THANKS FOR THE COMMENT

Finally, someone commented on my posts.  I put my thoughts on the web to hear your comments.  Thank you so much for your comment.

As I said in an earlier post, I have just been introduced to Evolution this semester.  I learn a little more about it every day.  I am definitely not an authority.  The point was made that Evolution’s explanation of the original formation of the cell is ridiculous.  Truthfully, I cannot disagree because I do not know much about it.  However, I will say that Evolution is simply an inference made from the evidence we have found.  I do not know how the first cell was formed but as we look back in time, we see that organisms are less and less complex.  The logical conclusion is that at some point life must have begun as a cell.  I don’t know how this cell was formed.  I’m okay with that. 

The comment was made that evolution is a state-sponsored religion.  I have to disagree, because religion is based on faith.  There is no testable evidence behind it.  Evolution is not based on faith.  It is a concept formed from observing the earth.  We look at the evidence we have and make logical conclusions.  Religion is not so. 

The point was made that there are parts of the body which could not have evolved because they are useless when not in their present stage.  Name one.

The Precambrian explosion was mentioned.  From what I have been told of this, it was a period of rapid development.  But evolutionarily speaking, rapid development could be fifty million years.  Calling it an explosion is misleading unless you understand the evolutionary time line.  The earth is estimated to be 4.7 billion years old.  So, yes relative to that amount of time, the phyla did evolve quickly.

Once again my state was interpreted differently than I meant it.  In my last post I mentioned female genital mutilation.  I asked the question “where is god?”  I did not say this proves there is no god.  But in all honesty can you really tell me that is part of god’s plan?  If this is true, god must have a horrible plan.  Again, the comment was made that bad things happen to teach us a lesson and again I say this is incredibly egotistical.  You are telling me a human being’s life was ruined so you could learn some stupid life lesson?  Where is your compassion?  Where is your love?  These atrocities should make you angry.  That’s love.  You should care enough for others to recognize their situation and realize that maybe god is not doing his part.  If all the evil in this world is part of god’s plan, he had better have an amazing explanation for all this.  I cannot imagine what he could say or do to make up for this.

Satan.  I hate when Satan is brought up.  The idea of Satan takes the blame off of humans.  People do bad things.  Satan does not rape or cause cancer.  Life is horror.  Life is pain and humans only add to that pain.  The myth of Satan allows Christians to feel better when they cause pain.  Satan is a scapegoat.

Thanks for the comment.  Comments are the only reason I’m writing.  I look forward to hearing more.

WHY?

I just read an online article about Female genital mutilation.  I have never heard of this practice before.  If you don’t know what it is, look at the name.  I’m not going to explain exactly what it is, but it is basically done so that women cannot feel pleasure during intercourse. 

I don’t know what to say.  I’m so pissed off I can barely see.  Where is God? 

PERCEPTION IS REALITY

DARWIN KILLED GOD

This semester I am enrolled in Principles of Biology 2.  Principles of Biology is the required, two semester basic biology course for Bio majors.  It’s general biology on steroids.  I really struggled through the first semester.  I didn’t like my teacher, I had just started working at a job that I instantly hated and the material was more dense than any course I’d taken before.  There were several reasons I had trouble last semester.  This semester we began learning about evolution.  When I first heard that we would be studying evolution, I was doubtful about its relevance and accuracy.  I was sure my teacher would walk into the classroom, tear religion to pieces and give us his own version of the way the world began. 

I had always thought of evolution as being the scientific opposite of creationism.  I thought a few liberal scientists did want to believe in any higher power because that would mean they would have to worship him and live by a code.  I thought their egos were too big and would not allow them to believe in any being that was smarter or stronger than them.  I thought this, because this is what I was raised (more like brainwashed) to believe.  I had never been taught evolution by my parents, school or church.  I sincerely believe my Jr. and Sr. school education greatly suffered because I live in the Bible belt.  I blame Christianity for my previous absence of knowledge concerning the concept of evolution.

As I said I was doubtful about being taught evolution.  I assumed I already knew all there is to know.  I thought evolution meant we came from monkeys.  I know I am not a monkey.  So, this cannot be right.  Monkeys aren’t even conscious of their own existence.  They don’t wonder why they are here.  Only humans do.  Humans have souls and this makes them completely different from animals.  Monkeys don’t have souls.

The first day of class my teacher walked in and changed my life.  He talked about Darwin and previous ideas of the world’s age.  He talked about all the hundreds of fossils that are evidence of evolution.  He talked about how we can watch viruses evolve.  He never mentioned evolution in regards to religion.  He never tried to be nice and say this shouldn’t affect your beliefs about god.  He was all business from start to finish.  He never talked about his own beliefs about god or religion or the origin of the earth.  He presented the facts and drew conclusions from them.

At first it didn’t occur to me what had happened.  But as the weeks came and went and I learned more and more, I slowly realized how simple everything is.  I had expected my instructor to give me his beliefs on evolution, but evolution is not a belief.  It is not a persons feeling from personal experiences or because of all the evil in the world.  It is not what you feel like religion.  Evolution does not make outrageous claims without evidence to support them.  Evolution demonstrates scientific observation at its highest state.  Evolution is the product of observing nature and analyzing fossils.  Darwin looked at nature and saw that species cannot be fixed and he realized that natural selection is the method by which they change.  Darwin did not come up with the idea of evolution.  What he did was come up with an idea of how evolution could happen, an idea that is still used today.

I don’t want to explain evolutionary theory here, perhaps some other time.  My purpose in writing this is to give you my own personal experience of a lack of scientific information being taught in a deeply religious community.  I feel cheated.  I cannot believe I lived for eighteen years without knowing how humans came into existence.  I am very bitter towards our school system because of their stupidity.  They have allowed their personal beliefs to blind them from scientific fact.  Yes, evolution is scientific fact.  It is referred to as the theory of evolution because truthfully nothing in science can be proven 100 percent true.  This is because we are always learning and never know what we will discover.  Calling evolution a theory is a formality.  It is a theory that the earth revolves around the sun.  Science cannot prove without a doubt that the earth revolves around the sun.  We know it happens just like we know evolution happens and we have an excess of evidence to support both.  However, they are both still said to be theories.

“Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution,” is a quote from Theodosius Dobzhansky.  This is the truth.  Evolution explains the world around us.  Without it, we would be lost.  We would not be able to understand our world or our own bodies.  Evolution should not be introduced to students in their freshman year of college.  It should be taught as soon as children are capable of understanding it.  It should be taught as the way the world works.  All other biology is understood through evolution.  So, to not teach it is to leave out a huge piece in the puzzle of life.  If I have children, they will be well educated in science and evolution before they are able to multiply.  When they ask me a question about the world, I won’t copout by saying “because god made it that way,” I will give my child the true scientific explanation.  Of course at first it will be a simplified explanation but it will lay the foundation in their mind for how the world works.  I wish I had been raised this way.  I would be so much more knowledgeable and intelligent, because I would understand the world and where I fit into it.  I will never, ever force my own beliefs about the origin of life or the afterlife on my children.  I will educate them in all beliefs and ideas, not just the popular ones of the day.

What do you think about my post?  Were you taught evolution and science from an early age?  Do you think a statement mentioning creationism as an alternate explanation to evolution should be included in science textbooks?  I want to know.  So please comment.

RETARDATION AND GOD