Reply #178: Ya know, I've been -waiting- for someone to come along...

[Robert Cooper]

...and try that.


Oct. 5: This Smart and No Smarter: The Hubris of Intelligent Design
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/rcooper_20051005.html

The central tenet of Intelligent Design seems to be based on hubris. To accept ID we must accept that humans have reached the limit to what they can explain through the life sciences, and that whatever questions remain must find their solutions in a belief that one or more intelligent designers used magic to make life the way it is. In other words, we are the ultimate pinnacle of human intelligence and no one past, present or future could be smarter than us. If we can't figure out the solution, then the solution will be forever beyond humanity's reach and study, and only a magical 'designer' can provide us the answers for our unanswered questions.

Not that Intelligent Design wants us to believe it is a faith-based religion. ID refuses to speculate on the nature of the designer. So we are free to believe that in the ancient past Little Green Men landed their flying saucer on Earth and 'designed' all life-forms as they exist now. You have to wonder how enthusiastic the support would be towards teaching kids that aliens are responsible for designing humans. Yet Intelligent Design does not exclude the possibility of magical aliens designing life on Earth.

That these fanciful explanations are not taught in universities, that they do not appear in peer-reviewed scientific literature, that there is no way to test for the existence of an "intelligent designer" or the 'magic' used to create life, advocates of ID find comfort in conspiracy theories. Brainwashing seems to be the current theory, though the motive behind it seems rather vague. It would seem to be almost a crime against children to send them on for higher learning if they are to be brainwashed in the process.

Thanks to Intelligent Design, kids can be inoculated against Darwinian brainwashing by being taught that maybe supernatural Little Green Men used magic to create humans.

In Dover and Kansas Christian fundamentalists are trying to push Intelligent Design into the classroom. In California, Christian schools are trying to force the University of California to give equal merit to creation-taught students as they give to evolution-taught students. If successful the day might not be far off when faith healers are graduating out of medical schools with licences to practice medicine.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, science continues pretty much as it has for the past century or two. Unlike the advocates of Intelligent Design, the rest of humanity is pretty much convinced we're not the epitome of human intelligence, that humans can be smarter than us. The rest of the world still recognizes the role evolution plays in our fight against disease, helping us to stay on top of the illnesses that plague us. If Intelligent Design advocates wish to take America out of the race for cures by stifling the teaching of evolution, just as the anti-abortionists have stifled research into stem cells, I'm sure the competition in the rest of the world won't mind too much.

The funny thing is, if we assume some mystical, unexplainable method used by supernatural aliens to create life on Earth, can't we assume that the mystical, unexplainable method is, in fact, evolution?




Oct. 24th: Did Darwin Lead to Hitler?
http://www.opinioneditorials.com/freedomwriters/rcooper_20051024.html

I wonder at the ignorance of history when I read statements suggesting Darwin's Theory of Evolution led to the crimes against humanity committed by Hitler. Such claims fail to mention that Hitler led a country where 98% of the population was Christian. To gas over 6 million Jews, Hitler didn't need Darwin. He just needed the help of his Christian countrymen.

When we consider the rampages of the likes of Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and the blood purges of the French Revolution we realize that humans have never needed an excuse like evolution to slaughter each other. When the crusaders 'liberated' Jerusalem, the Temple was knee-deep in the blood of Moslem women and children who'd sought refuge there. Thousands of people were burnt at the stake after being accused by Christians of being witches. Religious wars throughout European history have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

And who should be blamed for including slavery in the American Constitution? Long before Darwin published his work on evolution, the Southern Baptist church arose to defend their faith that slavery was sanctioned by God.

History shows Christians have been more than happy to conduct their own version of ethnic cleansing when they've held the reins of power.

On the other hand, Darwin's theory has led to conservation and protection of the environment and endangered species, genetically-enhanced crops and keeping us ahead of a world of evolving diseases. Instead of wrecking the planet expecting God to relieve us of our responsibility for Earth at any moment, we've learned that we are as dependent upon the health of our planet as any other animal and we're going to be here for a long time unless we drive ourselves into extinction.

Evolution has taught us to see ourselves and our home in the long term, not just a month or a year or even a generation. Now we look at plans that span decades as we try and reverse the loss of the ozone layer and prevent ourselves from cooking the planet with global warming. Evolution teaches us that our decisions have consequences.

What I find most informative is the apparent Fundamentalist view that if you accept Darwin's theory then you can't be a Christian. Seems to me their real argument isn't against evolution, but against other Christians about what beliefs are required to be a "Christian". Evolution just happens to be the wedge between Fundamentalists and the rest of Christianity.

What the Fundamentalists are trying to do in Dover is establish a state religion: a literalist view of creation taught in public school. If your brand of Christianity teaches that the Bible is a metaphor, your brand of Christianity doesn't count and your kids will be taught to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Apparently Fundamentalists are not above recruiting the kids of non-Fundamentalists by teaching literal interpretation of biblical creation in public school.

And claiming that humans did not evolve but were formed by an "intelligence" is certainly teaching a literal interpretation of Genesis.

I have to wonder when they'll get around to introducing other literal lessons from the Bible such as II Kings 2: 23-24 and Leviticus 20: 9-10.

Hitler's ideas of racial supremacy are ancient. Every conquering people and every people who have aspired to empire have believed in those ideas. They didn't arise with Darwin. Jews have talked of being the Chosen People since Abraham. Christians are so convinced they are the Chosen People that they firmly believe everyone else is going to Hell.

Hitler could not have gassed the Jews without the help of the Christians of Germany. With almost 2000 years of anti-semitic history, he found them more than willing. To blame Hitler on Darwin is obscene.

One might better ask whether Christ taught Christians enough about tolerance. In religiously charged America, we don't seem to see many Christians practicing Matthew 5: 43-48 or Matthew 19:21. Perhaps a dose of Matthew 7: 3-5 is in order.