After my 6:00-7:15 Digital Storytelling class, I headed to Dodd with Brenda to watch the Religious Freedom speech given by Professor Robert T. Pennock, being pretty much ready to listen to any of the worst sorts of religious blasphemy coming out of this man's mouth. The title of his presentation suggested something about Intelligent Design Creationism being totally scientifically unfounded. Since I myself have tried to sit down to watch Ben Stein's Expelled and had to stop probably halfway through the documentary due to a fine mixture of boredom and admitted distaste for the "scientific" approaches taken, I figured sitting through this presentation really might not be that bad.
And it wasn't.
He made the basic case that teaching evolution in schools is not a malicious atheistic scheme. Evolution does not disprove God, nor does it make any attempt to do so. He suggested that a belief in both evolution and a Creator is mainstream.
Fair enough, right? I got to thinking during his presentation that the real problem here is that both sides of the rope are so intensely being pulled by frustrated extremists that no one is bothering to inspect the rope itself. No one is saying, "Oh hey, I'm not going to believe all of what you believe, but I can acknowledge that you are not trying to dispel my beliefs. Let's try to teach that to our kids as well--that they don't have to let science tear them away from a belief in God, but they can instead embrace what they choose because this is not a dichotomous situation." This is why kids get to college and lose their faith. They've never had to own it, and they've not been encouraged to own it. They're finally learning to think for themselves in a time that universities are telling them how to think for themselves. Contradictory much?
I'm not sure. I just know that the Q&A portion of this presentation was ridiculous and went nowhere. It simply boggles my mind sometimes how well people can dance around an issue. It's almost like they want the hatred and hostility. With *God's* help, perhaps we can *evolve* into something that looks far from this.
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That sounds like a pretty excellent presentation!
ReplyDeleteBut ID/C is totally scientifically unfounded.
i hate those arbitrary wars, too. i had to sit through a creationism youth group series that made my skin crawl (as a leader.)
ReplyDeleteobviously, living things adapt (evolve!) to better suit their habitats. that much is clear (i think) to everyone.
ultimately, it's a problem with labeling. i can acknowlege the facts about evolution without believing the theory that we came from monkeys.
our Creator God is bigger than we give him credit for.