On Feb 12, 2009, at 12:30 AM, Supriya Nair wrote:
I wasn't aware that Catholic teachings in the States trod the
Proddie line
on this count? For some reason I was under the impression that
Creationism
is a preoccupation particular to [some] Protestant sects in the United
States. Several Catholic friends have told me that their church
discussions
[in Bombay] have been holding up this view of things for a while now
- to
say nothing of state schools run by parishes which teach both the
Catechism and evolution; thankfully not in the same class.
Rabid creationism is not normally associated with Catholicism, but it
is not strictly a Protestant affectation either; in other parts of the
world it is often associated with Islam. It has become more of a
monkey-brain political position than a religious one in many cases;
the religion is merely a rationalization.
It is predominantly the preoccupation of some Protestants in the US,
and not just in the deep south, but I would characterize it as a side-
effect of a more fundamental tribal dynamic. Most people that profess
to believe in evolution are as ignorant of evolution as the
Creationists, it is just the credo of their team, which is the same
reason most Creationists believe in creationism. Very few people
reasoned their way into those positions on either side, and it is
largely an accident that one side is sometimes more correct than the
other side from any kind of reasonable perspective.
If you go over the list of political issues that people like to make a
fuss about, there is plenty of delusional and anti-scientific
propaganda to go around on every side. Religion is used to rationalize
some of it, but much of the time these types of issues simply fulfill
an obsessive need in US politics to create a false dichotomy for every
topic.
Cheers,
J. Andrew Rogers
