credulous creationism

What percentage of life & earth scientists in 1987 believed in evolution?

According to this Newsweek Magazine article: 99.85%

Without any serious study, I credulously believed the ideas of creationism over the proofs of science. I was one of these Christians mentioned by St. Augustine in the following...

In my view this is a primary reason why creationists are not taken seriously, except by their own. There is plenty of evidence today to prove evolution. Remaining true to the literal interpretation of the Bible will keep them forever bound in credulity.

evolution of religion

In this article regarding Haiti, voodoo, and Christian evangelicalism, we once again see religion’s influence and its value or perhaps more accurately lack thereof. The voodoo priest is complaining that the evangelicals are hogging the airport and the supplies and then distributing them in such a manner as to increase the evangelicals influence among the Haitian people. Whether this complaint is logistically true or not, I have no way of knowing. It's the thinking behind the scenes that intrigues me.

It seems like we'd all be better off if we gave up our superstitious religious beliefs and took responsibility for our behavior towards others. I'm not just talking about the voodoo priest. Religion, in general, seems to be expert at clouding relationships and separating human beings from each other.

Why didn't God make a world where love, peace, joy, and all those wonderful things just existed without the option of human beings messing things up? That would be my old brain trying to simplify things. I no longer pretend that life is simple. Trusting God exclusively to take care of all the things “out there” is no longer something I‘m able to do.

In spite of my rant above, religion is a part of the social construct of man and has been around for a long time... perhaps beginning with simple folk tales regarding the death of loved ones and bringing comfort to those still alive by explaining that they (the dead) were still present though invisible. This would be comforting indeed. We created gods or a God in order to explain the unexplainable. Religion has worked well at uniting people. Amazing civilizations have existed in history and religions have played a part as unifier in many of them.

Somewhere along the way we developed the idea that the gods or God could be placated, pleased, commandeered, or even manipulated by our actions of sacrifices, prayers, worship, idol making industries, and more. We created ways to get what we needed (safety, acceptance, comfort) even though it may have simply served psychological purposes. This went a long way in soothing fears in a very unfriendly world filled with natural and unnatural catastrophes.

While religion has positively contributed to societies, it also produces negative situations in people's lives. People have learned how to control other people by using religion in any number of ways. A few examples would be… Constantine, the Roman emperor, making it the empire’s state religion in order to maintain control of his people, hell doctrines, inquisition killings, shaming, money making schemes (i.e. tithing/prosperity gospel). Religion needs conformity from its constituents in order to survive and at the same time produces a form of security. Thus religion survives.

As I have been studying evolution (natural selection) over the past number of months, its probability has grown in my mind. I can see how evolution has worked in religion. Religious concepts evolve. In Christianity alone there appears to be an observed peace amongst the 30,000+ sects/denominations in Protestantism since its birth 500+ years ago. It certainly didn't start out that way, but you don't hear of many killings related to denominational differences anymore at least not in the United States.

The divide between world religions is another matter. Wars are being fought today because of these differences. The Abrahamic faiths... Judaism, Christianity, and Islam especially have a history. “My God is the one true God and yours is not.” Our current war with radical Islam shows the Islamists’ religion and its preservation as the motivating forces behind the terrorists’ insistence that the ways of the West must die.

War should be a last resort and I'm not saying we shouldn't protect ourselves. Evolution insists on self preservation. Each religion must evolve to the place where it recognizes its own survival is dependent on peace. Perhaps Buddhists, Taoists, and other seemingly peaceful religions have learned this, I don't know.

Religions also need to police their own fundamentalist extremists who do not understand the concept of compromise and tolerance. I know that's easier said then done. It is in everyone’s best interest that the concept “our God is the only Right One” evolve into extinction. Will we evolve quickly enough to avoid major destruction? How much pain will it take? Will religions' inability to bring peace be the end of its own existence?

dupery begone

Thomas Jefferson, one of the most influential founders of the United States, said:

"The priests of the different religious sects . . . dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live."

Perhaps this explains the seeming lack of intellect in creationists who debate their case against the scientists of today in the creation/evolution debate we have in America. Certainly there are many very smart people arguing for creation, but their arguments don't come in at the same level of scientific methodology presented by evolutionists. Do they see the writing on the wall and argue out of fear? Or have they so convinced themselves that they would somehow be less human if evolution were true and then it would threaten their worldview or the plans of their god or perhaps even the existence of their god? (Warning: Bombshell ahead!) (Why use small "g" in god? I'm implying simply that perhaps their "god" doesn't really exist. Anyway... not the one they've created in their theologies.)

The next generation of children could determine the direction of this issue. We see the battle for the minds of these young people, beginning in elementary school through high school into college, if they make it that far. If college doesn't happen, I regret that they may be only getting half of the story.

My opinion... educate the parents. The local churches and in turn the local schools through high school bend toward creationism. One view is propagated in the society effectively. It's up to parents to take the issue seriously. Get online and educate yourself. Help your children decide with integrity of mind and thought, once the facts are in, which is correct. Either way, duperies (acts, practices, or instances of duping) need to be extinguished.

evolutionary ignorance

This post is about ignorance.

Ignorance - n. the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed. (American Heritage Dictionary 2009) Origin: 1175-1225; Middle English from Latin ignorantia; derived from the word ignore.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the exodus of young people from the Christian church in America after they leave home and go on to college or work. A Barna Group survey from September 2006 said that 61% of twentysomethings had left and not returned to church life.

There are probably a number of reasons for this exodus. The one I’d like to focus on is the one I think may be most prevalent. When young people leave their parents’ home, either due to college or employment opportunities, many for the first time are presented with the freedom to think for themselves.

When these young persons go away to college, they may be introduced to academia that is quite different from their high school experiences. The majority of students attend high schools which are public and therefore restricted by separation of church and state law. High school teachers are not allowed to proselytize their students regarding spiritual matters. Parents or the local church are mainly the ones who take this instructional opportunity in a child/student’s life.

At college, living away from home, the young person has the opportunity to test their beliefs, doctrines, whatever it is that they’ve known and followed previously in regard to spirituality. Many of the parents I’ve known through the years would think this unfortunate. “Those university professors are brainwashing our children.” (I used to think this way but don't any longer.) The years of input from the parents moves into testing time. Testing that could not have been run while their son or daughter was living at home under their tutelage.

What is it that these youth encounter? They are introduced to points of view that not only differ from theirs, but views they may never have even heard of before. I think the one thing they face which challenges their beliefs more than anything else is scientific evolution and its acceptance by not just faculty but by other students as well.

Due to my evangelical Christian background, I’ve never taken time to study evolution in depth. I did not include evolution in my home school curriculum until now. I assume that the church we were part of when my children were in high school didn’t teach the subject either. If it was talked about, it was probably labeled as untrue and anti-creation and “we don’t agree with it“.

A person can’t really blame them though. Once you open the can of “evolution” worms, it’s hard to put them back in. Actually if you look at it with reason and science, it may be impossible to put them back. What the newly graduated high school student faces is science and many intelligent people who have done their homework.

Most parents don’t react well when they realize their child’s views are changing. I personally saw this in several of my children but had no resolution for them. Knowing little about evolution, I was at a loss to intelligently converse with them about it. A religious person might say, “But the Bible says ______.” This wasn't good enough for me. I wanted understanding. Without an understanding of the scientific discoveries that had been made in the past 100 years or so, I knew I had an internal conflict that needed to be resolved.

What to do? I’ve begun to study evolution and scientific discovery. I want to understand why churches and those who stand for creation are so opposed to evolution and the teaching of it. The word “theory” doesn’t necessarily mean that facts are not known and have not been proven. Music theory and Einstein’s relativity theory are proven and accepted today.

So… after a couple of weeks, the worms are all over the place. And it's okay. It’s rather amazing actually.