Evolution Vs. Creationism
Evolution vs. Creationism
Bob Glavey - Highlands Today - @/1/2008 - original
In the 17th century, the Catholic Church rejected the teaching of Galileo on the grounds that it contradicted Scripture. Today, one would be hard pressed to find anyone who would not accept Galileo's position.
The problem was not with Scripture, but with the church's understanding of both Scripture and the science Galileo taught.
Apparently, some members of the School Board of Highlands County have not learned that lesson and persist in making the same error the Catholic Church did centuries ago.
The creation myths of Genesis I and II affirm our belief in God as creator but cannot be understood as giving us a scientific historical description of creation itself. The first two chapters of Genesis both say the same thing but their particulars vary and contradict one another. Did God create man and women both at the same time and after he created animals as in Genesis I or did God create Adam and then the animals before taking a rib from Adam to make Eve as in Genesis II?
To affirm the privileged position of man in relation to the animals, Genesis II says Adam named all the animals. The point is well made. However, scientific evidence proved that the great dinosaurs had been extinct for over 60 million years before man appeared on Earth. Adam could not have named them and to insist that he did flies in the face of that evidence.
I believe creation is not something God did, rather creating is something God does. It is a dynamic and ongoing process of which scientists find evidence and call evolution. While the traces of the process and often not clear and there are many gaps in our understanding of it, the scientific evidence of the process of evolution itself is so overwhelming that must be accepted as "fact" and not just theory. My faith in not shaken by science.
Our obligation to educate our youth demands that evolution be taught in science classes as science, free from the imposition of our religious beliefs or interpretations. As parents and as teachers of our children concerning our faith, we are quite free to pass on our religious beliefs. However, science class is not the proper place for this.
Furthermore, in insisting upon imposing on Scripture an understanding of it which can be so forcefully rejected by solid scientific evidence, we are placing our children in a position where they could easily conclude that since some of what they have been taught concerning the Bible can be proven false, none of what they have been taught is true.
I urge the school board members to accept the standards for teaching evolution as set forth by the State Of Florida.
Bob Glavey
Sebring