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Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.
We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.
Why are some so set upon attacking a good theory? Why can 10,000 clergy accept the evidence, many denominations having no issue at all, but a certain selection feel the need to indoctrinate and pretty much deceive children?
Is there no chance of accepting S.J. Gould's idea of non-overlapping magisteria (never the twain shall meet)? Will conflict between religion and science exist until one destroys the other?
Is accepting parts of Holy books as allegory so destructive to faith?
[edit on 4-3-2007 by melatonin]
Science 21 January 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5708, pp. 414 - 416
DOI: 10.1126/science.1105201
Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Reports
Speciation by Distance in a Ring Species
Darren E. Irwin,1* Staffan Bensch,2 Jessica H. Irwin,1 Trevor D. Price3
Ring species, which consist of two reproductively isolated forms connected by a chain of intergrading populations, have often been described as examples of speciation despite gene flow between populations, but this has never been demonstrated. We used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers to study gene flow in greenish warblers (Phylloscopus trochiloides). These genetic markers show distinct differences between two reproductively isolated forms but gradual change through the ring connecting these forms. These findings provide the strongest evidence yet for "speciation by force of distance" in the face of ongoing gene flow.
But your willing to give your all to an invisible sky fairie that spoke everything into existance????
Originally posted by pdaviesoz
Believing in just the chance evolution of ONE sepcied from another is like believing that you could win first prize in every lotto draw for a decade off just one ticket without missing once.
But it COULD happen, right....
Not in the real world.
PauL D
Is there no chance of accepting S.J. Gould's idea of non-overlapping magisteria (never the twain shall meet)? Will conflict between religion and science exist until one destroys the other?
Is accepting parts of Holy books as allegory so destructive to faith?
Sleep well my friend... sip some tea, eat a crumpet. Or whatever it is you blokes do to relax.
Originally posted by melatonin
I will relax now, Liverpool FC have just made Athens,
a little bit sloshed at the mo, so I'll answer manana.
But I don't think the 10,000 clergy are what you'd call doubting Thomas', they actually accept evolution as is. Probably of the Ken Miller theistic evolutionist ilk.
Originally posted by Rren
FYI, americans lead the world in scientific literacy.
[edit on 1-5-2007 by Rren]
Originally posted by ozvulcan
Originally posted by Rren
FYI, americans lead the world in scientific literacy.
Would you please back that up with some evidence.
www.fas.org...
Although a detailed discussion of the conceptualization and measurement of civic scientific literacy is provided in the refereed literature (Miller, 1998), it may be helpful to summarize this measure briefly. In broad terms, to be classified as civic scientifically literate, a citizen needs to display:
-an understanding of basic scientific concepts and constructs, such as the molecule, DNA, and the structure of the solar system,
-an understanding of the nature and process of scientific inquiry, and
-a pattern of regular information consumption (Miller, 1998).
In practical terms, the level of concept vocabulary and process understanding required reflects the level of skill required to read most of the articles in the Tuesday science section of the New York Times, watch and understand most episodes of Nova, or read and understand many of the popular science books sold in bookstores today.
Using this measure, approximately 10 percent of American adults qualified as civic scientifically literate in the late 1980's and early 1990's, but this proportion increased to 17 percent in 1999 (see Figure 1). Since each percentage point in a national survey of adults aged 18 and over in the United States represents approximately 2 million individuals, this result means that about 34 million Americans were civic scientifically literate by the end of the 20th century. This rate of civic scientific literacy is higher than that found in Canada, the European Union, or Japan, using similar measures (Miller, Pardo, & Niwa, 1997; Miller and Pardo, 2000). At the same time, it is a level that may be too low for the requirements of a strong democratic society in a new century of accelerating scientific and technological development.
Originally posted by Rren
Soccer is for kids, how do you watch that stuff...
I always thought you were more of a Dawkins type than a Gould (NOMA) type though, melatonin. Learn somethin' new every day.
Regards.
Originally posted by melatonin
'it's like any other sport, but on steroids', heh.
I do take a more Dawkins-like position but I'm also a realist. From my point of view I think religion and faith is irrational, but being a 'liberal' and all that, people should believe what they like, just keep it out of science classes, and leave those kids alone. I would like to see less religion, it would negate one of the more divisive human phenomena.
I think people like Ham are dangerous to science and education,
(I remember DaveScott being pulled apart on it).
The recent study by Eugenie Scott shows you barely beat Turkey, with the same study showing 28% of respondents in the US believe humans lived alongside dinosaurs.
This denial and political interference in no way is restricted to evolution. It seems to be common to certain groups who also deny other areas of science - AGW,
AIDS-HIV, etc etc.
Politics and science, meh.