> << Most of the fundamentalists that I know want/need something absolutely
> solid to base their worldview upon. Many times have I heard the
> question "if
> you start questioning the Bible, where do you stop?" Its not that these
> people won't or can't think, many of them have good analytical
> skills. They
> are not really cretins. Many of them are caring, sensitive individuals.
> They are just individuals who have an inherent discomfort with
> the idea of
> gray areas. >>
I may have posted this to the list in the past, so if I have, I apologize
for the duplication. I found this to be very interesting and thought
provoking. The origin and the writer of the article are specified below....
Gary
+ + + + + + + +
And God Said, Let There Be Light in Kansas
By Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 14, 1999; Page C01
Memo to: The members of the Kansas Board of Education
From: God
Re: Your decision to eliminate the teaching of evolution as science.
Thank you for your support. Much obliged.
Now, go forth and multiply. Beget many children. And yea, your children
shall beget children. And their children shall beget children, and their
children's children after them. And in time the genes that have made you
such pinheads will be eliminated through natural selection. Because that is
how it works.
Listen, I love all my creatures equally, and gave each his own special
qualities to help him on Earth. The horse I gave great strength. The
antelope I gave great grace and speed. The dung beetle I gave great
stupidity, so he doesn't realize he is a dung beetle. Man I gave a brain.
Use it, okay?
I admit I am not perfect. I've made errors. (Armpit hair--what was I
thinking?) But do you Kansans seriously believe that I dropped
half-a-billion-year-old trilobite skeletons all over my great green Earth by
mistake? What, I had a few lying around some previous creation in the
Andromeda galaxy, and they fell through a hole in my pocket?
You were supposed to find them. And once you found them, you were supposed
to draw the appropriate, intelligent conclusions. That's what I made you
for. To think.
The folks who wrote the Bible were smart and good people. Mostly, they got
it right. But there were glitches. Imprecisions. For one thing, they said
that Adam and Eve begat Cain and Abel, and then Cain begat Enoch. How was
that supposed to have happened?
They left out Tiffany entirely!
Well, they also were a little off on certain elements of timing and
sequence. So what?
You guys were supposed to figure it all out for yourselves, anyway. When you
stumble over the truth, you are not supposed to pick yourself up, dust
yourself off and proceed on as though nothing had happened. If you find a
dinosaur's toe, you're not supposed to look for reasons to call it a
croissant. You're not big, drooling idiots. For that, I made dogs.
Why do you think there are no fossilized human toes dating from a hundred
million years ago?
Think about it.
It's okay if you think. In fact, I prefer it. That's why I like Charlie
Darwin. He was always a thinker. Still is. He and I chat frequently.
I know a lot of people figure that if man evolved from other organisms, it
means I don't exist. I have to admit this is a reasonable assumption and a
valid line of thought. I am in favor of thought. I encourage you to pursue
this concept with an open mind, and see where it leads you.
That's all I have to say right now, except that I'm really cheesed off at
laugh tracks on sitcoms, and the NRA, and people who make simple declarative
sentences sound like questions?
Oh, wait. There's one more thing.
Did you read in the newspapers yesterday how scientists in Australia dug up
some rocks and found fossilized remains of life dating back further than
ever before? Primitive, multicelled animals on Earth nearly 3 billion years
ago, when the planet was nothing but roiling muck and ice and fire. And
inside those cells was . . . DNA. Incredibly complex strands of chemicals,
laced together in a scheme so sophisticated no one yet understands exactly
how it works.
I wonder who could have thought of something like that, back then.
Just something to gnaw on.
Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
