Very much list-ing to one side

Global Rich List

This was both interesting and thought provoking. It has stopped me complaining about petty things - for a couple of hours anyway

Only a Theory

I've just fairly recently finished reading Kenneth Miller's wonderful book Only A Theory which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was his follow up to the equally, if not more successful book Finding Darwin's God, which I also lapped up.

Ken Miller is a orthodox Christian (oh to be one of those!) who is also an orthodox Darwinian. He sees no difficulties with synchronising his faith with his Science. As a Scientist he has been a Prof in Brown University for around 20 years. He's also involved with High School students, in that he co-authored at least one Biology Textbook that's found its way into most of the Schools in America.

His Science is impeccable and his belief in the Scientific method equally stringent. But he's also a Christian who takes his faith very seriously, and that's why he's been at the forefront of the most recent Creationist/Intelligent Design Court 'battles' - most notably Kitzmiller v. Dover in 2005. But why does he pound so hard on the Creationists/IDers? Does he want to destroy Faith? As a Christian I'd imagine not. Why he is so opposed is because he sees their particular understanding of Faith as trying to destroy Science and Reason. That's why he's so active in any campaign to prevent Creationism/ID from ever being considered an alternative Scientific view - it's not Science, it's Theology (and only one interpretation of theology at that).

Science and Faith are not in conflict but neither do they make easy bedfellows, as Science deals with the Natural, while Faith deals with those things outside of the Natural world (ie. the Supernatural). To try and clumsily mesh the two together is a recipe for disaster. That is evident from the Creationists approach - trying to demonstrate that Science and a literal understanding of Genesis are compatible. This clearly doesn't work because if it were true (and 'truth' is something that has prime position in Science) then it would've already be shown to be true and then adopted into Science. The fact that this hasn't happened speaks volumes for the Creationist/ID desire.

It's interesting to read the words of Augustine, some 1,600 years ago - I've added comment in [].

Even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens...the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth [in other words Science, though it would be another1,300 years until anyone put that specific label on it], and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics [Science]; and we should take all measures to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn


Creationism/ID is dangerous because it threatens two things:

1. it threatens to halt Theological exploration because it views it as "done and dusted" a couple of millennia ago, and
2. it threatens to make us stupid(er). No longer will we have to investigate and improve, because if Fundamentalists had their way then the Supernatural would be considered part and parcel of the Scientific process (which of course deals only with the Natural). As Ken Miller said once in a TV interview - if the Creationists won Kitzmiller v. Dover then Biology would be the easiest and quickest subject in School, because you'd walk into class and the Teacher would announce "God did it! Class dismissed." The rest of the day/term/year would be your own

This is why I rail so loudly against this form of Religious understanding. I believe people deserve better.