creationist debates

[sylvia hope]

 snip--

>           everlasting life.  Evolution undermined all this and the
>           ancient foundation of the social order - and what have we
>           got?  Better medicine is not enough.  Clever arguments that
>           science has led to material gains leave the spirit empty -
>
>           I think some scientists are so fundamentally worried about
>           the emptiness out there underscored by their daily endeavors
>           that they express their fear as contempt for the solace of
>           religion.
 snip

          Richard Jensen replied:
Sorry to disagree, but EVOLUTION has undermined nothing.  It is those who
demand that science be consistent with their perceived (or received)
religious wisdom who have done the undermining.  If one believes that
one's religious beliefs can be used to explain everything, then one must
be willing to give up science.  On the other hand, if one recognizes that
religion and science deal with different aspects of the world, then one
can reconcile these two "philosphies."

As I see it, and as Tom Lammers has indicated, it is those who insist on
the literal truth of their religious texts who have created the problem.


          . . . I agree with this as a way to get through from day to
          day but it is double-think.  If you have two belief systems
          that are mutually inconsistent it is very troubling.

          It is not *evolution* that has undermined religion, it is
          the more general understanding of evolution, since this
          understanding is inconsistent with traditional religious
          belief.

          - Sylvia Hope