pokoko said:
Where I used to work, we'd get in a lot of old men who would hang out and talk about god. They would argue the finer points because they were different denominations but they'd unite to combat the evils of science. I remember one of them passing out some anti-evolution literature which they had a big "amen" fest over. Without saying what I personally believed, I did point out that some of the information in the pamphlet was inaccurate. That did not go over well at all. After that, I decided to run a little experiment. In the following months, I would talk about evolution but instead of saying "evolution", I'd use the word "nature". Pretty much everything I talked about met with agreement or, at the least, was considered respectfully. However, any discussion were the word "evolution" was mentioned met with immediate rejection. It's such a false dichotomy, this idea that everything with religion and science has to be either/or. I don't really understand it sometimes. |
Humans like black and white, when where are so many shades in between. Just watch a democrat and a republican argue - Both seem to think the opposing viewpoint will bring the certain downfall of America. Many Christians can disregard science, taking Biblical statements as literal that were clearly never meant to be. (I.e. the earth being created in 6 literal days only 6,000 years ago) Meanwhile athiests mock the idea of God being as unrealistic as Santa Claus.
I don't see why either side considers evolution to be an idea in opposition to God. Maybe the idea of all life stemming from it, sure. But the idea that organisms can evolve? If someone made a Robot that could grow and modify itself to continually adjust, enabling it to survive in environments it previously couldn't, and perform tasks it wasn't programmed to do... Noone would think it was proof that the robot evolved on its own. It'd be evidence that whoever made it was... pretty darn good at making robots. We have so many man made disasters (i.e. Chernobyl, gulf oil spill) and suddenly, previously unknown bacteria pops up, and cleans up these hazards in a fraction of the anticipated time. Whenever people damage it, the earth immediately begins repairing itself. Many people perceive that as fortunate evolution. Rather than proof of an amazing design.
In the end, most people end up believing what they want to believe, and people want black and white answers.









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