I've said this elsewhere, but creationism has very little to do with giving glory to God; an honest study of the diversity and ingenuity of life should fill any religious person with humble awe. For the most part, this is all about giving glory to Man, maintaining the idea that humans are special and different from other animals and NOT RELATED TO ANY MONKEYS AT ALL. Darwin didn't get into trouble with religious types when he first proposed his theory of natural selection and speciation; no, that only happened when he pointed out that humans seem to be a product of the same process that created other forms of life. Many "intelligent design" proponents (and don't you love how cunningly that term is engineered? Intelligence AND design: it must be scientific!) grudgingly admit that evolution may happen to other species -- but not humans! No siree! We're just too damn complex and well-designed! Look at our awesome eyeballs!
Oh, and when you talk about "those people" who think intelligent design ought to be taught in public schools, keep in mind that you're talking about over half the U.S. population. No joke. They did polls. And if this stuff gets into school curricula (actually, it's been working its way into textbooks for years), by the next generation belief in evolution may be a minority opinion in America.
Pretty soon, we will simultaneously believe that human life was created by incomprehensible magic AND be able to clone ourselves. That will be weird.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-11 01:40 am (UTC)Oh, and when you talk about "those people" who think intelligent design ought to be taught in public schools, keep in mind that you're talking about over half the U.S. population. No joke. They did polls. And if this stuff gets into school curricula (actually, it's been working its way into textbooks for years), by the next generation belief in evolution may be a minority opinion in America.
Pretty soon, we will simultaneously believe that human life was created by incomprehensible magic AND be able to clone ourselves. That will be weird.