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
