Stoopid Stuff

Can Somebody Please Explain...

Here's the part I just don't understand. Why is it that these religious zealots believe that you can believe in god, or you can believe in evolution, but you can't believe in both? How does an acceptance of the viability of evolution as a scientific theory that accurately describes the world in which we live automatically preclude belief in god? Now as you are certainly aware at this point, I am a practicing atheist. So in my case, I do accept the validity of evolutionary biology and I don't believe in god. But while I don't understand why anyone would believe anything without a shred of empirical evidence, nor can I grasp what value a belief system that includes a very specific set of magic and mythologies provides it's adherents, if in spite of all of that you choose to believe in a given mythology, how does that belief, or faith, force you to reject evolution?

To put it another way, why wouldn't you just believe that god created the universe that way, just as he must have created relativity, quantum mechanics and set the speed of light at C? I mean, no christian taliban nuts are saying the Standard Model somehow conflicts with the teachings of jesus, right? So what do they think jesus has against Evolution? It seems to me if their deity created the whole universe, it would make much more sense to accept that he created evolution as a way to create biodiversity. And that to insist he didn't and what we observe about the natural world around us is not true would be to deny the glory of one's own god. And don't they tell us that stuff like that pisses him off big time?

Obviously, I'm being a little obtuse here. The fundamentalists have a problem with evolution because it conflicts with a literal interpretation of the christian bible. Now I'm certainly no biblical scholar or theologist, but wouldn't it stand to reason that the people who wrote the bible some 1600 years ago had very little factual science on which to base their explanation of the begining of time? And therefore to interpret it literally is to either ignore or deny all the amazing scientific breakthroughs that have occured in the intervening millenia-and-a-half? Why not accept it as parable or allegory, understand that they were substituting magic for that which was for them unknowable? Just as any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, anything that could not be explained was always attributed to myth.

Because it would be so much easier to incorporate evolution into one's christian worldview than it is proving to try to discredit established science, one must take the position that there is something larger occuring here. Something having to do with fundamentalist christians, biological sciences and education. And that something is actually political in nature. It's about power, and it's about control. Something in the fundamentalist religious zealot's mindset causes them to feel an absolute compulsion to force the entire world to behave as they are forced to behave by their faith. I guess ultimately this is what I don't understand. There's no reason at all that they can't live their lives following whatever religious edicts they choose. They can eschew movies and music because they might contain something tittilating, they can devote hours every day to "Prayer" (I still don't quite get this--I guess its like talking to your imaginary friend?), they can believe all the magic stories in their book, and they can choose to hate and fear people who are not like them. I don't care, and it in no way affects my life if they choose to live biggoted, insular little lives, ignoring science and social progress in the name of a way of life defined a couple thousand years ago. But that's simply not good enough for them. As the old saw goes, they seem to live in fear that someone, somewhere might be having a good time. So they seek to garner political power so as to use the courts, the legislatures and local government entities such as school boards to find a way to force their behaviors, if not their beliefs, on the rest of us. I find this meddling in the most personal aspects of my life deeply offensive. I can make moral and ethical decisions for myself, and I certainly wouldn't want them teaching their evil, twisted, hypocritcal versions of morality to my children. Its time for all people of good conscience to stand up and tell them "We are not bad people. We do not subscribe to your fear and superstition, we do not need an angry, vengeful god to force us to behave ourselves under pain of eternal torture." It's time for them to stop trying to force ancient, outdated taboos on intelligent, grownup, educated adults. Its time for them to understand that women, and gays, and people with a different faith do not require, indeed, do not WANT, their moral or spiritual guidance.

posted by mikey @ 11:14 AM