gjerawlins@watdaisy.UUCP (Gregory J.E. Rawlins) (09/14/85)
In article <672@ihu1m.UUCP> jho@ihu1m.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen) writes: > [.........] >The bottom line is that evolution is the antithesis to Christianity. >Evolution should be opposed because propagating evolution undermines >the faith. As I did not see this argument previouly on the net, >I wonder whether any of you feel that if evolution is true then >the logical conclusion is that Christianity is false. Even if the question is >not phrased as: "Either Christianity or evolution" do you think >that teaching evolution undermines the religion? >-- >Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories >Naperville, Illinois, Mail: ihnp4!ihu1m!jho (Please note that i have removed net.religion from the distribution list of this note, i see no reason why we should be subjected to more quotes from <holy book of your choice> attempting to "prove" something.) About the question as to whether evolution and creationism are antithetical: I don't see that anyone who believes in <god of your choice> must of necessity attempt to disprove evolution anymore than it was necessary for christianity to force Galileo to recant; _catholicism_ on the other hand was forced to do this because of the doctrine of infallibility and their previous stance - it's reduces to a question of power and questionability of the _church_ not the religion. It seems to me that the theist can be comfortable with evolution simply as the _mechanism_ that his/her god uses to realise its purpose. So i would conclude that evolution does not itself threaten religion, the current furore is not -as far as i am concerned- about "creationism vs evolution" but a reaction from _christianity_ trying to regain lost ground lost to science over the past thirty years. On a slightly different note: Why is it that discussions about "creationism" in this newsgroup (or, indeed, anywhere else in north america) always take "creationism" as _biblical_ ?? Is there any particular reason why -even if we could disprove evolution- that this _implies_ that the biblical account is correct? I get the distinct impression that all of the discussions we have had in this newsgroup have not been about "Creationism vs. Evolution" but "Christianity vs. Science". Maybe we should rename to net.science-vs-religion. (or more accurately: net.science-vs-(christian)religion. ) greg. -- gjerawlins%watdaisy@waterloo.csnet Gregory J. E. Rawlins gjerawlins%watdaisy%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CS Dept., U. Waterloo {allegra,utzoo,inhp4,decvax}!watmath!watdaisy!gjerawlins Waterloo, Ont. N2L3G1