Evilution

[kerravonsen]

A recent flocked post on my flist got me thinking about conspiracy theories about scientists. Y'know, the old "of course the pyramids were created by aliens, the archaelogical and scientific establishment are suppressing/ignoring the evidence!" They never actually give a reason why the scientists should bother, apart from "they're hidebound" or things along that line.

But this all reminded me eerily of the kind of rants some people at my church get into when the subject of evolution comes up.

They actually give reasons why scientists are conspiring to suppress all evidence of Creation in favour of evidence of Evolution -- they start quoting Romans:

"Because that which may be known about God is evident to them; for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible nature, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly seen, being understood by the things that have been made; so that they are without excuse: Because, though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools..."
(Romans 1:19-22)

And:

"And as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."
(Romans 1:28)

In other words, Scientists believe in evolution because they are Evil Atheists! !!!!! Never mind that the passage in Romans is about idolatry and immorality... the argument completely ignores the fact that many scientists who believe in evolution are Christians, and therefore arguably don't have "darkened hearts" and "depraved minds". Of course, the argument then leaps over to "they don't believe the Bible, they aren't really Christians" -- I've been told flat-out to my face by one of these people that I don't believe the Bible, and I'm thinking that if he ever says that to me again, I'm not going to be as polite as I was then.

Where they stab themselves in the foot is the assumption that in order to believe in evolution, one must necessarily disbelieve in God. Gee, I bet that's news to all the Theistic Evolutionists out there...

Comments

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I know people like that, and have as little as possible to do with them. They're narrow-minded about more than just that; it's a mindset.

I also know people who'll believe anything (ghosts, aliens, time-slips) but although it makes me roll my eyes, it's nowhere near as annoying as those who refuse to think.

[kerravonsen]

and have as little as possible to do with them

Well, I can't really avoid them, and this fellow is quite a nice guy if one doesn't stray into the wrong topics.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Which doesn't make for an easy relationship.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I was watching the BBC's Horizon program last night about 'directed creation' which is the latest idiocy to hit the USA and thanking a merciful god that it does not appear to have hit my part of the world yet but the 'Spaceman colonised the world' brigade have a large showing. What really irritates me about Christians who tell me that if I do not believe in the bible in total then I can't be a Christian is the fact that they pick and chose as much as I do. I do not know one fundamentalist that abides by the dietary laws of Leviticus for example but the all say that life on Earth came about as we are told in Genesis. I'm not really a very good Christian or their attitude would not make me so mad.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Sorry the above 'directed creation' should have been directed evolution. Creationist make me so mad I stop thinking myself

[kerravonsen]

Okay, what's the difference between "directed evolution" and "theistic evolution"? My understanding of Theistic Evolution is that it's a common enough stance amongst Christians, who say, "God created the world, and evolution was one of the tools he used".

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

My understanding of Theistic Evolution is that it's a common enough stance amongst Christians, who say, "God created the world, and evolution was one of the tools he used".

That is the basis of directed evolution as well and is more or less my creationist belief since science can't yet tell me what caused the big bang or what the primeval thing that banged was. Directed or intellegent evolution adds that if anything can be found that was not possible to be made by scientific evolution then that proves that evolution is wrong and Creationism is right. By that they mean something that was built up from something else by small cahnges to an existing organ/part of a living organism and they think they have found it in the flagellum, which apparently will only work as a flagellum if everything is present at it's beginning. It had to be created all at once. What they do not allow for was that it could have had a different function before evolution and small changes got to it. there may be a more coherent explanation on the BBC website if you want to look. As I said it was on Horizon this last week.