I'm with Darwin

When I think of Darwin, I think of my brother. This association is partially connected to the fact that my brother was hooked on the “Darwin Awards” books when he was growing up, but mostly because of the way he thought. As a young teenager going through conformation he was the odd man out. He was the only student to ever declare his “statement of non-faith,” as he now refers to it. Our minister described my brother as “marching to the beat of his own drum” back then, and to this day it still holds true. At the time I was so surprised by my brother being an atheist I didn’t know how to react. I imagine that this is somewhat similar to how people reacted to Darwin’s theories of evolution years and years ago.

Today, I stand in the same place that my brother did. The more and more I think about God, Creationism, and organized religion as a whole the more it baffles me. I think back to when I was a small child in Sunday school listening to Bible stories and knowing that I would get munchkin donuts at the end of class was the only thing keeping me sane. I think back to when I was going through conformation and declaring my faith in god because I felt that is what I was supposed to do. Unlike my brother I didn’t have the guts to say what I was really thinking. Now I’m a sophomore in college reading about Darwin’s ideas and somehow it’s all making sense to me now: that religion has never impacted anything in my life up to this point and I don’t think it’s going to change. I’m with Darwin.

The stereotype of being an atheist entails extreme hatred toward organized religions and a turbulent lifestyle, but for me it’s not like that at all. I don’t discriminate against people who are in fact religious and I don’t dismiss their beliefs of the creation story. Learning other’s beliefs has given me a better understanding of other cultures. For example, reading “How to Teach Science to the Pope” opened my eyes to the Vatican’s Academy of Sciences. Brother Guy Consolmagno stated that “The idea that the universe is worth studying just because it’s worth studying is a religious idea. If you think the universe is fundamentally good and that it’s an expression of a good God, then studying how the universe works is a way of becoming intimate with the Creator. It’s a kind of worship.” Even though Brother Guy is very religious he can appreciate science as a type of worship in itself. I agree with him and believe that it’s important to explore the universe, though I don’t believe in a Creator myself.

Another piece that I found interesting this semester was Michael Shermer’s writing entitled Genesis Revised: A Scientific Creation Story. It is a bit satyrical, but overall I would say that it bridges the gap between the Evolutionists and Creationists by bringing in scientific ideas where at the same time explaining God as the creator of the universe. Shermer took something that can be incredibly controversial and turned it into something that everyone can laugh at. It’s a perfect depiction of a contemporary view of creation.

“But there were so many creation stories throughout the world God realized that this was confusing, so he created anthropologists, folklorists, and mythologists to sort it out. But confusion still reigned the valley of the shadow of doubt, so God became angry, so angry that God lost his temper and cursed the first humans, telling them to go forth and multiply themselves. But they took God literally and 6,000 years later there are six billion humans. And the evening and morning were the sixth day. So God said, Thank me its Friday, and He made the weekend. And he saw that it was a good idea” (Shermer 626).

I’m content with my beliefs as they stand today and I am thankful for having finally come to this revelation in my life. I am happy to learn about what other people believe and excited to learn more. I want to further my understanding of other cultures and hope to do so during next semester’s core classes. Until then I’m happy to say that I’m with Darwin. I believe in Evolution. I have no doubts that there will be more discoveries in our world that further explain where we come from, but until then I am content just being.

Appleman, Philip. “Darwin: On Changing the Mind” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip Appleman, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

Mason, Michael. “How to Teach Science to the Pope.” Discover Magazine. August 18, 2008.
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/18-how-to-teach-science-to-the-pope

Shermer, Michael. “Genesis Revisited: A Scientific Creation Story.” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip Appleman, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

"YouTube - Intelligence (IQ) - Religious - Atheist - Democrat - Republican." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .

This is a video that illustrates a survey that was taken across the nation of people's IQs and how it correlates to religious beliefs. Now considering how many people live in this country the numbers are kind of low, but overall I find it pretty amusing.

Darwin Revelation: Creationism vs Darwinism

The ideas that Darwin came up with about how everything evolved had been so revolutionary they stirred everyone. People began refusing the information Darwin was trying to convince them of and were convinced he was wrong. They wanted to continue to believe the story of Adam and Eve in the bible. Darwin transformed their views and made many people question their beliefs. This impact Darwin had over society and his community has formed into what humans know of today. People still, after all these years, pick sides on if they want to believe what they want or believe that science has all the answers.
There are many questions as to which is right and which is wrong. The truth is that there is no definite answer, and there probably never will. No one can prove creationism or even completely prove Darwinism. No one has proof that a higher power in form of a God exists and science is constantly proving itself wrong. “Science isn’t going to answer them, but science, by telling us what is there, causes us to ask these questions. It makes us go back to the seven days of creation—which is poetry, beautiful poetry, with a lesson underneath it—and say, ‘Oh, the seventh day is God resting as a way of reminding us that God doesn’t do everything.’ God built this universe but gave you and me the freedom to make choices within the universe” (Mason, Michael). If anything, science continues to add to our doubt. Science began to make people question their beliefs, and even those who continue to believe in their religion, have to fight against the people who are on science’s side.
Darwin gave an interesting definition to his idea of evolution. “’Evolution‘” in its most basic sense is a simple idea: Change through time has taken place. The universe has a history: The present is different from the past. Physical and chemical evolution include the formation of elements in the nuclear blast furnaces of evolving stars, the formation of galaxies, and the formation of star systems with planets. The earth has changed greatly in the past four billion years; the present is different from the past” (535, Appleman, Philip). He did get this fact correct, things are always changing. The beliefs of his time could differ from today, as well as today could differ from the future. Who’s to say that he found the definite answer? Somewhere down the road, other people might come up with other theories that make sense.
In the short story by Philip K. Dick titled “Tony and the Beetles,” it explains how different living creatures can be and the roles they can take. After finding out the beetles were winning the war against the humans for once, they turned against Tony. “’Get out!’” B’Prith screamed. “’Don’t come back! This is out planet!’” His claws snatched at Tony. “’We’ll tear you to pieces if you--’” (131, Dick, Philip K.). After being friends, the beetles shun Tony after the tables turn. This shows how fast people’s views can change. Along with Darwinism, so many people abandoned their beliefs leaving creationism in the dust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE6t9umyoqk

The link above is to a video located on YouTube about evolution and Darwinism. It states that “people want to be their own gods” (youtube). They are saying that people who supported Darwinism wanted to be right so much that they created evidence that was not valid. They drew pictures of a human fetus in multiple stages and renaming them to be different animals to show we arrived from the same common ancestor. If these images are fraud and there is no way of proving creationism, then there is no proof for either argument. Creationism and Darwinism will remain just an argument. No one may ever know which is right, but these findings, in both situations, has been very important for human societies. They have brought up more questions, which may lead us toward to right answer in the future. Finding out where we came from didn’t end with Darwin, it only began.

Bibliography
Appleman, Philip. “Darwin: On Changing the Mind” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip appleman, ed. New Yo: W.W. Norton, 2001.rk

Dick, Philip K. The Philip K. Dick Reader, New York: Citadel Press. 1987

Mason, Michael. “How to Teach Science to the Pope.” Discover Magazine. August 18, 2008. http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/18-how-to-teach-science-to-the- pope

"YouTube - Creation in the 21st Century - Facts vs. Darwinism 1 of 3." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 27 Nov. 2009. .