Diving Beneath the Surface of Belief
In the commentary on my first blog regarding the teaching of intelligent design in school, a wide range of opinions has been expressed. Some bloggers argue that science classes should include both evolution and ID because "all sides of the issue" should be taught; others say that ID should not be taught at all because it is not science. Still, other bloggers have cautioned us about teachers teaching what they believe rather than pure content, and at least one person has questioned whether there is time in the curriculum to teach anything besides what's on the standardized tests at the end of the road. We have a number of people who believe in creationism/ID but don't think it should be taught in schools because it is religion and should be left to churches to teach. A few people argue that ID should be taught instead of evolution because they believe ID is true and evolution is not true. Others think it would be fine to teach ID in required religion classes which cover a wide range of creation stories from various religious traditions. A couple of people mentioned the debate in the scientific community over the specific workings of evolution, noting that even hard-core scientists disagree about how evolution works. In essence, the rich array of opinions expressed by Nota Bene bloggers mirrors those expressed in our national discourse. These are exactly the lines of argument that you will find in the New York Times editorial pages, in televised roundtable discussions, and in some news reports about efforts by ID-supporters to move ID into public school curricula. You will even find many of these arguments parodied by Jon Stewart in The Daily Show's series "Evolution/Schmevolution"!
As we continue this discussion about religion and science in our national public life, I am wondering where we get our ideas about what is true and what is untrue about the origins of humanity. If you believe in ID and creationism, who told you that creationism was true, and why do you believe in what that person/those people say? If you agree with evolutionary theory, where does this belief come from? Are the people who taught evolution to you trustworthy? Regardless of whether you consider yourself to be a religious person dedicated to biblical understandings of our origins or a scientifically-minded person with the scientific method behind you (or some combination of the two), please consider the sources of your beliefs. Where does the authority come from to support your ideas? Who taught these ideas to you, and what evidence do you have to support your continued belief in a particular notion of origins?
As you answer these questions, first define what it is you believe as clearly as you can and then explain how you came to this belief.
posted by Shan Overton @ 10:14 AM
8 Comments:
Ooh, that's tough. There's enough scientific fact to cause me to believe that there are connections to all things, no matter what they be. Everything that lives interacts with eachother and I believe that it is necessary for everything to change due to relationships of all kinds. And I don't believe that it's very un-Christian of me to say that. I believe in the source and I believe that God is capable of building beings and all the while allowing them to change as well. So back to the question.. teach it all. Or if a teacher believes that they need to stick to science because of the curriculum I would say that's fine as well. I pity the college student that takes a teacher's words for gospel anyhow.
I believe in creationism because I have attended church my whole life and it is the way I've been taught. But I have looked into creationism and I have to say it's just a goofy idea. It doesn't make any since to me at all, actually. Why would there still be monkeys if there were monkeys turning into people like us? I saw an article that was talking about one of the things that helps "prove" the theory of creationism. It was talking about the number of chromosomes in monkeys and humans and how close they are. Monkeys have 44 I think. Humans have 46. I'm not sure but it's something close to that. Anyways, it was a list of things and humans and monkeys were close, but potatoes and humans were identical. Maybe we should make that a theory. Maybe we spawned from a potato.
My belief is in the bible that God created man to praise him on earth and created woman out of man's own body. I always was a person who somewhat took things pratically but everyone has something they believe in whether it was a object, an idea, or a person. I was brought up believing in God but in a sense everyone has their own god in a sense evolution may be someone's god. But the issue isn't what you believe is just that you believe in something, no matter who you are something in your mind gets you going and motivated and gives you faith to belief in something thats not concrete. Some think success and power is their god, no you may not be able to see these beliefs but you have faith; meaning you believe in something you can't touch or see but its there just for you. God is just that for me, when I can't count on anyone else he's the thing that gets me through, so in all retrospects everyone has some kind of religion even if you don't believe in God, you believe in something. Families enstill ethics and values, you can't see them but you believe, teachers enstille knowledge and education, you can't see them but you believe, coaches enstill leadership and teamwork, you can't feel these things but you believe. Religion is what you make it believe what you want to believe but will evolution or religion really matter when you die? What do you believe?
I'm not to familiar with evolution to voice my opinion weather or not it should be thought in school. What I do believe is that we were all created by God for a purpose and reasons far beyond our own understand. For a person to believe that would have to be spiritual and have their own relationship with God. God is a spirit and to understand him is to study his word,go to church were your getting the word to help with clarification. I can also see how some people would have a problem in believing in someone or something on man has ever seen before. My only advise is whatever a person belive in always study and get a clear understanding because what sounds good isn't always good
I believe in evolution, up to a point. I believe we evolved from "lower" forms of life. I also believe that the "big bang" didnt just happen. I think it was orchestrated by a higher power, and life was set in motion by the big bang.
I guess I came to these beliefs over time, without the guidance of one person or another. Certainly my belief in evolution comes from having learned it in school, but it goes beyond that. Evolution makes sense. And it happens a lot faster than most people think. Years ago, there was an incident in England where moths or butterflies were a bright color, so they would be harder for birds to spot and eat when they were feeding on flowers. A coal mine and industrial center moved into the area, belching out smoke and dust. What happened? The butterfly/moth population was decimated by the birds, who found them easy to spot. So what happened? The insects changed color. In a period of a few years. Why? Because mutants (grey color) survived and reproduced at an astronomically high rate, while brightly colored insects were eaten by birds. Eventually, the only ones left were grey/brown.
I was taught to believe by my mom in creationism. My mom would always wake me up on Sunday morning and force me to go to church and participate in the service and Sunday school. My dad is agnostic and doesnt view creationism in the way that we arrived here. I am stuck between the evolutional view and the creational view. I dont see how God just created a man and a woman and reproduced so many people that are living today. Scientifically, birth defects and longborne disease affect the children of the same parent. I dont see how Adam and Eve's children could have that many offspring without them dying out. I dont think though that we evolved from the average monkey. I do believe though that through time we evolved from the original inhabitants on earth. The cycle contnues to me though. How did those original inhabitants arrive here and by what or whom? I honestly dont know and i agree on both sides of this issue.
It's just too hard for me to believe that all of this in the world today was a complete accident. That just doesn't make any since to me and I think there has to be a higher being(I call him GOD). We were obviosly given free will because we do anything we want. I can't see how we evolved from monkeys. Maybe we had evolved in the since of adaptation but I think we were purposefully made and came from the first 2 created humans(I call them Adam and Eve).
I think that alot of the evolution theory holds up in the realm of how the world was initiated. However, being a christian i have to assume that God put all of this into play. I also think that there are alot of unexplained issues and missing pieces in the theory that we, in reality, cant ever know. As much as scientist think that they can figure everything out, there will always be things that don't connect or that are missing, because to know how everything exists and why is virtually impoissible. The human mind cannot and is not suppose to be able to comprehend everything.
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