The ultimate nowhere-land. Whatever doesn't seem to fit in any of the other categories, post it in here. For example, discussions on Mahatma Gandhi and the latest news on CNN should go here.
The Crusade Against Evolution -
arekaydee - Wed, 29 Sep 2004 08:18:34 +0530
The Crusade Against Evolution
In the beginning there was Darwin. And then there was intelligent design. How the next generation of "creation science" is invading America's classrooms.
By Evan Ratliff
On a spring day two years ago, in a downtown Columbus auditorium, the Ohio State Board of Education took up the question of how to teach the theory of evolution in public schools. A panel of four experts - two who believe in evolution, two who question it - debated whether an antievolution theory known as intelligent design should be allowed into the classroom.
From wired.com.
Full article here.
Madhava - Wed, 29 Sep 2004 16:52:34 +0530
I wouldn't mind evolving a bit. I might like to get my tail back, or wings might be cool.
DharmaChakra - Wed, 29 Sep 2004 20:59:49 +0530
Groan... this old saw again?
So, now its been recast as 'ID', and the call to 'teach the controversy'...
Maybe its my rather 'materialistic' education background, but most of these claims really do ignore some rather obvious points about evolution as put forth by Darwin, and importantly, as refined in the 150 years since.
Evolution isn't a static, linear process... many, many times viable lines die off, inferior ones survive.. that great image of 'walking man', modern humans as one in a chain back to chimps, is just wrong.
Not to mention some rather obvious holes in ID. Why male nipples? Why do humans have so many back problems? My appendix?
And finally, as with most debates of this type, one way or the other, how much does this progress me along the path of Raganuga Bhakti? Man from apes, sun closer than the moon, who really cares?
I've found most people defend these ideas due to 'fundamentalist' (and I use that term in its true sense) views of their particular faith's scriptural basis. I can not imagine throwing out the entire Srimad Bhagavatam's teachings just because it _might be_ wrong about how far the Sun is from Earth. If you have pinned your faith on the truth or falsity of such material facts, then I wonder if you had any faith to begin with...
Dhyana - Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:41:14 +0530
(DharmaCakra)
| QUOTE |
| I've found most people defend these ideas due to 'fundamentalist' (and I use that term in its true sense) views of their particular faith's scriptural basis. I can not imagine throwing out the entire Srimad Bhagavatam's teachings just because it _might be_ wrong about how far the Sun is from Earth. If you have pinned your faith on the truth or falsity of such material facts, then I wonder if you had any faith to begin with... |
Maybe not. It must be easier to have faith when one had some even before one started working on it. But some people have no faith in God to begin with. They take up a religious path because of a hope, or a desire to find a God to have faith in.
Such people -- at least some of them -- might still be able to keep their newfound faith even after they discover the Sun/Moon and other problems in sastra -- if not for the preachers who have trained them to define "revealed scripture" as "each single word being absolutely true".