Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch sudty at Cmabribrigde Uinervitsy, the oredr taht wrods are in deosn't mttaer. Waht mttaers is taht the fsirt and lsat ltteers are in the rghit pclae.

Your mind fills in the blanks. Fcsatnanig!

This site has provided me a ton of amusement over the years. Go check it out, but make sure to get totally pumped up first!

I saw a reference to this article on a news-type site that I frequent, and had to check it out because it sounded mildly amusing. It's not as funny as I had thought (or hoped) it would be, but the biggest thing that I did find interesting (and somewhat amusing) is that this reviewer, who in this case represents the Christian mindset (or "The Church") for all intents and purposes, is in listing all of the reasons why someone shouldn't listen to the album, showing exactly why people will absolutely listen to the album. It all boils down to one word.

Relevance.

Bryan wrote an excellent post on evolution in response to my commentary below that I would encourage everyone who reads this blog to check out. Regardless of your individual beliefs I think it's necessary to understand other beliefs and ways of thinking and that we shouldn't shelter ourselves from ideas, opinions, and convictions that are different from our own.

Below are my comments/responses to some of the points he made, but keep in mind this is a friendly debate and I'm not going to let it get to an emotional level. I'm only saying that because I don't know who all reads this blog and occasionally you get a comment or two from some wing-nut that's just out to stir the pot.

In regards to the comment on evolution where you stated that "It didn't ask me to blindly believe or have faith in something. The evidence was there if I wanted to examine and critique it.", I would argue that evolution and other theories that have been tied to it, such as the big bang, require faith in the exact same way that belief in a Creator does. For instance, there is evidence that suggests evolution occurs, or that the explosion of stars were the catalyst for life in our universe, however neither of those have been unequivocally proven or replicated. It requires a leap of faith to believe that they are the best explanation given the evidence at hand.

In regards to feral children, "They do not know how to hope for a better life, they do not understand the need to make something of themselves.", in that I would say the very fact that they attempted to survive at all is evidence of hope. Maybe not hope in a higher power, but hope none the less. I don't believe that hope is necessarily a conscious decision where one reflects to oneself and says, "If I just hold on, there will be a better tomorrow", but rather it's a core element so deep within us that sometimes we're not even aware of it. We just keep on keeping on because it's in our make up. I also believe that this core element can be quenched by despair when a person focuses more on the condition(s) they are in, and it overpowers what's inside of them.

"I think that religion has had a huge impact on the evolution of society, on government and law, however, it's explanation of the physical manifestation of mankind is not only outdated but also unproven and uninsightful." Absolutely agree with you, with the exception of it being uninsightful. Webster defines insight as the ability to see into a situation or discern the inner nature of something. I would argue that when a person stands on a mountain and takes in the view, or watches the sunset over the ocean for instance and feels or senses the massiveness of the creativity and splendor of it, that they are seeing God through that experience. I do agree that religion has become outdated (though I'm not trying to defend religion as a system) in that it is no longer relevant. When used as a system to control, or as a corporate guideline for living, it loses any and all authenticity that was there in the first place. I would also argue that like Creation, evolution is unproven in that to date there is no undeniable, evidence that humans evolved from lower life forms. There is evidence that suggests that is the case, but suggestion and fact are different things entirely.

"I do reject the notion that without these mankind would have been incapable of coming to this same point without those beliefs, and that the path that mankind has taken is just one of the many that we could have taken." Again, I would argue that this is something you are taking on faith based on the evidence you have been presented, and not something that you accept because it has been unequivocally proven before your very eyes.

"The truth is true whether you want to believe it or not...it doesn't need you to make it true. That lie about everbody having their own truth inside of them has done a lot of damage and made people crazy."- Bob Dylan (in his notes for the Biograph album)

I think arguments like this are caused by two (or more) people who are on different paths but still looking for the same thing. Truth. I think the search for truth is one of those innate, instinctual needs that all human beings share. You can see evidence of this throughout history. Mankind has always tried to make sense of, and summarily control, the world that he lives in. I believe there is a need in all of us to find out if we matter (or to say it another way, is there meaning to life), and we look to truth to answer this question. If I'm just an accident then I don't matter, which is going to dictate how I live and how I interact with others. If I'm not an accident, then I might matter, in which case that is going to dictate how I live and how I interact with others. We need truth because its what we anchor to and fall back on when crisis hits, when decisions need to made, and when sacrifice is required. And not knowing is usually more brutal than knowing. At least then we can get on with things. Where did it all begin, because that's where we find our identity and future. I'm not saying they don't exist, but I've yet to meet someone who takes an "I don't care" stance on the whole debate.

I find this whole debate extremely fascinating for many reasons, but one of the most interesting aspects is that both sides accuse the other of things that they themselves exhibit. In many of these cases I think it's become a case of being right instead of finding truth. Because if I'm right, then I'm in control and can't be threatened or challenged by anyone who believes differently than me. The world fits in a nice little box that I can make sense of. Or maybe it's "I don't have to be right, I just have to prove you wrong because then I might be right.".

If life has no meaning I'm free of any obligation to do anything other than what the laws of society dictate, and even then I don't have to follow them. I'm not obligating to make anything of myself, become more than I am, or create. Yet people are the only animals that seems to be trying to become more than they are. Yeah a chimp has been to space, but I don't recall hearing that he volunteered or helped build the rocket.

Just speaking from a personal basis, evolution never rang true with me as an explanation of why we're all here. I'm not so concerned about the "how", but at least for me knowing the "why" is crucial. It could be argued that because of my upbringing I'm predisposed against evolution, but I'd like to think that I'm a free thinker, and I have family members who come from the same background who do believe in evolution. All that said, I don't believe that people who subscribe to evolution are evil, stupid, "of the Devil", going to Hell, or ignorant. And in fact I'm not out to try and prove evolution wrong. Whether or not someone believes in evolution is irrelevant when it comes to what really matters. And for that matter, I think most of the evangelicals have it wrong when it comes to Creation. At least as far as their attitudes and presentation of it.

I see too much in the human spirit to believe that we're all accidents. That random mutations over time explain our capacity to love, dream, and hope. If this was all an accident, then I have no incentive to treat others with basic human decency other than where the law provides consequences. If we’re all accidents it shouldn’t matter if I steal another man’s wife because a) he’s an accident and doesn’t deserve her, b) I’m an accident and don’t know any better, c) she’s an accident and therefore shouldn’t care less after all her first concern should be furthering the species, and d) if we (the wife and I) are prime specimens of the species then we’re actually making the species better. But it doesn’t work like that does it? We consider another's emotional health and well being even if they're weaker or we perceive them to be less deserving.

And you would think we'd have evolved beyond love by this point because for the most part it makes the majority of us emotional wrecks who do ridiculous things to prove it or cope with it. And love isn't required to further a species anyway. Just the desire to procreate.

And what about hope? I would argue that hope is the key to humanity's future survival. We hope for the abolition of evil and suffering. We even hope we just make it through the day. The opposite of hope is despair, which is characterized by feelings of inadequacy, meaninglessness, and frustration. In looking at the efforts of the human race throughout history there has always been an overwhelming drive towards hope and an overwhelming urge to get away from despair. So much so that we’ve created drugs and invented medical terms to diagnose it. If hope isn’t necessary, I wonder how some of the concentration camp Jews survived the Holocaust? Hope? Harvard studies (Prof. Jerome Groopman) have been done on the effects of hope on illness and suggest that hope can make the difference between recovery or failure. Without hope life is meaningless, yet here we are striving to become something greater. I don’t see that as a product of multiple random chances and the innate urge to copulate with the most attractive of the species.

If we’re accidents nothing matters. We’re effectively released from any and all responsibility. But if I know myself and others are created for a purpose, then all of a sudden it matters.

I don't think the issue is whether or not we descended from apes, or whether or not we were created in six literal days or six metaphorical days. I think the real issue is "what is the truth?". Because the truth tells us whether or not we matter. And whether or not we matter, dictates what the future looks like for all of us.