I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that a Senator (Brownback), a Governor (Huckabee), and a member of the House of Representatives (Tancredo) all raised their hands last night in the Republican Presidential Debate in response to a question about who doesn't believe in evolution.
This may be the most significant thing ever to be uncovered in any Presidential debate.
Let's look at what it means.
First, belief that the theory of evolution - Darwinian or otherwise - is by and large correct is not incompatible with faith in a Deity. Major Western religions have all accepted the possibility that the Deity created a world that evolves with life along Darwinian lines - that is, via natural selection. Since Darwin's and no other theory of evolution addresses the question of how life emerged from non-life, or how non-living material itself came to be, placing a deity at the origin of evolution is in no way contrary to the scientific theory of evolution.
Or, put otherwise - atheists, agnostics, and all manner of people of faith can accept the findings of science and agree that natural selection governs the life and death, the survival and extinction, of living organisms.
So what are Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo raising their hands about?
Presumably they believe in the fundamentalist, literal interpretation of Scripture, which says the world and all its life was created in six days. Unlike people of faith who accept that carbon-14 dating of fossils proves that life has been thriving on this planet for a lot longer than the time indicated in the Bible, the disbelievers of evolution reject this and lots of other strong scientific evidence, and channel their faith into Creationism, Intelligent Design, and any number of pseudo-scientific theories - pseudo because, in the end, they cannot be disproven by any evidence to anyone who wants keep faith in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
The Senator, the Governor, and the Representative are of course entitled to their views, as is any American in this free society.
But that they hold such positions of power in our country, and, moreover, are running for the most powerful single position of all - President of the United States - should give pause for thought to every American, Republican or Democratic, who values rationality and science.
Additional posts:
Going to the Candidates' Debates
Romney's Null Set
This may be the most significant thing ever to be uncovered in any Presidential debate.
Let's look at what it means.
First, belief that the theory of evolution - Darwinian or otherwise - is by and large correct is not incompatible with faith in a Deity. Major Western religions have all accepted the possibility that the Deity created a world that evolves with life along Darwinian lines - that is, via natural selection. Since Darwin's and no other theory of evolution addresses the question of how life emerged from non-life, or how non-living material itself came to be, placing a deity at the origin of evolution is in no way contrary to the scientific theory of evolution.
Or, put otherwise - atheists, agnostics, and all manner of people of faith can accept the findings of science and agree that natural selection governs the life and death, the survival and extinction, of living organisms.
So what are Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo raising their hands about?
Presumably they believe in the fundamentalist, literal interpretation of Scripture, which says the world and all its life was created in six days. Unlike people of faith who accept that carbon-14 dating of fossils proves that life has been thriving on this planet for a lot longer than the time indicated in the Bible, the disbelievers of evolution reject this and lots of other strong scientific evidence, and channel their faith into Creationism, Intelligent Design, and any number of pseudo-scientific theories - pseudo because, in the end, they cannot be disproven by any evidence to anyone who wants keep faith in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
The Senator, the Governor, and the Representative are of course entitled to their views, as is any American in this free society.
But that they hold such positions of power in our country, and, moreover, are running for the most powerful single position of all - President of the United States - should give pause for thought to every American, Republican or Democratic, who values rationality and science.
Additional posts:
Going to the Candidates' Debates
Romney's Null Set
2 comments:
Huh?? Most of the world doesn't believe in evolution either. Why should we exactly?
Evolution of the type you are referring to has never been observed. It is merely an hypothesis.
I don't mind that you've swallowed it whole 'because of carbon-14 dating and lots of other stuff', but you shouldn't denegrate the character of others because their views disagree with your faith in something that isn't really science at all.
You can say "huh??" all you like - but that doesn't change the reality. Carbon-14 dating, DNA analysis which shows relationships of species, etc are tangible facts. People are of course entitled to believe whatever they please. But when people stand up on national television, candidates for President, and proclaim their ignorance or misunderstanding of a century and more of research, they deserve ridicule.
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