Designer Fashions
The Top 10 Intelligent Designs (or Creation Myths)
from LiveScience
The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania school district that added the controversial theory of "intelligent design" to its curricullum. Unlike the theory of evolution which is taught at most schools as a fact-based science, "intelligent design" - as argued by the ACLU - is nothing more than a philosophy predicated on the Judeo-Christian belief that the logical sequences found in nature are not random happenings or surprising mutations, but deftly managed events created by a greater omniscient and omnipresent intelligence with a specific plan. In short, the work of God.
But therein lies the rub: Which god? When the founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States, they chose to include the separation of church and state. This was to ensure that the state-sanctioned religious persecutions that plagued much of Europe during the 16th century would not despoil the young, yet grand experiment in democracy that was to become this Republic.Scientific research has come along way since Charles Darwin first posited the concept of "natural selection", an idea as controversial now as it was back in 1859 when it was first published. In the intervening years, humanity has learned much about how we became the dominant species on the planet, how the Earth and the solar system were formed and the ever-changing development of the Universe. Over that time, how we understand the theory of evolution has also changed.
Scientists now believe that there is an intrinsic logic to our reality, that there are absolutes, laws of nature. Much remains a mystery, and as one question is answered, many others arise. The question now facing Pennsylvania's Dover School District is whether or not the imposition of one creation belief on a multi-ethnic, secular student body is in keeping with the law that prohibits the creation of a state religion. If they allow one belief system to be taught, surely they must also teach others?To help out with this dilemma, LiveScience presents a list of those Creation Myths that helped define civilizations both past and present...
10. Hammer of the Gods: Norse Mythology
9. Zoroastrianism, the Religion of Ancient Persia
8. By the River of Babylon
7. Spirits of Ancient Egypt
6. South of the Border, Down Mexico Way: The Aztecs
5. China, the Middle Kingdom
4. Japan, this Island Earth
3. Hindu Cosmology's Rendezvous with Brahma
2. The Greeks and the Titans
1. The Genesis of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic Faiths
Darren Said, Let There Be Post! at 3:35 PM
2 Comments:
A theory is not fact-based science, it is a theory and it should be taught as such along with every other theory that has equal proof. Science has become the cloak for self-imposed ignorance and anti-religious bigotry. The scientific community of today is no more enlightened than the Catholic Church of the Dark Ages.
Do you know how the Declaration of Independence was written? It seems that Thomas Jefferson's youngest son spilled a box of letter blocks out on the floor and there it was -- perfectly spelled and punctuated -- without a single block out of alignment.
Of course, rational people would never believe that story. But those same rational people DO believe something as infinitely complex as the universe could randomly come together after a Big Bang, perfect down to the tiniest subatomic particle, without any intelligent intervention.
If we are going to teach theories in our classrooms and discuss theories that make sense, it seems to me that intelligent design makes a lot more sense and takes far less faith than what's already out there. Science and intelligent design are not mutually exclusive. And there are more and more people -- scientists included -- with OPEN minds, who are coming to realize that the universe makes a lot more sense if you include God in the equation.
If there are any athiest scientists reading this, here is your mission. Dump a box of Lincoln Logs out on the floor so they randomly come together to form a two-story hunting lodge. With porch. If it doesn't happen when they hit the floor, just let them lay there. Maybe it will take a few billion years. Don't take your eyes off them. Just sit there. Wait for it. Wait. Waaait.
Hey, I'm giving you a break. You should start with a box of sawdust.
When I first read your reply, I thought you were being sarcastic - that Thomas Jefferson example is hilarious. Then I realized you were a little off-kilter. Thomas Jefferson? That's your opening example? Comparing biology and mutation and fossils - to a written document? That's just silly. I started to write a very lengthy reply but abandoned it once I realized you're not really worth that much time. You're a silly, raving, theocrat. Admitting you're wrong means the Bible is wrong - I understand that, and accept that. I can't expect to reason with someone who is working from feeling, opinion, and faith. Just keep those things out of school.
Science is based on facts, on what you can prove. Intelligent Design is based on what you can't prove. Something makes you scratch your head? Must be God! With that kind of thinking, we'd still be afraid of falling off the edge of the Earth. ID is not even close to science. Everyone can have a theory, of course - what gives it weight is supporting evidence. Evolution has museums full of it, silkworm farms full of it, prize-winning gardens full of it, islands and textbooks full of it. That we don't know everything TODAY does not call into doubt what we do know. No, we may never have all the answers to events that occured before our species was born, but what we do know leaves little to doubt.
So what evidence supports ID? There is none. Saying things are "too complex to have been random mutations" is an opinion, not a fact. All of the tenets of ID are simple opinions.
There've been a number of articles in recent weeks debunking the premises of ID. Things aren't too complex. And as the trial is proving this week, Intelligent Design was a sham from the start. We know it's Creationism is disguise, you know it's Creationism in disguise, no one is actually being fooled. You can say Up is Down all you want - doesn't make it true.
And why does it have to be an Intelligent designer? Some religions have races and worlds created from little more than cow saliva - the divinity of a cosmic cow can work its own perfection in design. Maybe it's the Force - pushing everything towards the beneficial path without a conscious being behind it all. The questions you think you answer with ID can be answered in any number of ways. You pick the one synonamous with your own deity. Why am I not surprised? If ID was accepted, I wonder how supportive of it Christians would be if the only mention of ID in the class ended with "...an Intelligent Designer, such as an advanced alien race" and the whole God aspect was simply omitted?
Oh, and thanks for the "break." I actually did break out in laughter.
Now shoo!
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