I’m sure I’ve had this thought elsewhere on For the Sake of Science, but it deserves repeating.
I love when the religious call evolution or atheism or whathaveyou “religion”. They’re trying to expunge any merit from the expressed belief(s) by associating it with the emptiness of what they hold dear. Sure, they’re horribly wrong and have no clue how to define “religion”. But if they want to debase my beliefs by inherently debasing the very idea of religion, then I’m going to have a hard time objecting.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Thought of the day |
For the Sake of Science 
Wrong. What the creationists are doing is saying that scientists are just like them, work just like them, and rely on faith and authority just like them. What they are saying is that science is no better than religion. No better than explaining the world and no better at explaining Man’s place in the world.
But, and this is the important part, Christianity is superior to all other religions because Christianity is true, and even says so. Because it is true you can trust it when it says it is true. The problems with that line of reasoning I shall leave as an exercise for others.
Please remember that Christian fundamentalists do not see their faith as being wrong in any way. Ascribing our views of the religion to upholders of it will not work. They believe it, they defend it. It is their goal to promote Christianity above science, and since science has proven so effective, the goal is to object to that science which contradicts their beliefs and—the important part here—makes humans out to be nothing special in the scheme of things (my emphasis).
So no, the creationists are not out to show that evolution is just as empty as their religion. Creationists are out to show that the theory of evolution is a worse explanation of how life came to be as it is, with no understanding of how science works.
But they never go so far as to describe all that. They simply leave it at “Atheism is a religion” or “Evolution is a religion”.
I understand that they believe their religion is right above all else (and have had this pointed out with discussions with friends), but that still leaves open the implication that atheism/evolution/science/whatever is bad because it is religion. The religious obviously don’t intend to undermine the very idea of religion, but that is the precise effect of what they’re doing.
Evolution is not bad because it is religion, it’s bad because it’s the wrong religion. Darwinism (to rip off the creationists) leads people away from God’s own faith, Christianity, and so damns people to eternity in Hell. Though why a merciful God would want to stick anybody in a very bad place for no purpose whatsoever is beyond me.
To understand the irrational and illogical it helps to think irrationally and illogically. :)