Psalm 53:1-4 (New Living Translation)
Psalm 53
For the choir director: A meditation of David.
1 “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; no one does good!
2 God looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if there is even one with real understanding, one who seeks for God.
3 But no, all have turned away from God; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not even one!
4 Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread; they wouldn't think of praying to God.”
We Kansans, including those of us who are transplants, continue to be the butt of national jokes. That’s okay. We come from hardy stock and we can handle it!
What I’ve found so interesting in the “debate” over intelligent design versus Darwinism is the assumption that “I.D.” proponents are brain dead or, as Patrick Kelley put it a few weeks ago, bobble-heads. They seem to take it for granted that folks like me who refuse the educational lobotomy we’ve been treated to for years are know-nothings.
Yet, when I read the debate material and hear the vitriol from many on the Darwinist side of the aisle it only strengthens my resolve.
I grew up in the generation that said, “Never trust anyone over thirty,” the generation that listened to Simon and Garfunkel express musically what a lot of us were feeling back then:
"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all.
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none,
I can read the writing on the wall."
That view has been tempered in me somewhat over the years. But there was a great lesson I took from those days in high school, college, and graduate work. It was this - getting an education was one thing and learning to become a fool was another.
I’m sure that a good number of Darwin’s disciples consider folks like me fools. There’s little that will reconcile us. There’s little that I could say that would make them change their minds. But, permit me the luxury as the owner of this blog to turn the tables a bit. I believe, as Holy Writ says, that the real fool is the man or woman who denies that there is a God at all.
First, I think it’s important in this debate to see that proponents of intelligent design or those who question the mantras of Darwinism are anything but fools. I offer a few pieces of evidence to demonstrate that there is, indeed, a lot of real intelligence that the Darwinists would love to subject to ad hominem after ad hominem, marginalizing what they refuse to understand.
I’ll begin by giving you a few snippets from an Emporian named Judy Decker, who wrote an op-ed piece in this Wednesday’s Emporia Gazette:
“What is remarkable, however, is the unreserved honesty of the association’s approach as revealed in its original definition of evolution. Few today will publicly profess evolution using its complete and accurate connotation, but instead take the tack of the association’s revised statement, steering clear of the incendiary words “unsupervised” and “impersonal.” But unsupervised and impersonal are indeed what remain if scientific naturalism is the compass guiding the ship of discovery.”
“So what does any of this say about our origins as a species?”
“Clearly it states that we are here only by some utterly freakish accident; an unplanned pregnancy of the universe, we might surmise. And then what have we done with God?”
At the close of her piece Ms. Decker adds this insight that Darwinists would do well to heed:
“Science is to be, above all things, an expedition. Assumptions usually serve as the guardian of biases, and biases detract from objective thinking. Certainly thinking is what we must be about.”
I, and many others, share Ms. Decker’s view. We’re not against learning. Many of us are in fact at least as learned, or even more so, than those who have relegated us to the society of flat earthers.
Second, there are scholars who themselves question the dogma of Darwinism. I haven’t gotten to chapter nine in the book by Dr. Benjamin Wiker I started a couple of days ago, but I’m looking forward to it. I believe he’s s reputable scholar who’s framing the real issues at stake in this debate in a way that is taking the mask off the facade of Darwinism:
“The ninth chapter examines several influential arguments by representative moral Darwinism. We do this first to show that contemporary moral debates, especially the “hot” issues of eugenics, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, abortion, infanticide, homosexuality, and so on, are simply the result of the clash of the Christian moral universe with the Epicurean universe. But second, it becomes clear that a great deal of the cultural weight thrown behind scientific materialism (and hence against intelligent design) is moral in origin. There is more at stake than first appears in the sometimes abstruse scientific debates between materialists and intelligent design theorists – far more.”
“I hope the reader will understand the true seriousness of the current debates between scientific materialism and intelligent design. These are not side issues related to arcane academic disciplines. No more serious debates could occur, for we are faced with two rival and irreconcilable views of the universe and human nature; we must find answers to the two most important of all questions: What is truth? And How shall we then live.”
The debate we Kansans are having right now is, as I believe I’ve demonstrated, critically important. I’d like to think that Mssr. Kelley and his cohorts would see how important the debate is and discuss the issues rationally, but it may be too much to hope for. Like Dylan’s car a generation ago, they’re goin’ “ninety miles an hour down a dead end street.” Something’s gotta’ give.
I believe they will see the Light some day. Holy Writ is very clear in this regard:
Galatians 6:7 (New Living Translation)
7 “Don't be misled. Remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow!”
Yes, that day of reckoning will come. For some who have marginalized their dissenters it will be, unfortunately, a day that may well be called “the revenge of the bobble-heads.”
Psalm 53
For the choir director: A meditation of David.
1 “Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; no one does good!
2 God looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if there is even one with real understanding, one who seeks for God.
3 But no, all have turned away from God; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not even one!
4 Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread; they wouldn't think of praying to God.”
We Kansans, including those of us who are transplants, continue to be the butt of national jokes. That’s okay. We come from hardy stock and we can handle it!
What I’ve found so interesting in the “debate” over intelligent design versus Darwinism is the assumption that “I.D.” proponents are brain dead or, as Patrick Kelley put it a few weeks ago, bobble-heads. They seem to take it for granted that folks like me who refuse the educational lobotomy we’ve been treated to for years are know-nothings.
Yet, when I read the debate material and hear the vitriol from many on the Darwinist side of the aisle it only strengthens my resolve.
I grew up in the generation that said, “Never trust anyone over thirty,” the generation that listened to Simon and Garfunkel express musically what a lot of us were feeling back then:
"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all.
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none,
I can read the writing on the wall."
That view has been tempered in me somewhat over the years. But there was a great lesson I took from those days in high school, college, and graduate work. It was this - getting an education was one thing and learning to become a fool was another.
I’m sure that a good number of Darwin’s disciples consider folks like me fools. There’s little that will reconcile us. There’s little that I could say that would make them change their minds. But, permit me the luxury as the owner of this blog to turn the tables a bit. I believe, as Holy Writ says, that the real fool is the man or woman who denies that there is a God at all.
First, I think it’s important in this debate to see that proponents of intelligent design or those who question the mantras of Darwinism are anything but fools. I offer a few pieces of evidence to demonstrate that there is, indeed, a lot of real intelligence that the Darwinists would love to subject to ad hominem after ad hominem, marginalizing what they refuse to understand.
I’ll begin by giving you a few snippets from an Emporian named Judy Decker, who wrote an op-ed piece in this Wednesday’s Emporia Gazette:
“What is remarkable, however, is the unreserved honesty of the association’s approach as revealed in its original definition of evolution. Few today will publicly profess evolution using its complete and accurate connotation, but instead take the tack of the association’s revised statement, steering clear of the incendiary words “unsupervised” and “impersonal.” But unsupervised and impersonal are indeed what remain if scientific naturalism is the compass guiding the ship of discovery.”
“So what does any of this say about our origins as a species?”
“Clearly it states that we are here only by some utterly freakish accident; an unplanned pregnancy of the universe, we might surmise. And then what have we done with God?”
At the close of her piece Ms. Decker adds this insight that Darwinists would do well to heed:
“Science is to be, above all things, an expedition. Assumptions usually serve as the guardian of biases, and biases detract from objective thinking. Certainly thinking is what we must be about.”
I, and many others, share Ms. Decker’s view. We’re not against learning. Many of us are in fact at least as learned, or even more so, than those who have relegated us to the society of flat earthers.
Second, there are scholars who themselves question the dogma of Darwinism. I haven’t gotten to chapter nine in the book by Dr. Benjamin Wiker I started a couple of days ago, but I’m looking forward to it. I believe he’s s reputable scholar who’s framing the real issues at stake in this debate in a way that is taking the mask off the facade of Darwinism:
“The ninth chapter examines several influential arguments by representative moral Darwinism. We do this first to show that contemporary moral debates, especially the “hot” issues of eugenics, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, abortion, infanticide, homosexuality, and so on, are simply the result of the clash of the Christian moral universe with the Epicurean universe. But second, it becomes clear that a great deal of the cultural weight thrown behind scientific materialism (and hence against intelligent design) is moral in origin. There is more at stake than first appears in the sometimes abstruse scientific debates between materialists and intelligent design theorists – far more.”
“I hope the reader will understand the true seriousness of the current debates between scientific materialism and intelligent design. These are not side issues related to arcane academic disciplines. No more serious debates could occur, for we are faced with two rival and irreconcilable views of the universe and human nature; we must find answers to the two most important of all questions: What is truth? And How shall we then live.”
The debate we Kansans are having right now is, as I believe I’ve demonstrated, critically important. I’d like to think that Mssr. Kelley and his cohorts would see how important the debate is and discuss the issues rationally, but it may be too much to hope for. Like Dylan’s car a generation ago, they’re goin’ “ninety miles an hour down a dead end street.” Something’s gotta’ give.
I believe they will see the Light some day. Holy Writ is very clear in this regard:
Galatians 6:7 (New Living Translation)
7 “Don't be misled. Remember that you can't ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow!”
Yes, that day of reckoning will come. For some who have marginalized their dissenters it will be, unfortunately, a day that may well be called “the revenge of the bobble-heads.”
2 comments:
When one filters the doctrines, the philosophies, and the vitriol, from all that is said about this issue, as difficult as that can be, all that is left is the facts.
The facts lead to two conclusions.
One: Darwinian, and even neo-Darinian Evolution, as theories, are not scientifc theories.
Two: Whether one believes it was angels, aliens, or the Lord God, It has all been purposely designed.
In my own intensive investigations, and with years of research involved in every branch of science and the humanities, I can tell you without doubt, that when read objectively, that The Bible matches the scientific facts.
Phil, as usual a good article.
It is no accident that academia is hellbent to teach children in public schools, that the past was only accidental. And that there is no God.
Once children are convinced there is no Creator, they learn nothing from the past, If young minds are convinced that there is no God, there is nothing to restrain their worst behaviour, today, or no reason to attempt to be like Jesus, today or tomorrow. If there is no God, there is nothing in the future to strive for either.
Kansas may be the last stand in the fight for sane curriculum in our nations public schools. The enrollment in private schools is growing and the people are wanting vouchers. But our politicians are gutless when they are presented with a challenge, that requires a fight. And if you want to put God back in schools it will be a fight like no other. Remember we are lining up against the ungodly forces trying to capture the souls of our children. A worthy fight.
While the fight in Kansas is a worthy and noble fight, God's side will lose. I see no other result. The forces behind evolution have done a good job of brainwashing the weak minded Americans, who won't turn the TV off long enough to think this out. The public education system in America is beyond repair. Perhaps we should use our energy fighting for vouchers for parents to choose a school that teaches what they know to be true, and a little readin' riting' and 'rithmtic too.
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