'10,000 Clergy' Sign On To 'Evolution Sunday'
How come judges say it's unconstitutional for us to bring "religion" into the science classroom, but nobody has a problem with bringing Charles Darwin into church?
I'll bet you didn't know Feb. 12 is "Evolution Sunday." To celebrate the 197th anniversary of Darwin's birth, 412 church congregations in 49 states have elected to observe "Evolution Sunday," as reported Feb. 8 on the "Get Religion Blog," www.getreligion.org (see "Coming soon to The New York Times). On that site you can read "An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science," purportedly signed by 10,000 assorted clergymen. Most of the congregations involved represent the usual suspects among the dying-on-the-vine mainline churches: UMC, PCUSA, Episcopals, Unitarians, et al.
The Open Letter claims that "the overwhelming majority [of Christians] do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook." Are we to understand that science textbooks are always to be read literally, as repositories of inerrancy? Or just until the next edition comes out with new sets of "facts" replacing the old?
It goes on, "Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth.Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts." How very postmodern. So if a deliberately contrived fable is able to transform someone's heart, is it "true"? What they're getting at, of course, is that the Bible is a work of fiction.
"We the undersigned Christian clergy from many different traditions..." who all have members stampeding en masse from their denominations, "urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge."
What they're talking about is a package of 19th century hugger-muggery that was very cutting-edge in Rudyard Kipling's day, but can't cut it anymore and only survives because it has become a kind of religion among the science establishment.
"We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth." How many different forms of truth do these people recognize?
"If you would like to sign this letter, please send an email to mz@uwosh.edu..."
That email address belongs to the brains behind this effort, Michael Zimmerman, a dean at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, b'Gosh--a biologist who also happens to be a long-time left-wing culture warrior. His publications, 60-plus pages of them, are listed on www.uaa.alaska.edu/provostsearch/index.cfm. When he's not proposing various Big Government actions to "heal our wounded planet," he's fulminating against "the threat of creationism." In fact, he's been denouncing creationism since 1986: a sure sign of a man in need of a constructive hobby.
That you could get 10,000 "clergymen" to sign this Open Letter doesn't speak well of the critical faculties of mainline churchmen. They're so afraid of being "close-minded" in matters of religion that they've jumped into bed with secularism's equivalent of the Inquisition.
Don't they know that no man can serve two masters?
I'll bet you didn't know Feb. 12 is "Evolution Sunday." To celebrate the 197th anniversary of Darwin's birth, 412 church congregations in 49 states have elected to observe "Evolution Sunday," as reported Feb. 8 on the "Get Religion Blog," www.getreligion.org (see "Coming soon to The New York Times). On that site you can read "An Open Letter Concerning Religion and Science," purportedly signed by 10,000 assorted clergymen. Most of the congregations involved represent the usual suspects among the dying-on-the-vine mainline churches: UMC, PCUSA, Episcopals, Unitarians, et al.
The Open Letter claims that "the overwhelming majority [of Christians] do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook." Are we to understand that science textbooks are always to be read literally, as repositories of inerrancy? Or just until the next edition comes out with new sets of "facts" replacing the old?
It goes on, "Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth.Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts." How very postmodern. So if a deliberately contrived fable is able to transform someone's heart, is it "true"? What they're getting at, of course, is that the Bible is a work of fiction.
"We the undersigned Christian clergy from many different traditions..." who all have members stampeding en masse from their denominations, "urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge."
What they're talking about is a package of 19th century hugger-muggery that was very cutting-edge in Rudyard Kipling's day, but can't cut it anymore and only survives because it has become a kind of religion among the science establishment.
"We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth." How many different forms of truth do these people recognize?
"If you would like to sign this letter, please send an email to mz@uwosh.edu..."
That email address belongs to the brains behind this effort, Michael Zimmerman, a dean at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, b'Gosh--a biologist who also happens to be a long-time left-wing culture warrior. His publications, 60-plus pages of them, are listed on www.uaa.alaska.edu/provostsearch/index.cfm. When he's not proposing various Big Government actions to "heal our wounded planet," he's fulminating against "the threat of creationism." In fact, he's been denouncing creationism since 1986: a sure sign of a man in need of a constructive hobby.
That you could get 10,000 "clergymen" to sign this Open Letter doesn't speak well of the critical faculties of mainline churchmen. They're so afraid of being "close-minded" in matters of religion that they've jumped into bed with secularism's equivalent of the Inquisition.
Don't they know that no man can serve two masters?
