TIME magazine's current issue explores the hot issue of Intelligent Design (Creation) vs Natural Selection (Evolution) is in parts interesting, but mostly an insipid and predictable read ( see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090909,00.html). I am in agreement with some that there is really no need for a divide (i.e between Science and Religion) Is it not possible for Science and Religion to coexist? I think with understanding they both can, though not always in harmony.
Did God create man, or did man create God in order to explain the unexplainable? Or are both of these ideas correct? The late Stephen Jay Gould wrote in his essay 'The Creation Myths of Cooperstown'-
Too few people are comfortable with evolutionary modes of explanation in any form.... One reason must reside in our social and psychic attraction to creation myths in preference to evolutionary stories—for creation myths ... identify heroes and sacred places, while evolutionary stories provide no palpable, particular thing as a symbol for reverence, worship, or patriotism.
The concept of evolution is both challenging and disturbing. Could the origin of our universe possibly be the result of a long series of events that were chaotic or governed by chance? It̢۪s much more pleasant and reassuring to believe that God handled the entire job in six days ( Book of Genesis). Yet, to me, the concept of evolution is infinitely richer and more expansive. The creation myth is limiting because, through it, man views himself as a creature subservient to God, instead of realizing that God is within the breast of mankind and is the Life Force, the Fire, the Passion that infuses all of existence. Nietzsche had to say that God was dead in order to impel us to realize the true depth of our humanity (Note: This quote is misunderstood by many people. See http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/God_is_dead for some background).
(See also http://www.becominghuman.org/ for an interesting documentary on evolution)
President Bush's support of Intelligent Design and the teaching of this religious concept in public schools along with the science of evolution is probematic. Since when is Intelligent Design a scientific concept?Is it fair to privilege one religious viewpoint by calling it the other side of evolution, especially by a democratically-elected President?." It is important to note that the U.S Supreme Court in 1987 ( Edwards v. Aguillard) ruled that public schools may not teach creationism or "creation science" alongside evolution. So much for the separation of Church and State.
We, human beings, are a mystery. In attempting to gain an understanding of the many questions surrounding our raison d'etre, religion plays a vital role. Reason plays a vital role. But also a dash of craziness (imagination) too. No one is absolutely right or wrong. We are too recent on this planet, in this universe, to really know what the hell is going on.
So, whether you take one view or another, it's good to keep an open mind. It's also instructive to question the notion of objectivity. Everything is tainted by our perception of it. In fact, most scientists believe that the very act of observing something influences the thing observed. So, don't be so quick to judge or label--continuously search for the 'truth'.
Willaim Blake somewhat gets the a handle on this sublime "truth' when he says:
"I know of no other Christianity, and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination (note: Blake used imagination and spirituality interchangeably) : Imagination, the real and eternal World of which this Vegetable (Material) Universe is but a faint shadow, and in which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more".
Better still: Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (http://www.bibliomania.com/0/2/81/197/frameset.html )
We, human beings, are a mystery. In attempting to gain an understanding of the many questions surrounding our raison d'etre, religion plays a vital role. Reason plays a vital role. But also a dash of craziness (imagination) too. No one is absolutely right or wrong. We are too recent on this planet, in this universe, to really know what the hell is going on.
So, whether you take one view or another, it's good to keep an open mind. It's also instructive to question the notion of objectivity. Everything is tainted by our perception of it. In fact, most scientists believe that the very act of observing something influences the thing observed. So, don't be so quick to judge or label--continuously search for the 'truth'.
Willaim Blake somewhat gets the a handle on this sublime "truth' when he says:
"I know of no other Christianity, and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination (note: Blake used imagination and spirituality interchangeably) : Imagination, the real and eternal World of which this Vegetable (Material) Universe is but a faint shadow, and in which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more".
Better still: Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (http://www.bibliomania.com/0/2/81/197/frameset.html )
- by MixMasterE
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