dr. J. C. Nott, co-author of the pioneer American work on Anthropology in 1854:

Man can invent nothing in science or religion but falsehood; and all the truths which he discovers are but facts or laws which have emanated from the Creator. All science, therefore, may be regarded as a revelation from Him; and although newly-discovered laws, or facts, in nature, may conflict with religious errors, which have been written and preached for centuries, they never can conflict with religious truth.

There is no dichotomy between science and religion. Both seek truth, and a spirited debate in the classroom can be a powerful stimulant to the individual pursuits of truth, which is what education should be all about. Fear of such a debate, on any side of the argument, really reflects self-doubt of the strength of that side.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Finalapproach29er]

Ol' Chuck thinks he came from the ape family. Well, speak for yourself Chuck.

[Stultis]

Let's Have No More Monkey Trials

"Now, wait just a minute..."

[Sloth]

Faith cannot be separated from science. Faith is based on acceptance of evidence. All science is built on faith in the observations of others. I have faith that light has some properties of waves, because I can observe the interference pattern when it passes through parallel slits. I have faith that astronomers correctly understand the motion of celestial objects, because they can accurately predict eclipses, cometary appearances, etc. I have faith that combustion of hydrocarbons consumes O2 and produces CO2 & H2O, even though I can't physically observe the atoms switching places. I have faith that Alaska exists, even though I've never been there.

[Kleon]

Although I'm a Christian who reads the Bible fairly literally, I don't see evolution, or the teaching of evolution, to be an affront to my religious beliefs.

You see, in my conversations with God over the course of twenty years, He has explained it all very clearly.

When creating this world, God created great wonders, as well as great mysteries. He put in the land clues to a past which He created--great beasts of the land, air and sea which never actually existed, at least not in the flesh. He made subtle differences in the design of various animals to give the sense that the world itself is a living thing, always changing, when in fact it is a very deliberate design.

He doesn't mind that scientists try to unravel these ancient mysteries. He marvels at our ingenuity.

[aculeus]

Go for Doctor K.

The IDiots are an embarrassment to (1) the USA (2) conservatism.