Excerpt #30 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
Evolution is as well documented as any phenomenon in science, as strongly as the earth’s revolution around the sun. – Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist
“Young Earth creationists,” as they are generally known, have come up with their own theories to explain how cosmic history could be condensed into mere thousands of years. They are making this case in books, pamphlets, and lectures, as well as on a number of websites.
EVERY IDEA MEETS RESISTANCE.
Mainstream scientists consider their theories to be wildly out of line with reality, even though books describing them are often liberally sprinkled with references to authorities like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
As a result, physical scientists find themselves in a fight in which they have seldom played a public role. They have responded with a mixture of disdain, disbelief, and consternation.
“It’s the denial of what understanding we have of the origin of the universe in terms of modern science,” said Jerome Friedman, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1990.
Hume A. Feldman, a cosmologist at the University of Kansas who has worked at Princeton University and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, called the matter “frightening”. Excerpted from a piece written by James Glanz for the N.Y. Times News Service
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious, then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. – Albert Einstein, August 25, 1954
Evolution’s Truth Beyond Doubt
When Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution through natural selection in 1859, the scientists of the day argued over it fiercely, but the mass of evidence from paleontology, genetics, zoology, molecular biology, and other fields gradually established evolution’s truth beyond reasonable doubt.
Embarrassingly, in the 21st century, in the most scientifically advanced nation the world has ever known, creationists can still persuade politicians, judges, and ordinary citizens that evolution is a flawed, poorly supported fantasy. They lobby for creationist ideas such as “intelligent design” to be taught as alternatives to evolution in science classrooms. (Excerpted from Scientific American)
All the ills from which America suffers can be traced back to the teaching of evolution. It would be better to destroy every other book ever written, and save just the first three verses of Genesis. – William Jennings Bryan
If the Bible had said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I would believe it. – William Jennings Bryan
Belief in creation science seems to be largely a U.S. phenomenon. A British survey of 103 Roman Catholic priests, Anglican bishops, and Protestant ministers/pastors showed that 97% do not believe the world was created in six days; 80% do not believe in the existence of Adam and Eve. (News item in Religion Today)