Does religion show its ignorance in science?

[Confused]

In 2004, the Gallup organization released a survey to Americans. There were three questions and the participants where asked to answer which one closely resembles their views on the origin and development of life:

1) we developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process

2) We developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but without any guidance by a God.

3) God created us as we are within the last 10,000 years or so.

Results:

1) 38%

2) 13%

3) 45%.

The company claims that the percentages haven't really changed much over the past two years.

So my debate question is obvious: How can we, as such an advanced society, with all the technology and knowledge we have now, still continue to refuse to see the truth in science? We accept DNA evidence in courts every day to convict criminal and none of us blink an eye, but DNA from the Human Genome Project the clearly shows the evolution, we ignore and pretend it doesn't exist.

Is religion dooming itself by holding on to antiquated beliefs?

[Confused]

No takers.

CS Lewis, John Polkinghorne, and even Augustine himself are quoted on how religion needs to understand science and apply it. Augustine writes in his commentary on Genesis:
Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and other elements of this world....... Now it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. THe shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but the people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.

[otseng]

Is religion dooming itself by holding on to antiquated beliefs?

Perhaps the survey simply reveals that evolutionists have failed to convince the public of the veracity of their claims.

[jcrawford]

Is religion dooming itself by holding on to antiquated beliefs?

Perhaps the survey simply reveals that evolutionists have failed to convince the public of the veracity of their claims.

Any theory which attempts to convince normal people that they evolved from sub-human primates in Africa is simply not very intelligently designed, since it fails to satisfactorily address the evolution and origin of racial features and characteristics other than to retrogressively associate them with sub-human African apes which obviously cannot rationally explain or account for the existence of the intelligently designed human mind, brain and soul.

[Confused]

Is religion dooming itself by holding on to antiquated beliefs?

Perhaps the survey simply reveals that evolutionists have failed to convince the public of the veracity of their claims.

Any theory which attempts to convince normal people that they evolved from sub-human primates in Africa is simply not very intelligently designed, since it fails to satisfactorily address the evolution and origin of racial features and characteristics other than to retrogressively associate them with sub-human African apes which obviously cannot rationally explain or account for the existence of the intelligently designed human mind, brain and soul.

How can you deny science? Tell me, if you were on a jury in the trial of a rapist, and the strongest case was based on the fact that the rapists DNA was inside the rape victim, would you convict (of course ruling out consensual sex 100% first)? If you had sex when you were 18, a one night stand, and didn't see the girl for another 18 months before she informed you that you were a dad, would you do a paternity test? Would you accept the results.

The entire human genome has been mapped out. The leader of all this is not only a scientist, but a Christian as well.

How about this:
The gene FOXP2 has a potential role in speech. The story begins (per Collins book, the Language of God) with the id of a family in England where 3 generations had severe difficulty in speaking, they struggled to process words based on grammar, to understand complex sentence structures, and move the muscles of their face, mouth, and voice box. The family was found to have a single letter of the DNA code misspelled in the FOXP2 gene on chromosome 7. THis is significant because this is duplicated in all mammals, except humans where two changes have occurred in the coding region of the gene.

Benjamin Warfield, a conservative Protestant theologian says: "We must not, then, as Christians, assume an attitude of antagonism towards the truth of reason, or the truth of philosophy, or the truths of science, or the truths of history, or the truths of critism. As children of the light, we must be careful to keep ourselves open to every ray of light. Let us, then, cultivate an attitude of courage as over against the investigators of the day. None should be more zealous in them than we. None should be more quick to discern truth in every field, more hospitable to recieve it, more loyal to follow it, whithersoever it leads".

Open your eyes. You are killing your own religion.

[Furrowed Brow]

I believe a similar survey was done in the UK with not dissimilar results. Though perhaps creationism not scoring quite as high.

I think several reasons for this are at play.

1) Superficially at least Creationism is easier to understand than evolution. And people have a tendency to gravitate towards answers they find easier to understand.

2) Though compulsory to 16 Science in UK schools is in catastrophic decline.

3) From my personal experience, teaching staff in other disciplines in the UK are themselves woefully ignorant of science. For example, on one parents evening at my son's school his English teacher admitted she had heard of Newton, but was not sure what he did. Arrgghhh!!!

4) Though now compulsory, there are several generations of people in the UK who could drop science lesson by the age of 13. To my eternal regret I was one of them. I can confirm I was never taught evolution in school because it was a subject limited to the biology syllabus.

[Confused]

Is religion dooming itself by holding on to antiquated beliefs?

Perhaps the survey simply reveals that evolutionists have failed to convince the public of the veracity of their claims.

Any theory which attempts to convince normal people that they evolved from sub-human primates in Africa is simply not very intelligently designed, since it fails to satisfactorily address the evolution and origin of racial features and characteristics other than to retrogressively associate them with sub-human African apes which obviously cannot rationally explain or account for the existence of the intelligently designed human mind, brain and soul.

And any human who claims intelligence yet turns blind when science offers so much truth is not very intelligent at all.

Origins of racial features are explained by many social evolutionists. Micatala and I have both read a book called "Guns, germs, and warfare". It is all about the theory of social evolution of racial distinctions as well as evolution of plants and cultures. Not an easy book to get through and other than the neurosurgeon who gave it to me to read and Micatala, I know of no other who have read it. But it does a great job in addressing these features.

[achilles12604]

No takers.

CS Lewis, John Polkinghorne, and even Augustine himself are quoted on how religion needs to understand science and apply it. Augustine writes in his commentary on Genesis:
Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and other elements of this world....... Now it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation in which people show a vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. THe shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but the people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.

You are really beginning to come into your own as far as debate and argument are concerned.

This is an outstanding analysis and realization about Christian beliefs and roots. Unfortunately, MANY Christians today have become lazy. They have come into a place where they simply accept whatever the current Christian trend is or what their pastors teach them.

I have said before and I say again now, this (among others) is a big reason why I do not attend large churches. In fact for the last 3 years I haven’t attended church at all. I have supplemented church with my own reading, bible and secular, my own worship and my apologetical studies. Sad to say many Christians today are unfamiliar with the beliefs and writings of our founders. They have no clue that Augustine wrote about Genesis. They would probably call me a liar if I told them that he agrees that Genesis wasn't meant to be a textbook.

Christianity was founded on the premise of facts and logical analysis of events. This was lost over time and today's faith is but a very poor representation of what it was meant to be. Christians do not have to turn off their brains in order to believe things that they do. They can maintain the highest intellectual and analytical prowess while still accepting their faith. Good for you for uncovering and understanding more about Christianity than MOST of the Christians I know personally.

[Cathar1950]

You are such a pessimist Confused. I bet your glass is half empty.

1) 62% believe "we developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process".


2) A whopping 87% believe "We developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but without any guidance by a God".


3) 55% think "we developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process"

We do need more and better reading math and science education everywhere always. It should also be fun and exciting.
They should be watching History and National Geographic programs reading all kind of things including Creation Science in social science and history classes.
Schools are little lockups where they train people to be used by corporate American. Many would like to get rid of these dens of Satan and liberalism while releasing them to a bunch of dumb parents sending them off to schools for religious indoctrination, except the rich and gifted, they will be sent to good private schools. Eventually the numbers would be 90% believing anything they are told by he sanctioned educated. I am not paranoid.

[achilles12604]

You are such a pessimist Confused. I bet your glass is half empty.

1) 62% believe "we developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process".


2) A whopping 87% believe "We developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but without any guidance by a God".


3) 55% think "we developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process"

We do need more and better reading math and science education everywhere always. It should also be fun and exciting.

I agree. Math and science education shoud be widely studied. . . .

62 + 87 + 55 = 204 %