I don't normally write letters to the editors of papers. The last time I did was when I felt someone needed to say something against the Family Research Council and their web of lies and hate.
In Thursday's paper there was a letter to the editor discussing the Nye/Ham debate. You may have heard about that. Bill Nye the Science Guy debated Ken Ham the Young Earth Creationist Guy. Actually, "discussing" would be a bit too generous. What he did was rail against science and that we needed to put an end to teaching its "frog-to-prince fairy tale."
I couldn't let that one go:
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So, H.T. believes “science”
in general, and evolution in particular, is a “frog-to-prince fairy
tale” that needs to be tossed in the garbage (Letters to the
Editor, February 20, 2014).
Mr. T and other young earth
creationists confuse theology with science. Christians do not need
to choose between religion OR science/evolution, because they are not
incompatible. Claiming that they are mutually exclusive damages
scripture and may lead to a crisis of faith when those indoctrinated
into YEC realize that the earth is much older than 6000 years.
The historic Creeds of the church
proclaim that God is the “creator of heaven and earth, of all that
is, seen and unseen.” This is a faith claim about the identity of
God (Creator); it is not a scientific claim about God's methodology.
To do so is to put the creative force of God into a box of our own
making and understanding.
Mr. T continually uses scare quotes
around the word science, which is a common tactic among the YEC crowd
in an effort to throw doubt upon the overall discipline of science.
Unlike actual science that uses tightly defined methods of
observation, hypothesis, prediction and test, test, test, Ken Ham and
the YEC crowd base their pseudo-science on a methodology of
conclusion first, working to fit everything into their particular
interpretation of the Bible.
Finally, let us never forget that it
was the “science” of the church that condemned Galileo; it was
the “science” of the church that condemned women accused of
witchcraft in Salem, MA; it was the “science” of the church that
sanctioned slavery; and it remains the “science” of churches
today to oppress those whom they deem different.
When it comes to science, I'll stick
with Bill Nye and those who don't confuse it with faith.
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3 comments:
I've never found a lot of difference between "creation" and "evolution". The Bible says the "world was without form and void". Evolution says we had "primal soup". Both The Bible and evolution claim life began in the sea, and both say it moved onto the earth. First came animals and then came people. The only real difference is that some folks think it is within their pay-grade to tell God He only had 24 hours for His days. All the time in the world is His; if He wants to claim a million years as a "day", so be it.
But for the folks who wrote the Bible to "get it right" six millennia, or more, ago is obviously inspired.
Heh. As an editor of our campus newspaper, I can tell you that it is incredibly frustrating when you get blindingly idiotic letters-to-the-editor... from one side of an issue. You don't want to censor the person (even though they're completely wrong), but you don't have an opposing view from anyone else in the community, so you wind up just running it - if you have time to write an op-ed rebuttal, great; if you don't, you just run the cringe-worthy article, because there is a gaping hole on the opinion section, and this is what you've got.
So it's probably a serious relief to several people in the newspaper office to get a letter contradicting the one they ran last week. (I should also say that sometimes you run the idiotic, "controversial" letter to the editor, crossing your fingers that it makes someone want to write in and say more.)
Patience: Part of the other problem is that the people who generally write letters to the editor tend to fall on the rabid end of the spectrum. And there is apparently no shortage of people who are willing to attack people who have different opinions.
My last letter to the editor resulted in a hate-mail flood of biblical proportions. One has to be willing to receive the abuse that comes with contradicting certain opinions/beliefs.
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