Centroids : It is clear that I have been spoiled by this group. Just concluded a series of e-mail exchanges with Ray Adams, the founder and director of the site, American Traditions magazine / American Traditions.org. Originally got in touch with him inasmuch as his views on the issue of homosexuality are very similar to my own. Indeed, I have found that my views on this subject are similar to those of many other "fundamentalist" Christians. Alas, there the story seems to end. Actually not quite, but in general terms. My assumptions , this exchange of opinions has made it clear twice over, are Radical Centrist in character, up and down the line. This is good but it also is bad since I also tend to assume that RC truths are so obvious that they are universal, when , obviously, this is not the case. Adams made my blood boil, to be candid about it. For him it necessarily is the case that the entire Right-wing set of values is right and any other perspective on events is dead wrong and, worse, that all other viewpoints are reducible to secular Leftism. Apparently this includes all other forms of Christian faith. As well as all other religions, minus the exception of Islam ( we also basically agree on that issue ), also become, magically, the same thing, denominations of Heathenism. Where we really got into a fight ( gentlemanly, but a fight nonetheless ) was on the issue of evolution. I had not realized, although I should have known better, that there still were any pure anti-evolutionists " out there." The Left also is anti-evolution, but with a different take, those people object to sociobiological implications, essentially, since this new science says that natural equality is a fiction. Which the evidence clearly shows is the case. But to accept this view it becomes necessary to question "enlightenment" philosophy, which the Left refuses to do. So the Left more-or-less can live with animal evolution at a very basic level but only as long as it is kept separate from actual thought and is primarily used as a club with which to beat up on Christian rightists. Adams, a lawyer by training, defends Intelligent Design tooth and nail. He insists on associating it with opposition to homosexuality and to Islam as if, if you are an evolutionist, you necessarily must also be pro-homosexual and pro-Islam, since that is the paradigm of the Left. Or the only paradigm that the hard Right recognizes. Similarly all the Heathens must, by his logic, all feel the same way , and evidence that, for example, Buddhists are anti-abortion and critical of homosexuality, simply does not register. It doesn't fit the model that Adams and other Rightist Christians assume is the only way to conceive the world. Pat Robertson, in comparison, is a Liberal Christian out in Left field. Granted, 'ol Pat is everyone's crazy uncle, but usually the man is stable and usually does his homework, or some homework anyway. Adams went to lengths to "disprove" evolution, all of his opinions reflecting a view of evolution that, far as I know, no-one maintains. By this view new species arise via species interbreeding. Actually the process involves population isolation over an extended period of time, and environmental stress which demands ( or rewards ) adaptation. Then there is "Snowball Earth," the now well-established fact that until about 650 million BC our planet was frozen over, everywhere. This had lasted millions of years and when it was done, what life had survived did so, it seems, only in the vicinity of probably 13 geothermal hotspots, undersea volcanoes. So, when the ice broke apart and the Big Melt was under way, these 13 populations had the run of the planet and the result, after a few million more years, was the Cambrian Explosion. Speciation on steroids, like nothing before or since. But to Adams, the Snowball Earth never existed --he had not even heard of the concept before I brought it up-- and the Cambrian Explosion therefore is an example of Intelligent Design in nature as God, ex nihilo, invented scores of exotic species the way that Picasso created his paintings. For the hellovit, because they look pretty, or whatever. It will take a while for my brain to recover. This is faeryland stuff, the Mad Hatter and Alice-in-Wonderland, but actually believed-in by a professing Christian. One useful lesson, as bad as the Left often is, once more, after a good number of years and many transitions in life, comes a reminder that there are reasons for the disdain of the Left for the lunatic Right. Which is tragic since that same Right, on some issues, is absolutely right. But why in hell don't they understand science ? They just don't. They are clueless. Consequently they look like idiots to everyone else. Bits and pieces of my run-in with Adams have leaked into some of my comments here in past days. Now you know the full story. Billy
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