Regards,
Snidely
Ah, the evils of western civilization!
Rippin
There are many people who believe in the theory of evolution who also believe in God and consider themselves Christians. But many other Christians do not believe their faith to be genuine or valid.
That's an unfortunate fact.
I got about 1/4 of the way through this article and had to stop - when someone accuses someone of following faulty logic and then does the very same thing himself right on its heels then I get the feeling that this person is just stirring up grief. Thankyouverymuchpleasedrivethrough.
For example - it's not OK for Christians to point to extra-Biblical texts that have examples of creation accounts. But it's apparently ok for this author to hold up the example of the Golden Rule and then point out how "unspecial" Christianity is because so many other religions have this very principle as well.
Frankly - this guy just doesn't get it. The core to this whole issue is whether there is a God or not. He wants to argue doctrine and semantics and disqualify a religion based on past and even current abuses and completely ignores that any ideology or religion that exists in the world today is guilty of the same things Christianity is guilty of. And if they aren't it's because they just haven't been in existance long enough - give them time.
Essentially - trying to argue any points with this person is futile. He's so bigoted himself against Christianity that in the end we'd either be in fisticuffs or agreeing to completely disagree and live in different hemispheres.
ii. It demands "proof" of a scientific theory. However, the act of demanding "proof" merely betrays ignorance of scientific methods. Unlike mathematical theories, scientific theories are not "proven". Competing theories are judged on their consistency with observation, and the best theory wins (science itself is an evolutionary process in that respect). If science demanded absolute "proof" of theories, then we wouldn't have any theories at all. Even the theory of gravity can't be "proven"; it can only be shown to be consistent with observation.
This is what worries me most. One of the greatest claims of Western civilization is the Scientific Method. I like to think of the reported words of Alexander Graham Bell, apocryphal or not, when he said "What has God wrought?" You can't have it both ways. There is just something misguided and immature, AFAIC, in applying an article of religious faith to the scientific domain, i.e. Creation Theory. What's next? Labeling the Resurrection "Heavenly Teleportation Theory?"
Because all of the above belief systems have some very basic differences, only ONE of them can be The Truth.
There cannot be many truths.
The question of diety(s) can only have one correct answer.
Surley we must be tolerant of the beliefs of others, for this is a free country.
But being tolerant of another viewpoints is not the same as a ringing endorsement.
On the other hand, certainly Creationists are roundly derided by macro-evolutionists - who are themselves (as a whole) not very tolerant of differing viewpoints.
May I suggest the reading of the New Testament? Salvation lies within, and is available to you.
God bless!
01: Site that debunks virtually all of creationism's fallacies. Excellent resource.
02: Creation "Science" Debunked.
03: Creationi sm and Pseudo Science. Familiar cartoon then lots of links.
04: The SKEPTIC annotated bibliography. Amazingly great meta-site!
05: The Evidence for Human Evolution. For the "no evidence" crowd.
06: Massi ve mega-site with thousands of links on evolution, creationism, young earth, etc..
07: Another amazing site full of links debunking creationism.
08: Creationism and Pseudo Science. Great cartoon!
09: Glenn R. Morton's site about creationism's fallacies. Another jennyp contribution.
11: Is Evolution Science?. Successful PREDICTIONS of evolution (Moonman62).
12: Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution. On point and well-written.
13: Frequently Asked But Never Answered Questions. A creationist nightmare!
14: DARWIN, FULL TEXT OF HIS WRITINGS. The original ee-voe-lou-shunist.
The foregoing was just a tiny sample. So that everyone will have access to the accumulated "Creationism vs. Evolution" threads which have previously appeared on FreeRepublic, plus links to hundreds of sites with a vast amount of information on this topic, here's Junior's massive work, available for all to review:
The Ultimate Creation vs. Evolution Resource [ver 15].
It only took 5 or 6 lines for the writer to characterize a former vice-President and countless others as hate mongers. This alone invalidates any opinion he holds as irrational thought.
The first analogy that comes across my mind is perhaps the same author attempting to argue that a 3 sec clip of Rap music is comparable to a Sibelius symphony or that a broken egg on the floor is in the same league of art as the Sistine Chapel.
There exists a sizable demonstrable body of theology dedicated to arguing the points which the author means to discuss, but quite frankly he hasn't even developed the maturity level of a third grader in his ability to express his position.
His position begs the question repeatedly, and quite frankly he's not merely mistaken, he's wrong. I'll continue to read and comment later, but really, there do exist better folks out there to critique the issues at hand.
This isn't even worthy California Jr. College material,...and that's pretty damned sad.
BTW, there's probably some very well educated Orthadox Jews or Catholic Priests out there who can run circles around my analysis, but here goes a little study time and perhaps some others can share as well along the way.
I haven't even rad the comments, but the first two paragraphs have set this article up for targeting.