Excerpt #18 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
The days of “my truth and tribe versus your truth and tribe” will ebb.
They must if we are to advance our civilization.
At our core, we want to survive, advance, and succeed as a species.
That is our evolutionary compulsion.
Still, we have a long way to go before we free ourselves of antiquated and destructive beliefs.
“O senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm and yet will make gods by the dozen!” – Michel Eyqyem de Montaigne
A Gallup poll found that 45% of Americans agree with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.”
Henry Morris and Robert Clark, authors of the book The Bible Has the Answer are among those who agree. They write, “Evolution is thus not only anti-Biblical and anti-Christian, but it is utterly unscientific and impossible as well. But it has served effectively as the pseudo-scientific basis of atheism, agnosticism, socialism, fascism and numerous other false and dangerous philosophies over the past century.”
This statement flies in the face of fossil records that clearly and unequivocally show human-types have existed for 5-6 million years and homo sapiens have been here about 300,000 years.
The War Between Science and Faith
“For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said, ‘Think!’ The many have said, ‘Believe!’” – Robert Ingersoll, Gods
In a choice between the “theory of creationism” and the “theory of evolution”, 57% chose creationism. Only 33% chose evolution. Ten percent were unsure.
It is no coincidence that almost without exception most who deny evolution are Christians that believe if God did not personally intervene in the development of life on earth, they have no basis for faith, morality, or meaning in life.
For some, the findings of science require an entire restructuring of belief systems and a denial of core faith.
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams
“Facts are stubborn things.” – John Adams
“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.” – James Madison