what would happen if the world believed in...

An excellent article... long, but informative... Do you fear what might happen if the world believed in evolution?

the predicted one

the real world

" ...to deny that reality will make us a cult -- some odd group that is not really interacting with the real world." --Bruce Waltke, Christian conservative and former Bible scholar from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Florida, speaking about evolution.

Waltke has been canned by the fundamentalist police at his seminary for speaking what he truly believed. Ken Ham thinks that believing evolution undermines the moral authority of the Bible because it turns the Garden of Eden story into fable. He's right in that sense. But he's wrong about morality. There are just as many immoral, literalist, inerrant-Bible believing persons as there are immoral unbelievers, maybe more, in the U.S. anyway.

Evolution's proof has been ongoing for over 150 years and has made a healthy collection of facts. Ham would only be expected to defend the multi-million dollar investment of his Creation Museum in Kentucky. He must hang on to the 6,000-year young earth theory. The disgrace of admitting error would change his whole life. Not many people are willing to make that leap. Especially in a religion that punishes those that do not conform to its standards.

Professor Waltke has rearranged his life and now works for another conservative seminary, one who's "belief police" are evidently slightly more liberal than the previous one.

start with doubt

"If a man shall begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts,

but if he will be content to begin with doubts,

he shall end in certainties."

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) The Advancement of Learning

To end in certainty, however, depends on a continual searching for the truth.

"alone again, naturally"

My religious life is finished. I no longer believe in mythical mystical religion. What I can know is what I will base my life on. A happy life is my pursuit.

it doesn't frighten me

Richard Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman, jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. He developed a widely used pictorial representation scheme for the mathematical expressions governing the behavior of subatomic particles, which later became known as Feynman diagrams. During his lifetime, Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. ----(from Wikipedia)

ain't she cute?

Right off the bat I know this post is probably going to offend many but perhaps those with an evolutionary sense of humor can appreciate it. This baby wombat was rescued from the pouch of its mother. The mother had been run over by a car and a passing motorist retrieved the baby from her pouch. An organization in Australia is nursing the baby, named Karmann, and keeping her well as she grows to maturity. Here's the story and more pictures if you're interested. That's all well and good.

But why do wombat babies look so much like human babies? One brain, two ears, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two arms (ulna & radius included), two hands, ten fingers, two legs (complete with fibula & tibia), two feet, ten toes, a backbone, on and on we could go... and this one is definitely a girl. Does anyone else see this? Maybe we humans are not so unique after all? That's not to say we don't have many more advantages in life than wombats.

Comparisons of wombat and human DNA would show us why the similarities exist. Humans and mammals share over 90% of the same genetic makeup. Either God thought DNA discovery in the 20th century would make for interesting conversation and bewilderment as humans tried to understand what the heck was he thinking when he created the world... or evolution really is true and our future is in our own hands. (Both could be true, but what kind of a god do we have then?)