Philoscifi

The Creationism vs. Evolution debate is a waste of time. Whose side am I on, you ask? Neither. I side only with Truth, and there is no Truth to be gained in this war. Just a lot of intelligent people on both sides wasting time and energy that could be spent doing something more profound and significant like finding the cure for cancer or new insights into their faith.

It is extremely unwise for Christianity to continually attack one of the best supported scientific theories. The evidence for evolution is overwhelming - just look at the fossil record that we have amassed so far, with new discoveries unearthed yearly. Yes, evolution has its holes, but none of these holes are so fatal that they render the basic theory untenable. In fact, this very same argument could be used to counter the issues I bring up in Religion’s stumbling blocks. Christianity has its problems too, but that doesn’t stop billions of people from believing in it. Carrying on this fight only makes Christianity look hypocritical - if you accept the great scientific wonders of medicine and engineering, then why so vehemently reject evolution, which was derived using the very same scientific method? Can a Christian do the same - pick and choose a la carte which doctrines he likes?

If Christianity wants to fight, there are easier targets - scientific theories equally damaging to Christian dogma but not as strongly supported. For example, the contention that there must be life on other planets, maybe even intelligent life. Christians believe that mankind is God’s special creation; God loved us so much, He gave us his only son, Jesus. That’s why the Catholic church used to preach that the earth was the center of the universe. What if we discover God has created other worlds and intelligent life; doesn’t this undermine the whole premise of Christianity? This theory clearly sits on weaker foundation than evolution - there may be trillions and trillions of stars and planets, but we have yet to find other life in the universe. Another fine target would have been the theory that consciousness and free will are illusions.

But really, Christians would do better not to butt heads with science at all. Haven’t they learned from their past mistakes, ie. “the earth is flat” and “the earth is center of universe?” Besides, evolution is not a crushing blow to Christianity, unless you are a Bible literalist. Any Christian can believe God created life using the process of natural selection. A “day” to God could be billions of human years. This even makes a great deal of sense; simple rules are easy to set up and can create very complicated forms (ie. fractals). As for evolution’s contention that natural selection is random - so what? This has nothing to do with whether God exists. So you aren’t happy with the idea we may be descended from ancient apes - there are worse indignities in life, I assure you. Besides, if you stop and think about it, it’s rather amazing and even spiritual (see Spiritual science).

As for science, it really needs to stop trying to destroy everything it considers “illogical.” For all its imperfections, religion is of immeasurable value to billions of people. If it were destroyed, what would replace it? Science is not in the business of creating inspiration, generosity, compassion, etc - though it might occasionally produce some. It’s ignoble to destroy something of value and replace it with nothing. There are many valuable things in this world that are not logical like hope, love, happiness, etc. Can you imagine a world without any of these things? Truth enables us to understand the world, but love and beauty gives us reasons to live in the world. Man needs all three of them.

Not that any religious leaders or scientists ever ask for my suggestions, but here they are anyway.

Christianity - It should step back and focus on its strengths. There are many important questions for which science has no satisfactory answers and may never produce any - questions like “what comes after death?” and “why we exist?” Stop arguing with science about “how” - discovering methods and processes is science’s strong suit.

Science - It should build bridges, not burn them. Stop getting into useless arguments; you cannot use logic to “win” over someone whose conviction is firmly entrenched in faith or intuition. Science, of all human pursuits, should know that we have reached a point where we need to think creatively. The cutting edge of science is showing us that the universe is far more mysterious and puzzling than we ever imagined (see Spiritual science). To have a hope of understanding it, we need to use all our available resources, including different faiths and intuition.

Religion and science are part of the same endeavor - the Pursuit of Truth. That is probably why they fight so hard; they are family. But they are too old to still be so immature - it’s time to grow up and start working together for the betterment of mankind.

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