rafferty@cmu-cs-edu1.ARPA (Colin Rafferty) (04/13/85)
Questions:
Where are we?
What are we?
Where did we come from?
Answers:
Nowhere.
Nothing.
The mind of an evil demon.
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What I mean is that, how do you know that you are even alive? How do you
know that you don't exist and the is only an evil demon out there making you
think that this is all happening? How do you know that (s)he isn't just
playing with you, and that your memories are shifting, such that this
instant you're a Seventh Day Adventist, but the in the previous instant, you
were Carl Sagan? You don't. And you could never prove this is true. Or it
isn't.
But it seems as though you exist, and that's all that matters. Since you
observe things going on, you might as well make some sense out of it. But
some logical sense. It is easy to believe that you are in the mind of this
demon and that no matter what you do, it's no problem, since you are
(relatively) safe. This is the same with Creationism.
If we were put on this Earth, then we belong here, and we don't really have
to worry. But if we sprang up over the course of 3.5 billion years, then
maybe we don't belong. Look at the dinosaurs: around for hundreds of
millions of years, then wiped out. maybe that's the way the humans will go.
BUT NOT IF WE WERE PUT HERE! If we are here for a purpose, then it's all
right. But if we sprang up due to this 'Survival of the Fittest' scheme,
then maybe we don't belong, and maybe something will come along that's
fitter than us. BUT NOT IF WE WERE PUT HERE!
What the main problem most Creationists have is that they are afraid of, not
their own, but mankind's mortality. By believing that they were placed
here, they don't have to worry about what could destroy mankind, but
Evolutionists do. The political forces that lean toward Nuclear War are
invariably Creationists: Reagan, Faldwell, etc. Those against are
invariably Evolutionists: Mondale, Sagan, etc. There is a definite
connection.
What can we do about this? The one thing that we cannot do is let this
feeling of safety be taught in the classrooms. If we send out a generation
of people who don't worry about their own future, and leave it in the hands
of Something else, then what is left of our future?
The main question is: How can we believe in something that has no
scientific basis and can neither be proven or disproven? This is not
scientific. (and everyone here seems to be scientists of one form or
another) How can we believe some thing on "faith"?
If I had to make a choice, I would chose Cartesians over Creationists. It
seems a much easrier way to look at things, and it is just as valid an
origin.
-Colin Rafferty { rafferty@cmu-cs-edu1.arpa }