The creation of Creationism

[Elphaba]

The creation of Creationism

An excerpt:

Ronald Numbers has given us what must surely be the definitive study of the rise and growth of a cluster of well-meaning, but irrational, theories over a period of some 160 years. The Creationists is an expanded version of an earlier edition published in 1991. During the interval, the proportion of Americans who favour some form of Creationism has risen from 47 per cent to 65.5 per cent and the phenomenon has spread worldwide. It seems churlish to ask for more but, given that the basis of many people’s distrust of orthodox science is a rather simplistic biblical literalism, it would have been helpful to have had some reference to the kind of exchanges taking place between European biblical scholars and scientists in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was a period when many fruitful adjustments in traditional thinking were occurring, without giving rise to the extremism that later characterized some shades of American Protestantism. The fact that such extremism has now become global should worry theologians as well as scientists.

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This was interesting, but I am too tired to digest it tonight. I thought I’d let you guys do it.

Elphaba

[StrawberryFields]

The creation of Creationism

An excerpt:

Ronald Numbers has given us what must surely be the definitive study of the rise and growth of a cluster of well-meaning, but irrational, theories over a period of some 160 years. The Creationists is an expanded version of an earlier edition published in 1991. During the interval, the proportion of Americans who favour some form of Creationism has risen from 47 per cent to 65.5 per cent and the phenomenon has spread worldwide. It seems churlish to ask for more but, given that the basis of many people’s distrust of orthodox science is a rather simplistic biblical literalism, it would have been helpful to have had some reference to the kind of exchanges taking place between European biblical scholars and scientists in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was a period when many fruitful adjustments in traditional thinking were occurring, without giving rise to the extremism that later characterized some shades of American Protestantism. The fact that such extremism has now become global should worry theologians as well as scientists.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was interesting, but I am too tired to digest it tonight. I thought I’d let you guys do it.

Elphaba

I see you didn't get to bed early.... hmph^_^

[Elphaba]

I see you didn't get to bed early.... hmph^_^

Yikes! I'm in trouble now!

Mercy, mercy!

Elphie, your friend who loves you mostest!

[Moksha]

The fact that such extremism has now become global should worry theologians as well as scientists.

Elphaba

Perhaps it heralds some retrograde tendency to return to the Dark Ages.

[Moksha]

Although, like I have said before, it is wonderful when people from the 21st Century can share the pews alongside those of the 8th Century. We do need to be careful not to run their carts off the road, while they need to be courteous by keeping their superstition out of the classroom.

Creationists on the move...

[FunkyTown]

Perhaps it heralds some retrograde tendency to return to the Dark Ages.

I have to disagree. I would say that a return to Creationism is a return to Orthodoxy. That's not a bad thing and, in fact, we would do well to return to orthodoxy in many ways. Mankind's desire for the things he -wants- to be true is very rarely overcome by his desire for truth: People will sleep around despite religious tendencies. They will curse at their family and then say they love them. They will lie on their taxes and claim to be an honest person.

And they will honestly believe it.

Wow - That got a bit preachy. I didn't mean it to. :)

[palantir]

< Agrees with Funky :)

[Moksha]

Mankind's desire for the things he -wants- to be true is very rarely overcome by his desire for truth :)

While that may hold true for the Creationist, it is not really true for science. Creationism may be orthodox in terms of misconceptions of the past, but it still is more related to stories of primitive man rather than an exposition upon God's handiwork.

Now, about behavior, that seems to act independently of God's methodology. It is part of our free will. :)