The split between those who believe in evolution and those who don't gets all the press, but the divide between those who believe the world is less than 10,000 years old and those who believe it's billions of years old is nearly as big. Not only is it nearly as big, but it's even more astounding a difference.
On one side, ten thousand years. On the other, four billion.
10,000 vs. 4,000,000,000.
One side believes the world to be four hundred thousand times older than the other.
That's a hell of a difference, isn't it? Why doesn't anybody talk about it? Why all the focus on evolution?
13 comments:
Interesting point.
Honestly? I think it's because only people who have something to gain or lose from their viewpoint are even paying attention to this debate at all. I honestly think it's off the radar for most of the country, and a lot of people (whatever side they're on) tend not to realize there's even a debate going on. Many people just take it as a given that everyone sees the world exactly the way they do - so to question it is silly.
The debate is there solely because it conflicts with the faith of many. And whenever there's faith, there's the lemming-mentality which goes with it, directly resulting in so much evil. I don't see how Laura can say it's off the radar, especially in light of the poll results shown in the original message. Creationism threatens congressional scientific research funding directly. Even worse, all creationist arguments in the U.S. get picked up and echoed by Muslim extremists, thus helping terrorism and endangering all of us. Time to oppose the nonsense, I say.
I think that the reason no one is talking about it is that it’s just too embarrassing to admit that so many people are living in a self made fantasy world.
Yes, some people believe evolution took place over a period of 10,000 years.
These inquiries are funnier each time they are posed.
Has anyone on this blog ever even been asked what TV show they watch?
That's a good challenge.
I also like the catagories of people questioned. No category for Evangelical Christians? Mormons?
Folks who haven't been in church for 20 years? Those who own homes?
Those who have only voted democrat since they were legally able to vote?
Not specific enough for my taste.
I think most people combine the two topics: evolution\old earth versus creation\new earth.
Firstly, Ja your blog is excellent.
It may be that evolution gets too much attention, but I strongly disagree with ja that the "age" issue is more important--true, the differences on that issue are numerically large (400,000x), but the evolution argument runs deeper--if humans are well-developed monkeys, that creates a totally different field of inquiry than that of religion as far as what a human should do with his life. People are most interested in what affects their life, especially when it cuts to the very core of their life goals. The "age" issue also cuts to the core, but only as far as successfully disproving the literal understanding of the Bible (which is also the Talmud's understanding, as proven extensively throughout a certain issue of Jewish Observer--that issue was a response to the Slifkin debacle).
Evolution, on the other hand, completely shakes up the foundations on which society was built.
Plug: I hope to start blogging soon at www.musicalrevelation.co.nr
I am always amazed that African Americans seem to be the most closed minded group when it comes to thinking rationally about religion.
Their ancestors, (most of them), were forced into adopting Christianity when they were brought to the new world as slaves.
Doesn't that bother them?
I would like to know what percent of them believe that God or Jesus is a white man.
But who did that survey, where, and how representative is it?
Sorry, it was Gallup
I've been told that in order to be a Christian, I had to believe that the earth was exactly as described in Genesis and that all creation, including the formation of humans in modern form, took place in six 24-hour days.
I am a Christian, and at this point in such discussions I usually just walk away. One need not believe in a "young earth" in order to have faith in God. Such people as do believe this seem to have more faith in the all-too human writers of the Bible than in God's transcendence, which can not be bound by our notions of time or space.
As for God or Jesus being "white", God, as told to Moses, is simply "I am." Jesus was "white" only in the limited sense that he was ethnically a Jewish man living in first century Palestine. Jesus' race is not relevant, and God doesn't belong to a race.
Religious fundies are a slippery group.
They try to pretend ID doesn't necessarily have anything to do with God for example.
I finally agree with Jewish Philosopher, the two go hand in hand. Evolution needs a lot of time to develop, but there is too much physical proof that the earth is ancient, for example, geological layers and light years when it comes to stars. So creationists stick with evolution to poke holes in publicly. But it all comes down to the same idea of believing in a literal bible. I also find it funny that some apologists say that time was different when God created the universe....each day represented millions of years. I notice how they don't say billions of years, which would be closer to the truth.
I've referenced this study on my blog and often use the term YEC; Young Earth Creationist. It is very telling that 65% of those who are YECs didn't finish high school, while only 25% those who complete college are YECs. And most likely 0% of those who took the sciences.
r10b:
There's no question that the First Amendment has helped religion more than it's hurt it. Compare to Britain which has an official state religion and a higher rate of atheism among its people. I'm willing to live with that because I think it's worth keeping the First Amendment even if it does lead to the insane levels of religion found in the U.S.
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