evolution
There's a really scary piece in today's Gazoo written by a freshman at Laurel High School concerning "Intelligent Design" vs. Evolution. She is following right down the line of the religious right that says 1) there is a controversy over evolution and 2) intelligent design (the worst oxymoron since "military intelligence") are equal possibilities. The problem is that comparing ID and evolution is comparing apples and oranges. There is no debate in scientific circles concerning the evidence for evolution. The so-called problems that the Discovery Institute cites with evolution are not even considered by serious, peer-reviewed scientists to be issues worthy of discussion; they've been answered and the major questions of the role of disaster in evolution are what is of most concern now.
The "scientists" who support the question of ID are not published in peer-reviewed journals by biologists and other scientists. They try to dodge the religious issue by refusing to consider "young earth" issues (the world was created at 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in 4004 BC) which really do emasculate the whole belief system. ID is essentially a religious view of the whole question based on denying that certain things can happen naturally. Yet some of these same people might accept the concept that enough monkeys with enough computers could write the entire works of Shakespeare given enough time.
The entire universe is evolving all the time. We live on a planet that orbits an, at least, third-generation star. If it wasn't of that generation there wouldn't be enough of the heavy metals, etc., to have built and maintained the earth we live on. In the universe, we never see the present or the future, we see only the past. Even the moon has aged by the time we see the light from it. Every ray of sunlight comes from a sun that is about eight minutes older before we see the light from it. Evolution is a constantly moving force that works its magic over time. Humanity, so far, has existed but for an instant in that time scale. We consider the Age of Dinosaurs without realizing it lasted for millions of years and that there were thousands of dinosaur species during that time period. In the age of mammals we are still experimenting and have no idea where it is going. No Armageddon will bring a thousand years of peace to this world. It will only create new paths for the mammals and other creature living on this ball of rock.
If ID is taught at all, it should be in a humanities course where the creation beliefs of all faiths are taught in a non-dogmatic way of illustrating the paths that humanity has taken in the past.
The "scientists" who support the question of ID are not published in peer-reviewed journals by biologists and other scientists. They try to dodge the religious issue by refusing to consider "young earth" issues (the world was created at 2:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in 4004 BC) which really do emasculate the whole belief system. ID is essentially a religious view of the whole question based on denying that certain things can happen naturally. Yet some of these same people might accept the concept that enough monkeys with enough computers could write the entire works of Shakespeare given enough time.
The entire universe is evolving all the time. We live on a planet that orbits an, at least, third-generation star. If it wasn't of that generation there wouldn't be enough of the heavy metals, etc., to have built and maintained the earth we live on. In the universe, we never see the present or the future, we see only the past. Even the moon has aged by the time we see the light from it. Every ray of sunlight comes from a sun that is about eight minutes older before we see the light from it. Evolution is a constantly moving force that works its magic over time. Humanity, so far, has existed but for an instant in that time scale. We consider the Age of Dinosaurs without realizing it lasted for millions of years and that there were thousands of dinosaur species during that time period. In the age of mammals we are still experimenting and have no idea where it is going. No Armageddon will bring a thousand years of peace to this world. It will only create new paths for the mammals and other creature living on this ball of rock.
If ID is taught at all, it should be in a humanities course where the creation beliefs of all faiths are taught in a non-dogmatic way of illustrating the paths that humanity has taken in the past.
posted by Chuck Rightmire at 11:21 AM
2 Comments:
Bravo.
Did you see that B.C. cartoon last Sunday?
Use the archive to see the May 1st comic.
I was under the impression that comics were supposed to be funny.
Thanks, David, I'll be back in full swing shortly. Got a couple of things on my mind.
And Moos, I saw that and after I threw up I had to buy another paper for my wife (not really), but it did make me ill. BC used to be funny and sometimes still is, but I wouldn't miss it anymore if the Gazoo was to drop it. There are a lot of funny comics out there (Mallard Fillmore isn't one) that could replace it, including one that is a bit of a replacement for Calvin.
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