I sit at a rapidly aging computer in my unadorned office at home pressing, sometimes banging keys, that I hope will yield some semblance of worthwhile reflections.
I have concluded that christian fundamentalists, particularly those who believe in creationism, are of two types: 1. the ones who are wholly ignorant of science because they have never been exposed to it, who were brought up in households that questioned nothing, and 2. the intellectually lazy, who could read and study science but choose not to. I suppose both types could reside in the same individual; how depressing...
Thanks partly to fundamentalists but perhaps more likely due to our wealth-induced sloth and entitlement, the United States ranks near the bottom in scientific literacy among all westernized nations.. Carl Sagan estimated we have a 95% scientifically illiterate populace: less than half know that the earth requires a year to go around the sun, for example, and just under one half think that people and dinosaurs lived together. Know what creationists say when you show them carnivorous dinosaur teeth? They claim that just because they had sharp teeth doesn't mean they didn't eat plants!
I have debated via the internet with a number of creationists. One claimed to be sure that man not only coexisted with dinosaurs but that the bible proved that Jesus kept dinosaurs as pets. I plead with you to draw a line in the sand between insanity and reason and to place these people on the other side of it.
If I"m being honest, I think Christians shortchange their god on a regular basis. For example, if I spend my time in seeking real truth, investigate the natural world using sound methodology, and do it with utmost integrity, do good works otherwise, but do not believe in a supernatural judging, supervising, thought-examining and penalizing cop in the clouds, a problem arises upon my death. If I meet the God I am so sure does not exist and to whom I never pledged my servitude, would "he" send me to hell? Christians say yes. Does this not make their god an immoral, evil thing?
It must be oh so very convenient to not have to study the real world, to be able to yell "Jesus" whenever there is any hint of mother nature exposing herself, to be able to sleep at night believing they are doing something good for their world without the slightest effort, a contradiction in itself. They are very smug in their certainty that learning about the real world can so easily be trumped with their supernatural one - any time, any place, and in full view of any proof of fact.
It continually astonishes me when I hear their explanations of the vast internal inconsistencies of their bible. They hem and haw regarding the absolute certainty that the bible is a collection of materials written in some cases centuries before by many men, interpreted by others, added to, mistranslated, and so forth. Yet they dismiss that. The claim is always the same: you don't understand. In their last gasps of exasperation, they will get angry at me, telling me that their god doesn't require an explanation! Then why did "he" create curiosity and reason?
As a young child I desperately wanted mother nature to give up her secrets, to confess her strategies, to yield to my primitive investigative methodologies. Back then, she only whispered in my ear, "You have a long way to go." I am all right with that answer, because uncertainties grow my curiosity, and I am motivated still further to discover. As primates with such exquisitely large and complex brains forged by millions of years of natural selection, should we allow it to be any other way?
I have concluded that christian fundamentalists, particularly those who believe in creationism, are of two types: 1. the ones who are wholly ignorant of science because they have never been exposed to it, who were brought up in households that questioned nothing, and 2. the intellectually lazy, who could read and study science but choose not to. I suppose both types could reside in the same individual; how depressing...
Thanks partly to fundamentalists but perhaps more likely due to our wealth-induced sloth and entitlement, the United States ranks near the bottom in scientific literacy among all westernized nations.. Carl Sagan estimated we have a 95% scientifically illiterate populace: less than half know that the earth requires a year to go around the sun, for example, and just under one half think that people and dinosaurs lived together. Know what creationists say when you show them carnivorous dinosaur teeth? They claim that just because they had sharp teeth doesn't mean they didn't eat plants!
I have debated via the internet with a number of creationists. One claimed to be sure that man not only coexisted with dinosaurs but that the bible proved that Jesus kept dinosaurs as pets. I plead with you to draw a line in the sand between insanity and reason and to place these people on the other side of it.
If I"m being honest, I think Christians shortchange their god on a regular basis. For example, if I spend my time in seeking real truth, investigate the natural world using sound methodology, and do it with utmost integrity, do good works otherwise, but do not believe in a supernatural judging, supervising, thought-examining and penalizing cop in the clouds, a problem arises upon my death. If I meet the God I am so sure does not exist and to whom I never pledged my servitude, would "he" send me to hell? Christians say yes. Does this not make their god an immoral, evil thing?
It must be oh so very convenient to not have to study the real world, to be able to yell "Jesus" whenever there is any hint of mother nature exposing herself, to be able to sleep at night believing they are doing something good for their world without the slightest effort, a contradiction in itself. They are very smug in their certainty that learning about the real world can so easily be trumped with their supernatural one - any time, any place, and in full view of any proof of fact.
It continually astonishes me when I hear their explanations of the vast internal inconsistencies of their bible. They hem and haw regarding the absolute certainty that the bible is a collection of materials written in some cases centuries before by many men, interpreted by others, added to, mistranslated, and so forth. Yet they dismiss that. The claim is always the same: you don't understand. In their last gasps of exasperation, they will get angry at me, telling me that their god doesn't require an explanation! Then why did "he" create curiosity and reason?
As a young child I desperately wanted mother nature to give up her secrets, to confess her strategies, to yield to my primitive investigative methodologies. Back then, she only whispered in my ear, "You have a long way to go." I am all right with that answer, because uncertainties grow my curiosity, and I am motivated still further to discover. As primates with such exquisitely large and complex brains forged by millions of years of natural selection, should we allow it to be any other way?
