Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Florida Debate on Evolution on Roasted Religion

Hi all--As a Floridian I can tell you the news that Florida has decided to teach "the scientific theory of evolution" has been nothing less than fiercely entertaining.

I live in the bible belt of Florida (just above the left thigh) (pun intended) and I think the compromise is actually a good deal for Progressives, more forward than I imagined and not that big of a deal.

Despite South Florida being much more "blue" than North and West Florida--something happens to our politicians when they go to Tallahasee (which the city itself is more "blue" than the politicians who work there) And despite that everyone persists that Florida is NOT part of the "real South" they run our government with the best of the "good 'ol boys". The politicians in our state government tend to ignore the fact that we are one of the largest states and that our voting population is a microcosm of the nation--they instead act as though Roy Moore was on OUR Supreme Court, and fall over their feet trying to out-Conservatize each other.

more to come . . . picking up Friday

So to just cut to the chase--this is why the evolution wording is really a wonderful compromise and the "evolution camp" got more that they should have expected. YES, thsi is sad we have to add qualifiers; YES this runs the risk of every scientific theory being perceived as "just a theory"; but you know what, you are up against people who really honestly, passionately believe the bible is literal about Adam and Eve; and think the word "day" must mean a literal day or (as I have heard it quoted) "as a 1000 years to God" which seems the most they are willing to give.

When you take into account the severity of their position, the few words "scientific theory of" SHOULD be counted as a victory. at least it will be taught and acknowledged. And what an awesome opportunity for these same people to turn the tables and demand anything religious, faith-based or "mythical" be labeled as such. Talk about truth in advertising!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Evolution: Man what a word!
Based on all scientific conclusions evolution has happened and is still happening all around us. But does that negate the idea of a God. Of course not! If anything it strengthens it. Our wonderful God put into motion a being. A being bigger then us or this earth. A being that is beyond our understanding. Life itself.
It isn't just the little life of bugs and animals and people but rather the life of the universe. The universe changes and with God's ultimate understanding he created all things to change with it. Evolve or die.
The universe is spinning and moving and there are elements that move and change as they react to each other. If not for evolution, life would have pooted out a long time ago.
Now, let me take this one step further. Have we as people evolved? I think yes. Did we start off as monkeys? I think no. But let's look at both science and the bible. (I love getting them to jive)Way back in Genesis it says that we were created in God's image. We had the spirit and understanding of God. Science says we only use 10% of our brains. Where did the rest go? We evolved. Unfortunately, in this case, for the worse. If you take the first sin story literally, maybe it was the apple and the sudden knowledge or godliness. God took us down a notch. I also believe that if we were walking with him in the beginning and then just talking to him on mountains in the middle and now we got nothing. I'm thinking as we stray farther from communication with God our understanding of his ways and the ways of the universe lessen.
One more piece of info. What if there were “cave-man/ape like creatures”. They have found bones, they had to exist, but were they human? In Genesis, after Cain killed Abel, he left the comfort of his family and went to a “land called nod” (sounds like puff the magic dragon) to claim a wife. Now maybe people have changed more then we know, but a woman is only likely to have one child a year. Cain and Able were probably the oldest, though we don’t know for sure, so if they were now at reproduction age, then no other generations before them were having babies, so Eve must have been really busy to have enough children for them to move away to another land and already have a civilization ready. So what gives? Well this is just theory but we know there are many animals that God has created that either evolved or died. They no longer exist, but we know they did at some point? What if the ape-like/man-like creature was just that, but still created by God. They say apes are only 1 gene away from us, what if these creatures were even closer. Remember God made Adam and Eve to have as friends to hang in the garden with him and chat. What if he made these creatures for the same reason he made every other animal. Amusement. But these guys are so close to us that we could genetically mate. Would this not also explain the slow change in our stature and body image? Maybe it’s not only our brains that have changed.
Anyway, this is just a theory, as are all scientific explanations about past events that we can not substantially verify, but one that I have always kept in the back of my mind when being a scientific mind discussion religion. I truly have a belief that God created science and order and laws that he does not generally break. Don’t even get me started on. “Could God make a rock so large he couldn’t lift it……”