[GCFL-discuss] Fundamentals of Science

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

Hey Siarlys, I went and checked Genesis 1:21 and I didn't find anything that
said that whales evolved from land animals. And in fact it says God created
the water creatures and THEN the next day created the land creatures.
Genesis 1:21-25:"And God created great whales, and every living creature
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind,
and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that *it was* good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the
waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and
it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and
God saw that *it was* good."

Help me out here Siarlys, very rarely do I ever see something wrong with
what you say, but here I HAVE to question ya.
 God bless ya'll,
Lance
On 1/9/06, Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List <gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net>
wrote:
>
>  It's a new year, and time to throw out something provocative. I recently
> sent the text below to the editors of *Science* magazine. I don't know if
> they will publish it, but the young man who plays the keyboard at church
> liked this draft.
>
> The context may not be recognizable. It responds to articles about
> University of Kansas professor (and chair of religious studies) Paul Mirecki
> offering a course entitled:
>
> *REL 602 Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationisms and
> other Religious Mythologies.*
>
> In a widely publicized email, Mirecki described the course:
>
> *The fundies want it all taught in a science class, but this will be a
> nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious studies class
> under the category "mythology." I expect it will draw much media attention.
> *
>
> It did get some attention.
>
> The Associated Press reported December 6 that police are investigating a
> roadside beating of Paul Mirecki 6:40 a.m. Monday on a rural road south of
> Lawrence, Kansas. Mirecki told the Lawrence Journal-World that the two men
> who beat him were making references to his proposed course.
>
> December 7 the university announced Mirecki had resigned as chairman of
> the religious studies department. 2 days later Mirecki told the Lawrence
> Journal-World he had been forced to step down.
>
> Which leads to my letter to the editors.
>
> --Siarlys
>
>
>         When a professor of either science or theology designs a course as
> "a nice slap" in anyone's "big fat face," it should be no surprise that
> someone might throw a physical punch in response. True, assault and battery
> *are* crimes in most states, even if "fighting words" have provoked the
> attack. Still, University of Kansas professor Paul Mirecki exemplifies the
> self-destructive arrogance which gets in the way of expanding respect for
> plain scientific truths. What is the point, in a country where religious
> faith has always played a powerful role, to offering a course entitled
> "Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Mythologies"? Frankly, the
> traditions of ancient cultures are entitled to more respect than to be used
> as a foil for such petty sarcasm.
>
>         Professional opponents of science are not the problem. Their
> ability to influence millions of our devout fellow citizens, who have been
> told their faith is under attack, is the problem. "Yuk, yuk, look what those
> Christians are up to now," is not helpful. It might create more respect for
> science to teach a course that *distinguishes* the Judeo-Christian and
> Islamic scriptures from the respectable (but superstitious) folk tales that
> our ancestors fervently believed in. Nobody who truly believes in the
> inerrant truth of every word in the Bible could deny the misnamed "Big Bang"
> theory. It is so succinctly described in Genesis 1:3. There is of course no
> *scientific proof *that "God said, 'Let there be light'" -- but ample
> evidence has been assembled that "there was light." How did Moses know that,
> before telescopes and orbiting anisotropy probes? There is little to the
> theories generally described as "evolution" that are not encompassed by the
> clause "then God said, let the waters bring forth the living thing that hath
> life." Does any more primitive religious tradition offer such sophisticated
> accounts?
>
>         I don't want to resurrect a 1960s cliche by saying "some of my
> best friends are fundamentalists," but it is a fact, many are. Up close and
> personal, they are cheerful, friendly, thoughtful, worthy of respect, and
> listen with respect and interest when I defend modern cosmology and biology.
> (It doesn't hurt that I go to the same church). We falliable humans need
> less mutual contempt, and more open dialog on what we think we might know.
> Intelligent Design can be reduced to a perfect legitimate observation of
> some long odds in the existing data. (Fred Hoyle acknowledged a few, in his
> own research on fusion in stellar cores.) That, of course, robs ID of its
> arrogant claim to be an "alternative theory." Yes, whales did evolve from
> land animals. That is also mentioned in Genesis by the way, chapter one,
> verse twenty-one.
>
>         Albert Einstein described the motivation of his entire life's work
> as "I want to understand the mind of God." If Einstein could recognize that
> "The Lord God is subtle, but malicious he is not," could not humans in
> pursuit of the truth available through science exercise a little subtlely
> also?
>
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>
>
>


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