woefully ignorant still, and while we're at it, what was the point?

[acroyear]

One of the local freebie papers published 2 pro-ID letters to the editor that were both on the ignorant side, one of them so downright silly (and using an unverifiable name/town combo) as to imply it might have been an April Fools prank.  Well, the ignorance continues...

Loudoun Independent:

To the Editor:In your March 22 issue of the Loudoun Independent were two letters to the editor written in response to a previous letter apparently entitled, "Teach Intelligent Design." To put it mildly, both responders disagreed with the author of the referenced letter.

actually, both agreed ID should be taught and neither actually directly nor indirectly referenced the first letter.  The original letter was full of garbage as well ("This concept of evolution is that God does not exist, which is atheism"), not a single actual scientific fact was mentioned and it completely ignores the large collection of evidence we have.

Not having read the letter, but familiar with the gist of the subject in question, I immediately thought of the former baseball player who was once quoted as saying something to the effect that it was deja vu all over again. Then I thought of an ancient saying by the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible's Old Testament who wrote, "What has been will be again, what has been done, will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (NIV Version)

and this is relevant why?  And it wouldn't have taken you 2 minutes to google for the letter to find it at the loudouni.com website (of course, if its own search engine actually created links to the pages like any other search engine does, that would have been a nice feature...)

This is especially true in the area of human understanding and knowledge. But is can also be said of new scientific inventions which are all made from what is.

Evolution is not an invention.  It is a theory.  Things that are theorized are things that always were there only we hadn't yet reached a point of understanding them.  In 1839, Darwin understood what was always going on for the last 3 billion years of this planet's history and how it shaped the species we see around us.  In 1859, he published his findings.  Just as in 1905, Einstein understood that which was always there: energy and mass are interchangeable at an incredibly constant ratio.  The only discoveries were the pieces of evidence that were blowing holes in the idea of a 6000 year old earth all over the world, a long with a lot of newly discovered (to westerners at any rate) species throughout the Pacific islands.  Nothing was invented in evolution, though evolution has been a major piece of scientific work supporting a number of inventions like new pesticides and antibiotics.

Inventions are technology, sometimes done by scientists, sometimes built and tested using the scientific method, but are independent of the theories behind their design and their use.

Present day discussions on what we call science, as well as the subjects of abortion, homosexuality, etc. have each been discussed for thousands of years, and tend to prove the adage that people who are convinced against their will are of the same opinion still. Thus, there is little point in casting umbrage at people with a different understanding of controversial subjects.

How can we have had a discussion of evolution for "thousands of years" if we only knew about it for the last 150?  No, we shouldn't necessarilly cast umbrage at those with a "different" understanding, but we should cast umbrage at those who openly profess (or reveal through their writing and their discussion) that they show no understanding of what they are talking about.

Therefore, I have only a couple of questions for those who believe in "science" and the theory of evolution, and, as well, those who believe in Creationism. (1) "Where do you believe you will spend eternity? And (2) What is the scientific equation for Love? Faith? Hope? etc.?

This is so woefully irrelevant its actually depressing that it was wasted in print.

Harry E. Butts
Leesburg

It appears as though I'm going to have to actually write a letter and set all of this crap straight, 'cause the local garbage is making the national science blogs and embarrasing me in front of people I respect.

Comments

[katrinb.livejournal.com]

The "How will you spend eternity?" question makes me quietly furious. So these people worship a Deity, a Loving Father, who will torture them horribly forever and ever (or cause them to be tortured - the point remains) because they _believed the wrong thing about the origin of life_? What kind of merely human parent is that monstrously petty, let alone the supposedly All-Merciful One? For me to cause the kind of pain Hell is supposed to involve to my little Robert for a day, an hour, a SECOND, let alone for eternity - well, I can't think of something he could do that would justify that. Believing the "wrong" explanation for why things are? Not even close. Why would God do that to me forever and ever, even if evolution were as wrong as the creationists believe?
I know I'm not a Christian, and probably have no right to comment thereon, but even if I were, even when I was, I couldn't believe that. God HAS to be kinder than that (or else God is unworthy of worship and love).