Contemporary Philosophy : Creation vs Creation

I find it amusing if troubling that there are so many otherwise brilliant souls caught up in the "creation vs. evolution" conflict.

First, things like this are articles of faith. If you choose to adopt the 6000 year planetary age as an article of faith, so be it. That is your choice. End of story. Same deal if you choose to adopt a different theory of genesis, as an article of faith. Now, keep your faith, and keep it to yourself.

On the other hand, from a point of view of investigation, view the empirical (not faith-only) evidence, and draw your conclusion based on the evidence. If you think that this conclusion might conflict with your faith, either forgo the investigation, or revise your faith.

Simple. You have no more right to shove your article of faith down my throat than I have to shove mine down yours.

Now - about school.....

Public Schools, being publicly funded, should be inherently secular. They should not actively interfere in any way with the practice of any religion, so long as its practice does not interfere with the teaching of the students.

The school should teach the ideas and the theories that are best supported by the proponderance of the physical evidence, without regard to political or religious considerations, including any articles of faith. An article of faith is retained by the holder in the face of contradiction, or it was never an article of faith at all. If a religion teaches that the sky is orange, but the preponderance of the evidence supports that the sky is blue, the school shal not yield. Likewise with other scientific observations and theories. If this conflicts with articles of faith - as it surely will - then those who hold those articles should be prepared to face these challenges, quetly keeping their article of faith alive and to themselves.

If the prevailing science turns out to be wrong, as it often does, that truth will become known in due time. Such is the nature of science and the act of observation and learning. Simple. Students must not only learn their faith (at home) but also the primary scientific theories, and also, perhaps most importantly, to tolerate others points of view and their non disruptive worship or practice of faith. Thus, a prayer is tolerated by the atheist, a student bowing to mecca is tolerated by the christian, and so on. If it does not concern you, leave it be.

On the other hand, if you do not wish to send your child to a secular school, send him or her to a private one, or teach them yourself. Schools cannot be expected to teach multiple, often opposing viewpoints on articles of faith. Teach your children as you choose, and if you have done a decent job then they will not lose their faith just because they encounter an alternate point of view. Too poor to afford private school? Teach better at home. Too dumb to teach at home? Maybe your child is better off being taught elsewhere. If your faith is so strong, why are you being overcome by a tiny problem such as this? Faith indeed!

As for the Christians, and our articles of faith, I have the following to say:

As a Christian, I cannot fathom why no one seems to know that this debate (over the creation) was already put to rest around 400AD, long before it started, by a scholar of scripture and philosophy known as St. Augustine.

But first, lets take a look at what has happened to create the Church as we know it today.

The true irony in this story lies in the split of the Protestants from the Catholic church. Politics aside (and the politics were huge in this split) I agree in principle with the Protestants, that each man can read the scriptures and be enlightened, we do not need a Pope to act as go-between, and we are generally intelligent enough to not go running amok with The Book.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, idiocy crept in. Now we have entire branches of the church that have "forgotten" what the Bible is, and its context among the rest of holy scripture. The trend is towards extreme literalism that by ignoring the genesis of the Bible itself manages to take individual verses grossly out of context. They do this by ignoring the simple, irrefutable and provable fact that the Bible is a subset of scripture, that there are variances in translation form the original, and that parts of all modern bibles have been subject to manipulation and spin since they were first revised, approved, and made "official", most often by politicians! (king James ring a bell? Helloo-oo!!!!)

Compounding the irony, these rouge factions - and here I refer to mainstream U.S. Christianity as we know it today - only literalize the passages that they find convenient, passing other passages off as parable, not to be taken literally. So they then take the position of the Old Church, telling the common man how to believe, how to interpret, to the point that some 84.3% of church-goers never actually have studied the bible except in the context of being lectured in church. (+/- 3.3% potential sampling error) but unlike the Old Church, they do this outside the context of knowledge and study of the majority of our scriptural heritage.

I suppose it is the human condition to prefer that others do the work for you, and perhaps the Old Church and the New are not so far off considering that by definition half of the population has an intelligence below the average. (That thought scares the crap out of me on the highway).

Still I am thankful that I can read, study, and worship as I see fit without being hanged from the neck until dead, so for that I applaud the protestant movement, regardless of the eventualities involved.

Fellow Christians, Please try to remember that our holy scripture is a subset of a multitude of scripture thought to be most divine and most relevant. If you don't understand this or don't believe me, please educate yourself on this point before refuting it. Go see for yourself the scrolls, the tablets, the papyri written through divine inspiration. Only a tiny fraction ended up in the bible as we now know it. And that which made the cut has been massaged by kings, translated several times, and even the meanings of some of the -English- words have changed over the last century.

It is supreme testimony to His wisdom and divinity that despite the pruning, the forming, the translations and the omissions, the message remains wholly intact, undiminished in form or fact. Those who see only the words (which have -not- escaped the molestation of men) so often fail to see the message, so focused are they upon the fragile text itself. Classic Forest for the trees syndrome.

So they fight over which day is the Sabbath, what was meant in this passage or that, ad nauseam. So foolish, so childish - so very - human.

Anyway, Back to St. Augustine, tortured soul that he was.

Saint Augustine determined that based on his understanding of the writings, in Genesis, god makes all things in type in six days. That is, the archetypes, the divine ideas from which all things in fact spring were created in genesis. Remember, only a fraction of the divine writings made it into the bible - if it was all in there it would take twenty or so years to read it once through, and much of it has not been translated.

St Augustine came to this conclusion based only on what was put in front of him in scripture. There was no competing theory of evolution in 400 AD. Lacking the time or resources to duplicate his research, I see no reason to doubt it.

God authors not confusion. Things are as they appear, only more wondrous the closer you look. And we can look very, very close these days, with sophisticated instruments and powerful abilities to interpret information. Our knowledge dwarfs that of men only a few hundred years ago. God means for us to use our minds, to trust our intellects, to learn and grow in the glory of the Lord. He did not give us intelligence to deceive us, nor did he give us eyes but for to reveal the world to us.

Imagine a man, 4000 years ago, being told by God's messenger, about the creation - lets say, the big bang. First, there is no word for universe in his language. There is no concept of the solar system, the galaxy, or any of the many concepts we all understand. There is no idea for atom. nor particle, nor light (except for the perception of light) for that matter. Only through metaphor can it be described, so in metaphor it is written.

To take this verse or that, edited, translated, and written down by simple people -that lacked the cultural context to support that which was described to them- in total literal context is ridiculous folly at best, blackest of black heresy at worst.

Intelligent design...

To me, there is -no more intelligent form- of design than forming a universe from nothing, then adjusting the laws of physics so that the -inevitable- result is precisely what you desire - thus, you design without designing, for you have designed and created a universe that -designs itself according to your plan-.

And, just in case you aren’t totally prescient in the traditional sense, as a four dimensional being all you would have to do to make adjustments would be to nudge a few proto-atoms in the early phases of the "big kaboom" and the configuration of the fully formed universe would be drastically altered.

Got a problem species on your favorite planet? Go back to the beginning of the genetic line and nip it in the bud.

Got dinosaur infestation wiping out your favorites, the mammals? Easy fix. Nudge a few atoms twenty billion years ago to form a star that alters the eventual course of an asteroid that wipes them out, and the hardy mammals flourish according to plan.

To me, -that- is intelligent design.

It is the height of arrogance to assume that God must design as we design, build as we build, to think as we think.

It belittles the Creator to assume that (he) had to bother with all the details. If you are truly omnipotent, all you have to do is know the result you desire, and through your magnificently intelligent design of the universe, your will is expressed in fact and form, without having to bother with the details.

Like making seeds, instead of making trees.

Just my $.02 worth ;)