We hear from people today that Evolution is a "strange" belief, and the image is congured up that man evolved from the Ape. Many times these religionists will phrase it this way "It takes more Faith to believe in evolution, and that something is intricate as a bird, or a flower or a butterfly, could have arrived here just spontaniously - -than an all seeing, all knowing, big, benevolent God created these things for our use. Well, let's look at this. They rather than say that Evolution is Impossible, will admit that evolution is Possible, but not probable. Right here you have a problem for these Fundamentalists because we can say with pretty much certitude, that an existance of a God that DOES the things they claim He or It can - - is something for which there is NO FOUNDATION IN ANY FACT for. They will so so far as to say things like "God wrote the Constitution" and "The first ten amendments are not rights in and of themselves, but ONLY a recognition of the rights given to us by God. And they come up with fantastic things they say are in the Bible like 'Man has a God given right to own a gun" and even more far fetched statements. In other words this God is not only NOT just some amusing imaginary friend they have- - this God interjects himself at the very vitals of Government. But since we have never seen this God, we have only their word for the idea that he even Exists. With the bird or the flower or the butterfly we have a THING - - something to measure and handle and look at. And we also say that the possibility of such entities coming into existance - - needs to be looked at in terms of things Born Again Christians have never wanted to face, such as environment - - and the passing of vast periods of Time - - - LOTS of time. These people don't Believe in "Envirnment" as a factor of human development. You see it in their stands against equal education or helping the disadvantaged in any way. These Christians also loathe the idea of gradualism. Again you see this in that when they give a half hour Sermon on the need to get Save, they ACT as though "That's all the time there is in the world, so you better do it NOW". But looks look again at the gambling establishments that have banned card counters from Blackjack games. You don't win all at once. You have "cues" from the estamented number and kind of cards the dealer is holding- - to either increase your odds of winning, so you bet more, or poorer than average odds, so you bet less. Over the course of time - - it's clear to the Gambling Establishment you have Some FORCE in your favor that they don't like. So, why can't we view the "Survival of the fittest species" in the same way? These people don't believe in "Environment". I used to believe that Environment was everything in child rearing and nurturing. I have since modefied my position. But their mantra is that "Circumstance does NOT matter. It's all a triumph of the will - - as to whether the problem conquers you or you conquer the obsticle. They call this "character". People who are overcome by problems are said to have "bad character". But the truth in evolution is that- - there is genetic divergence. They will not deny this. Certain physical traits give you an "Edge" over mastering certain environmental obsticles and challenges. Over time those WITH this biological trait have the "Edge" and survive to reproduce. Just as the card counter has HIS "Edge" or advantage. But here again the Tea Party people will say "Advantage is irrelivent. It's only an excuse for lazy people". Tell that to a brown polar bear who has not yet evolved white fur in the snow. They can't conceive that - - the reason why there aren't millions of half evolved fossles is because MOST of the time- - was lived by the survivors and not by the dead. It is the living, the "evolved ones" that live and remain to leave their bones lying around for us to find them. NOT something without the biological survival skills to thrive very long at all. But anyone who can't conceive of any period of history longer than six thousand years probably can't conceive of hundreds of millions of years passing and just how very long that would be.
If these tea party people had any historic memory at all, they would realize if they were suddenly be transported back ninety or a hundred years ago - - they wouldn't be much more "Comfortable' back then than they are now. After all, a liberal Democrat occupied the White House, Woodrow Wilson. And "Trust Busting" was into its third Administration already. Back in those days people actually respected and admired scientists and inventors. They also thought of better days when they thought of the future and not some horrible DREAD that the socialists and the brown skinned people were taking over the country. The theory of relativity was out and people in the public were familiar with it, even if they made fun of it. But you didn't have Patriot clubs meeting to say that Einstein's writings were all some giant conspiracy or "politically motivated". Of course ninety years ago was the Scopes monkey trial. There is a place in the movie where Spencer Tracy says "Can just one time the ladies and gentlemen of the Jury can be allowed to think a non Brady thought?" I've told you that Mark Bove of Calvary Anaheim was quite xenophobic, and this is a church I have spent a lot of time in. These tea party don't believe things because they look at the evidence as a scientist would and weigh the evidence. No. They "feel" things. FOX news gets you to "feel things". One person criticized Pastor Mark for "going too much on feelings". If he can't be on complete control of it, he wants no part of it in his church. In fact one of his favorite images is of the three "wise' monkeys - - see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. And to these people - Science is evil. But if we are going to call Evolution strange after being around a hundred years- - I'm wondering how many years belief in Evolution DOES have to be around for these people to accept it. They put forth the weak argument of "Well, the majority of scientists have been Wrong about things before". That's true. But unlike these jackasses thumping their Bibles, a scientist is capable of Learning New Things, a skill these "People on the Religious Right" have never mastered. Whole cultures have suffered from xenophobia and self imposed isolation, resulting in excessive genetic in-breeding, something FOX news suffers from in spades. People used to think ideas such as a round earth and universal gravitation were strange. People thought the idea of white light containing all the colors of the rainbow was- -strange. One time it was even considered strange that there was a circulatory system where blood flowed throughout the human body. People must have thought radio was witchcraft or something when it first came out. I imagine there was a time people questioned whether it was even theoretically possible to escape Earth's gravity. Some people today may regard the idea of their being more than three atomic particles, electrons, protrons and newtrons- - and any others were "not necessary" because "now we know everything". Therefore the dozens of other subatomic particles can't exist. People thought string theory was strange, and still do. All sorts of loore has grown up around the Computer as somehow gaining "sensience" and developing a Consciousness. But then again - - there was a time when people thought that a King or ruler that did NOT hire a "court astrologer" was strange. They would reason "How can they know what fate has in store for them without an astrologer to tell them what is going to happen?" But I am predicting that some day, people will regard the existence of Christianity in our time as "really strange".
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