Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Explaining Evolution

I really like how the teacher in this story explains evolution. I especially appreciate how he explains that the existence of God is a non-science question.

This is something that came up in the food books too. A lot of people have unscientific ways of dealing with the world. (And that's ok, a lot of the time.) But they often demand that scientific evidence be ignored, even on questions where there is a scientific answer. That frustrates and saddens me a lot. How can we get to a place where more people understand each other?

I wonder if an absolutist worldview can't tolerate anything that threatens the foundations of its self-justification. If we need Jesus to save us from the original sin of the first people in Eden, who were made in God's image, then evolution is a threat to your entire faith. That's a problem.
I want theologians to come up with a justification for conservative, born-again Christianity that's compatible with human evolution. That's a tall order. But we've let go of slavery, which the bible clearly tolerates, even offers guidelines on distinctions between good slavery and bad slavery. I feel like Christianity can change. And I know that it must. (My bet is that it will accept homosexuality first. It looks like I'm about to win my past bet that a black man would be president before a woman. I hope.)

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