Without evolution my attempt to make a concrete countertop in the shape of the front of a horse would have been disastrous. Without evolution, even after building more than a hundred countertops, none would have improved beyond my first attempt in my first home. In that case I chose concrete before I had ever heard of it being used for a countertop, simply and only because it was very cheap in material costs.
I am a lover of evolution. I find it to be an immeasurably beautiful expression of truth, a theory that asks in vain to be disproved, just because its simple beauty is so profound. Evolution is a friend to my work and experience. It may be a friend to the economy. While terms like capitalism and socialism are being tossed about by the partisans, I am interested in seeing if this overfed monster called speculative greed can mutate into a gentler beast that has more to give to those under its obesity than its proud evacuations. Whether or not the Obama Administration is a skilled genetic engineer or a Dr. Frankenstein has yet to be seen, but one thing is certain, evolution will have its way unexpectedly and uncontrollably, and a new economic creature, one that has never quite been identified before, will now exist on the list of peculiar species.
My recent pondering of the subject was prompted by the billboard advertising the latest wisdom of the local Baptist church. “If evolution were true mothers would have three hands.” This is a follow-up insult directed at the local atheists who were singled-out for celebration on its signage on April Fool’s Day a year ago. This type of animosity for seeing the world through skeptical, informed eyes makes me very grateful for secular education and evolution from Bronze Age patriarchy to rational democracy informed by the scientific method and social humanitarian concern. To address the absurdity of the minister’s cleverness, his rejection of evolution because women typically do not have three hands does nothing to advance his presumptive argument that God created men and women from a perfect design.
The billboard is unhelpful to a substantive dialogue concerning the relationship between faith and reality. While I expect the state to uphold its duty to secularism and human rights I have tried here to convey a bit of my personal faith, which I consider to be an entirely separate imperative than the collective trust put in the government. My personal faith is continually informed by beauty that often comes as an unexpected surprise. Years ago, sixteen years ago when I was still a missionary for the LDS church, a deep and profound impact was made upon my soul by Sufism, sometimes called the mystical side of Islam. I am unable to even approach describing this element of my faith without oversimplifying and insulting the tradition and place of mind that exists in others, explored and felt for generations. I have been profoundly touched by a blessing from an elder whose ancestors occupied this continent earlier than my European ancestors, a connection hoped for in the depth of my soul since as a child I kicked around the deserts of New Mexico, chasing lizards and horned-toads. I can only say that a secular enlightenment society affords the individual the opportunity to discover without threat of violence or oppression a world full of astonishing humane expression.
That the world is able to discover itself through its billions of individuals sharing chaotically and almost at random is also a blessing of evolution. I have faith that narrow, blind ideologies will be one of those appendages proved by evolution to be of no more use.
I am a lover of evolution. I find it to be an immeasurably beautiful expression of truth, a theory that asks in vain to be disproved, just because its simple beauty is so profound. Evolution is a friend to my work and experience. It may be a friend to the economy. While terms like capitalism and socialism are being tossed about by the partisans, I am interested in seeing if this overfed monster called speculative greed can mutate into a gentler beast that has more to give to those under its obesity than its proud evacuations. Whether or not the Obama Administration is a skilled genetic engineer or a Dr. Frankenstein has yet to be seen, but one thing is certain, evolution will have its way unexpectedly and uncontrollably, and a new economic creature, one that has never quite been identified before, will now exist on the list of peculiar species.
My recent pondering of the subject was prompted by the billboard advertising the latest wisdom of the local Baptist church. “If evolution were true mothers would have three hands.” This is a follow-up insult directed at the local atheists who were singled-out for celebration on its signage on April Fool’s Day a year ago. This type of animosity for seeing the world through skeptical, informed eyes makes me very grateful for secular education and evolution from Bronze Age patriarchy to rational democracy informed by the scientific method and social humanitarian concern. To address the absurdity of the minister’s cleverness, his rejection of evolution because women typically do not have three hands does nothing to advance his presumptive argument that God created men and women from a perfect design.
The billboard is unhelpful to a substantive dialogue concerning the relationship between faith and reality. While I expect the state to uphold its duty to secularism and human rights I have tried here to convey a bit of my personal faith, which I consider to be an entirely separate imperative than the collective trust put in the government. My personal faith is continually informed by beauty that often comes as an unexpected surprise. Years ago, sixteen years ago when I was still a missionary for the LDS church, a deep and profound impact was made upon my soul by Sufism, sometimes called the mystical side of Islam. I am unable to even approach describing this element of my faith without oversimplifying and insulting the tradition and place of mind that exists in others, explored and felt for generations. I have been profoundly touched by a blessing from an elder whose ancestors occupied this continent earlier than my European ancestors, a connection hoped for in the depth of my soul since as a child I kicked around the deserts of New Mexico, chasing lizards and horned-toads. I can only say that a secular enlightenment society affords the individual the opportunity to discover without threat of violence or oppression a world full of astonishing humane expression.
That the world is able to discover itself through its billions of individuals sharing chaotically and almost at random is also a blessing of evolution. I have faith that narrow, blind ideologies will be one of those appendages proved by evolution to be of no more use.
