Letters to the Editor
-
here is a serious question
why should 'Darwin and God get along'?
The problems that science have with religion consist mostly of religious figures butting their heads into matters they do not understand, because the inescapable conclusions of scientific thought tend to slowly but inexorably crush longstanding religious dogma.
The story of Galileo is illustrative, but hardly unique. For centuries, it was religious dogma that the Earth was the center of the universe. That dogma has been exposed by science to be groundless, and people have moved on to new unshakeable religious beliefs that are now under attack.
Were humans created 'in their current form by God' in some Genesis story? Anybody with a passing familiarity with modern paleontology, anthropology, and the theory of evolution knows that is not the case. Maybe at some point the religious will accept this new knowledge into their inviolable dogma, without realing that time and time again their dogma fails to be what it claims: correct in all respects.
To the people who claim that science is dogmatic, or that atheism is a 'faith', or other such nonsense, I can assure that you are simply completely wrong. The reason all scientists argue the case for evolution as opposed creationism has nothing to do with any dogma, it is simply that anybody with knowledge of the field knows that this is the truth, and this theory has been demonstrated any number of times. Claiming that this is 'dogma' makes about as much sense as claing that "2+2=4" is dogma, or claiming "gravity behaves according to an inverse square law" is dogma.
It seems to me that the essential problem here is that, to have any relevance to human life, religions have traditionally made truth claims about actual material phenomena. Unfortunately, they have also done so traditionally in non-rigorous, non-empircal manners. And that is why theories about the physical world that are novel creations of religions tend to wither and fall apart under scrutiny.
As for Aristotle being a scientist - Aristotle was pretty much the opposite of a scientist. Aristotle believed in deduction, as opposed to induction. As a result, Aristotle had all sorts of crackpot theories that held sway for literally over a thousand years simply because Aristotelian philosophy admitted no way that said theories could be challenged. In contrast, real scientific theories are falsifiable.
Finally, I think it's regrettable that Rossmeier plays the old card linking Darwinism to 'Nazism and eugenics'. Nazism had absolutely nothing to do with Darwinism or atheism. These allegations are nothing more than modern slander. Indeed, it is quite easy to read speeches where Hitler invoked the name of God as part of his bizarre nationalistic religion.
As for eugenics, evolution is a morally neutral theory. People have been trying to shape human breeding patterns for literally millennia. This tendency has always been tribal and never needed Darwinism to justify itself. You can ask the Carthaginians about this if you wish.
-
My stance
Here is a post I respect.
http://letters.salon.com/books/atoms_eden/2008/07/01/saving_darwin/permalink/194dce4b08c534786f1e5e33a0505f8b.html
It is not a post you are going to see out of the religious left, because while it is leftwing and the person posting is religious, it does not try to shift blame onto atheists for being angry.
It does not pretend that atheists don't have a point. We don't care about what you believe until you start forcing us to care, and right now the religious right is forcing us to care.
They are forcing to care by attacking us, sometimes physically, and the religious left is forcing us to care by standing in our way when we try to defend ourselves and our views.
-
Taliesan
The fact that you feel the need to 'correct' or disagree with nearly everyone here might demonstrate, to the observant, that you are all alone in this argument and really no one is listening to you.
It must be some kind of faith for you to believe that singing the same old tune is going to suddenly make people think you're right instead of just thinking you're an ignorant jerk.
Cheers!
-
P.S.
I have quite a few friends who are adamantly atheist and I don't seem to offend them by simply stating that angry atheists are annoying. Perhaps that's because they aren't angry atheists and don't feel the need to defend shrill, hysterical bigots who don't know the first thing about science or religion except that believing in the first makes them better than everyone else and mocking the second makes them cleverer than everyone else.
-
Why God never received a PhD:
1. He had only one major publication.
2. It was in Hebrew.
3. It had no references.
4. It wasn't published in a refereed journal.
5. Some even doubt he wrote it by himself.
6. It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since then?
7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
8. The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
9. He never applied to the ethics board for permission to use human subjects.
10. When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it by drowning his subjects.
11. When subjects didn't behave as predicted, he deleted them from the sample.
12. He rarely came to class, just told students to read the book.
13. Some say he had his son teach the class.
14. He expelled his first two students for learning.
15. Although there were only 10 requirements, most of his students failed his tests.
16. His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountain top.
17. No record of working well with colleagues.
-----------------------------
also:
TOP TEN SIGNS YOU'RE A CHRISTIAN
10- You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your god.
9- You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from lesser life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt
8- You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Trinity god
7- Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" -- including women, children, and trees!
6- You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
5- You are willing to spend your life looking for little loop-holes in the scientifically established age of the Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by pre-historic tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that the Earth is a couple of generations old.
4- You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects -- will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet you consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving".
3- While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to prove Christianity.
2- You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1- You actually know a lot less than many Atheists and Agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history -- but still call yourself a Christian