Saturday, July 14, 2007
Why Darwin Matters
by Michael Shermer
The conflict between evolution and intelligent design is one of the warmer issues of the day. Since reading Darwin on Trial, I've been in the design camp, but I've never been completely comfortable there. There's been too many times when a person whose opinions I respect blasts into intelligent design and I fumble about looking for an excuse for my position. And when some ardent supporter of my side starts laying on the propaganda, I likewise wince. So while I was back overseas, one thing I decided I should do upon my return to the land of the free and home of the public library was do some more digging on evolution. Specifically, I wanted to get some more info on how a supporter of evolution would respond to the main arguments of the design side. Well, this book was my first attempt at getting more info. Mr. Shermer was helpful in clearing away some of the confusion in my mind, but didn't draw me any closer to the evolution camp. The biggest favor that Mr. Shermer did was point out that the leading proponents of intelligent design are really creationists trying to sell their beliefs in a new package. I don't care for sales pitches regardless of who's doing the selling. That's the main reason why I would rate the book as waiting room material, despite the useful information it contains. Mr. Shermer has his own agenda to promote. As for the meat of the debate, I get the impression that, like the abortion conflict, the problem lies in the conflict of two different issues. By definition, science excludes the supernatural. If you can't observe it, measure it, study it, then you can't assume it exists. To bring divine revelation, namely, the Bible, into the science classroom, is a violation of the scientific method. I think what happened over the years in Western society is that many people have started to consider the scientific method the only source of authoritative knowledge. So while any good scientist will tell you that any scientific law or theory might be proven wrong some day, they will proceed to live as if the accepted laws and theories are the truth. Just as I live as if the Bible is the truth. So where does this leave me? Well, I wouldn't mind digging up some more info on evolution. I'm curious about the fossil record and just how many of the bones in the skeletons are real and how many have been imagined to fill in the gaps. But I also realize that I'm never going to have a simple, irrefutable argument as to why we should believe we're created. In the end, only the Creator can prove He exists.
LibraryThing link
The conflict between evolution and intelligent design is one of the warmer issues of the day. Since reading Darwin on Trial, I've been in the design camp, but I've never been completely comfortable there. There's been too many times when a person whose opinions I respect blasts into intelligent design and I fumble about looking for an excuse for my position. And when some ardent supporter of my side starts laying on the propaganda, I likewise wince. So while I was back overseas, one thing I decided I should do upon my return to the land of the free and home of the public library was do some more digging on evolution. Specifically, I wanted to get some more info on how a supporter of evolution would respond to the main arguments of the design side. Well, this book was my first attempt at getting more info. Mr. Shermer was helpful in clearing away some of the confusion in my mind, but didn't draw me any closer to the evolution camp. The biggest favor that Mr. Shermer did was point out that the leading proponents of intelligent design are really creationists trying to sell their beliefs in a new package. I don't care for sales pitches regardless of who's doing the selling. That's the main reason why I would rate the book as waiting room material, despite the useful information it contains. Mr. Shermer has his own agenda to promote. As for the meat of the debate, I get the impression that, like the abortion conflict, the problem lies in the conflict of two different issues. By definition, science excludes the supernatural. If you can't observe it, measure it, study it, then you can't assume it exists. To bring divine revelation, namely, the Bible, into the science classroom, is a violation of the scientific method. I think what happened over the years in Western society is that many people have started to consider the scientific method the only source of authoritative knowledge. So while any good scientist will tell you that any scientific law or theory might be proven wrong some day, they will proceed to live as if the accepted laws and theories are the truth. Just as I live as if the Bible is the truth. So where does this leave me? Well, I wouldn't mind digging up some more info on evolution. I'm curious about the fossil record and just how many of the bones in the skeletons are real and how many have been imagined to fill in the gaps. But I also realize that I'm never going to have a simple, irrefutable argument as to why we should believe we're created. In the end, only the Creator can prove He exists.
LibraryThing link
Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial
// posted by John @ 2:25 PM 
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