Creation vs. Evolution

[Walter]

The difficulty in any debate between religious folks and scientific folks is that one group debates from the heart (faith) and the other group from the head. The languages are generally mutually exclusive, witness the use of the word "theory".

Perhaps you should read Jefferson's letters.

 

[fairybasslet]

It is tough to realize that if there is a Creator ...

Well, who created the Creator? And how could there be a Creator if, as you claim, nothing can be made from nothing...or whatever they said on that Friends episode. Darn, I'm sorry I missed it.

 

[Thalassamania]

That flying "challenge" is the strangest argument I've ever heard. I'd not even characterize it as Lamarckian, is as much as I'm sure that Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck would have giggled himself silly at the suggestion.

 

[dlndavid]

 

[adurso]

Perhaps you should read Jefferson's letters.

I like this one:To Carey, 1816: N. Y. Pub Lib., MS, IV, 409

On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Were I to enter on that arena, I should only add an unit to the number of Bedlamites.

 

[adurso]

That flying "challenge" is the strangest argument I've ever heard. I'd not even characterize it as Lamarckian, is as much as I'm sure that Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck would have giggled himself silly at the suggestion.

There you go, in order to get the humor here one must know who Lamarck was and be familiar with the inheritance of acquired traits........language.....language.....I would still like the OP to support my family and I for the rest of our lives down through the ages......

 

[Thalassamania]

So are you saying that we should all be subject to their fundamentalist claptrap, that our children's education should be disrupted and that they should be lied to, and that society should move retrograde, because some amongst us choose to wear blinders?

Let us remember that the "God of the Founding Fathers" was the god of deism not the current evangelical's view of God and that the founding fathers best expressed how things should be when Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

People can believe whatever they want in the privacy of their own space, but to try and force it on the rest of us by pretending its something that its not is wrong.

 

[DeputyDan]

I gotta go with God doing the creating.

One of these days, I might get a chance to ask him how !!!!

 

[adurso]

So are you saying that we should all be subject to their fundamentalist claptrap, that our children's education should be disrupted and that they should be lied to, and that society should move retrograde, because some amongst us choose to wear blinders?

Let us remember that the "God of the Founding Fathers" was the god of deism not the current evangelical's view of God and that the founding fathers best expressed how things should be when Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

In no way do I suggest that society do nothing other than hold all to the highest standards possible of education. Being subject to fundamentalist claptrap is external to education, but significantly impacts the quality of education. I am a teacher in an inner city, most of my students come from an evangelical background, I face this every day. How do you explain evolution to a high school student who opens the discussion with the statement: "Preacher says we ain't desetted(sic) from no monkeys" The first step is to teach precise meanings of words, an imperfect understanding of the language contributes to the lack of understanding.

If I had my way everyone graduating from high school would be familiar with Latin, Greek, and at least one modern tongue. they would be able to read above a sixth grade level, they would not be afraid of math and would not rely on a calculator. They would be familiar with the philosophies that shaped this country, they would be aware of Eastern as well as Western philosophies, they would be skilled in debate and would recognize a logical fallacy, they would have seen the humor in the lamarckian post because they would know who he was, they would be able to hold a conversation without saying "like" a hundred times, nor ask "you know what I mean" after every other sentence, they would not interject intercourse with one's dam as a noun, verb and adjective, because they would know the words.
When I am Emperor of the world things will be vastly different, you may be assured

 

[dlndavid]

A safe bet, I'm with you Deputy.