Ah, it was a lot more fun just alluding to Douglas Adams, and equally useful. Creationists do not and will not respect science.
Still-- and I may be overreacting-- I was frightened by the following sentence in an article which was reprinted in the AG-R yesterday:
By any measure, though, Young Earth Creationism -- which holds that the Bible is the literal word of God and that He created the universe in seven days -- has a more powerful hold on the beliefs of Americans than evolutionary theory or intelligent design. That grip grows stronger by the year.The implication that science and intelligent design was lined up on one side against Young Earth Creationism on the other was bizarre and shows how desperate the situation is. If we have to align with the Discovery Institute in a strange-bedfellows battle, than we've already lost.
Some say that I am relying on faith as much as anybody, and that may be so, but it is faith in evidence and in the good-faith (hehe) efforts of other flesh-and-blood human beings to adhere to the scientific methods. The faith of Creationists and IDers is faith in what some have called an Invisible Cloud Being. There's quite a difference.
Now, let me say that I attend church regularly, and rely on portions of the Bible as well as texts from other spiritual and religious traditions to guide my life. I believe in the Invisible Cloud Being. I just don't believe in her/him/it/whatever more than I believe in the existence of the human mind and the evidence of my senses.
And it's not a game. As a teacher and an old debater, I like to play devil's advocate as much as anybody. But science has given us the modern world and its miracles (and, despite our problems and the Emperor W, I'm definitely not a good-ole-daze nostalgist who wants to return to some mythical bygone era). It's not a game, because specifically American science has given us our standard of living. All of that is risked when we throw science to the creationist wolves. A friend of mine is an astronomer at Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico. I asked him whither science, and he wistfully responded that science would continue to be done. Just not here.
Our society landed a man on the freaking surface of the freaking moon and then we crashed through scientific barriers for the next three decades until I could carry around most of the world's accumulated knowledge on an SD chip under the insole of my left show. And what wasn't on the chip could be accessed through the wireless network at Roaster's.
And now creationism asks us to teach our kids to respect and trust magic. If science leaves our shores, the giant sucking sound you hear will make Perot's sound like a dustbuster.
SPACEDARK
P.S. Before PTS's Resident Troll relies too heavily on the Discovery Institute PAC and its infamous list for his information, he really should read this.
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