Reactionary

It was a few months ago that I read an article in the paper that made me check the newspaper quickly for the date of printing. I was relieved to find that I hadn’t inadvertently stepped through a time and space portal in the staff break room. But then I was disturbed that something like this was being discussed in my lifetime as I ate my lunch. People somewhere in the South were unhappy that evolution was being taught in their children’s classrooms. The school board had agreed to put stickers in science books that said “evolution is only a theory”. I was shocked and sickened. I think I lost my appetite.

There have only been more, increasingly disturbing stories since then. What’s being called “intelligent design” is being pushed out as an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution. People are angry their religious beliefs are being being put into question by science. I”m glad I didn’t grow up around people like this! It wasn’t until I was out of college that I learned there were people out there who believed the earth was really created in seven days just as Genesis says. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I thought that had died out long, long ago. But there are. There are people in this country who actually believe that. There are people out there who cannot extrapolate, think of anything non-concrete, or even recognise that the Bible could be anything but meant to be believed WORD FOR WORD. Strange, because also in the Bible, Jesus is seen telling parables ie. stories that aren’t literally true but meant to teach a lesson. It’s hard for me still to believe that people believe this.

If this creationism were just a way of getting out of science class the easy way (as in not having to hear about the different cell types and mutations etc… biology’s a hard class, I give them that) then I would almost understand. I had the biology teacher from hell in high school. Case in point: essay tests wherein we had to apply what we learned to case studies. The hardest class I have ever taken. (Physics was easier because I just didn’t get it, period.) But it isn’t. People say they’re rebelling against this because they actually believe Genesis is word for word correct and the Earth (no matter the mountains of evidence to the contrary) is only 6000 years old. I can’t think of a reason why someone would advocate this besides just pure and simple ignorance on the scope and breadth as medieval serfs. It also reeks of arrogance, an obsession with humanity as being so superior to to every other creature as to almost be like God himself. It’s this continued arrogance that allows them to support things like W’s crusade in the Middle East as if he and his cronies are the only ones who are so enlightened as to know the Way that they are committed to forcing it down other people’s throats. Dear Bush et al, you’re just like Al-Queda.

It’s people like this who invoke God in their voices and carry the devil in their hearts. The late Pope wrote that killing in the name of God was heresy. But W et al have taken religion and used it as a punchline, as a medal, at the same time ridiculing everything it teaches and stands for, just like Al-Queda. The horror.

I am also not of the mind of the extreme liberals who even deny the existence of God because there’s no proof (is there proof he doesn’t exist?). I don’t believe science is the most important thing in the world nor that it has all the answers. The coldness and hardness of an all-science world belies the strength in a Michelangelo statue and the transcendence in a U2 song. It’s also arrogant in a similar way as the fundamentalist mentality. Arrogant and futile.

But those who express belief in God and at the same time ignore all the work scientists have done strangely accomplish the feat of both preaching and denying God. By saying evolution cannot be true because God really made the world in seven days also says they know how God works, that they know as much as God. Doesn’t the Bible tell you God moves in mysterious ways? Didn’t they read that part of it? Can’t they accept his seven days may not be like yours? Humans wrote the book anyway, trying to make sense of the awesome power of God by framing it in a way they could understand. Saying “intelligent design” made the world is myopic. Couldn’t this very intelligent design have worked in the way Darwin published in his Origin of Species? What would stop God from working evolution in the way the evidence shows? Only he knows what he does why he does it anyway. How can you even hazard to say you know better than God by refusing to see what he’s laid out? He gave humans brains and eyes and hands so they could use them, not hide them in the sand.

I hope people who deny evolution and the scientific movements like it are at least consistent in their beliefs and accept life and death as it’s handed to them and not visit a doctor, use electricity, drive a car, complain about gas prices etc. If you know the mind of God, then you must be like God and don’t need a poor scientist’s help. These people frighten me because their arrogance and ignorance are driving this country into a pit from which there will be no escape, using the flag of their interpretation of their religion as a justification against which there is no argument because they’ve made themselves God by claiming to know his mind. Upon closer inspection of their Bibles, I hope they read the part where the angel of the Lord throws Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden because they tried to be like God.

I resent the way they open all western religion up to the scoffing of the extreme liberals. They give the rest of us a bad name, people who see no disagreement between science and religion, evolution and Genesis. And if their extreme views and obvious ignorance and worship of themselves turn more people away from God, then they will be answerable.

Posted on May 8th, 2005 under News, Rant •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed