Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S. | NPR (audio and text)
"There are actually 34 states in the United States that have passed anti-evolution laws of one kind or another," says [paleontologist] Leonard Krishtalka, "whether it's stickers in textbooks or warnings that 'Reading this book with be injurious to your mental health," whether it's California or Alabama or Louisiana. For the record, in Kansas, the teaching of evolution in schools never stopped because all of the regulation and rules that the anti-evolution segment of the Kansas City Board of Education tried to get through were never enacted."
They're scared! These creationists are simply scared! And utterly superstitious, which in itself is just a natural and understandable consequence of lack of scientific knowledge. But the fact that there had been incredible leaps of knowledge in science and technology ever since the Bible was first put together throws into sharp relief the astonishing degree to which such religious people cling to their beliefs, often in the very face of cold, hard scientific evidence against those beliefs.
Death scares us. Which again is understandable. We, as humanity, freak out easily at the very thought of oblivion, of non-existence. That's an unfortunate [side-]effect of sentience and intelligence, I suppose. We're profoundly frightened of unknowable things. And death is the ultimate unknowable thing. The only way we can know its nature is to actually experience it. But there's no turning back. You could say it's the ultimate experience of life, and how ironic is that. And yet that thought still leaves us mortally frightened. We imagine the worst, or the best. Preferably the best.
And so, to comfort ourselves we dream of transcending death. We postulate a realm beyond it, whether it be an actual physical place, a metaphysical land, or even a state of consciousness. It's purported to be experienced in Catholic belief as physical and spiritual perfection that lasts forever, known in Hinduism as Moksha, the final liberation from samsara (the cycle of birth and death), and as a "non-state" of mind (as we know it) known as Nirvana in Buddhism.
And this is what Darwin's theory of evolution threatens in part.
But I notice that it's certain Christians who most vehemently revile the theory, even in light of the overwhelming evidence. Why is this? Why have we not heard any shout outs from Hindus and Buddhists? Even Muslims haven't shown up in the news with any kind of complaint, have they? In fact, there's evidence that mathematics goes back as far as 70,000 years, farther back than Christ and the Virgin and all that. Would the development of mathematics be alongside the development of supernatural explanations of otherwise natural phenomenon?
Not sure where I'm going with this but I'm curious as to why it's Christians who are most upset over evolution. Furthermore, I'm puzzled that they would interpret their bible as literal, which of course conflicts with Darwin's evolutionary theory and astronomical, geological, paleontological, and other -logical findings. That conflict, I figure, has a lot to do with the religious' fear of the unknown. Because the more science answers questions, the more questions arise still.
Oh, and we freakin' humans think we're so damn special, too. We go around preaching that the universe was created by a supreme being with us in mind. That's part of the problem. I wonder if 'overblown ego' is an evolutionary screw-up.
Guess I'll keep pondering this a while.
Death scares us. Which again is understandable. We, as humanity, freak out easily at the very thought of oblivion, of non-existence. That's an unfortunate [side-]effect of sentience and intelligence, I suppose. We're profoundly frightened of unknowable things. And death is the ultimate unknowable thing. The only way we can know its nature is to actually experience it. But there's no turning back. You could say it's the ultimate experience of life, and how ironic is that. And yet that thought still leaves us mortally frightened. We imagine the worst, or the best. Preferably the best.
And so, to comfort ourselves we dream of transcending death. We postulate a realm beyond it, whether it be an actual physical place, a metaphysical land, or even a state of consciousness. It's purported to be experienced in Catholic belief as physical and spiritual perfection that lasts forever, known in Hinduism as Moksha, the final liberation from samsara (the cycle of birth and death), and as a "non-state" of mind (as we know it) known as Nirvana in Buddhism.
And this is what Darwin's theory of evolution threatens in part.
But I notice that it's certain Christians who most vehemently revile the theory, even in light of the overwhelming evidence. Why is this? Why have we not heard any shout outs from Hindus and Buddhists? Even Muslims haven't shown up in the news with any kind of complaint, have they? In fact, there's evidence that mathematics goes back as far as 70,000 years, farther back than Christ and the Virgin and all that. Would the development of mathematics be alongside the development of supernatural explanations of otherwise natural phenomenon?
Not sure where I'm going with this but I'm curious as to why it's Christians who are most upset over evolution. Furthermore, I'm puzzled that they would interpret their bible as literal, which of course conflicts with Darwin's evolutionary theory and astronomical, geological, paleontological, and other -logical findings. That conflict, I figure, has a lot to do with the religious' fear of the unknown. Because the more science answers questions, the more questions arise still.
Oh, and we freakin' humans think we're so damn special, too. We go around preaching that the universe was created by a supreme being with us in mind. That's part of the problem. I wonder if 'overblown ego' is an evolutionary screw-up.
Guess I'll keep pondering this a while.
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