State and Church
stand together: In the UK the state church and the non-conformists can do
business with one another. Here Rev Mark Tall of Norwich Central Baptist church
talks with the Bishop of Norwich, Graham James. See here.
I’ve been reading reports that teaching “creationism”
is to be banned in the UK’s publicly funded schools. According to UPI:
The government released a new set of funding
agreements last week including clauses which specifically prohibit
pseudoscience…….The funding agreement defines creationism as "any doctrine
or theory which holds that natural biological processes cannot account for the
history, diversity, and complexity of life on earth and therefore rejects the
scientific theory of evolution," and goes on to note that this idea is
rejected not only by the scientific community but most mainstream churches as
well.
Strictly I’d
classify myself as an “Intelligent Design creationist” (or an “IDiot” as evangelical
atheist Larry Moran puts it!) but I’m certainly not a fan of the two kinds of
creationism which this ban is probably targeting. These two kinds of
creationism are:
ONE) The creationist “science” of the Biblical literalists
who push for a 6000 year old Earth/Cosmos. These people have in effect an anti-science agenda
and this agenda is all too apparent in the flawed premise concepts with which
they interpret scripture; in particular the ideas of mature creation and the bogus
distinction between observational and historical science. This in turn leads
them to mangle well established science such as the speed of light and cosmic
ages.
Relevant links:
TWO) The
creationists of the North American Intelligent Design movement who in most
cases accept that the Earth and Cosmos are very old. They have, however, raised
some interesting and worthy challenges to evolution. (Although I must qualify that
by admitting that I'm no biologist). Nevertheless, I believe that the
underlying philosophy/theology driving North American ID is flawed; for instead
of using their critique of evolution as a basis for enhancing theories of
natural history they have by and large opted for a god-of-the-gaps dualism
whereby the black-box-intelligence of God makes good what they claim to be
failings in evolutionary theory. UD poster V.J. Torley is typical of
this breed. This has led them to embrace a culture that is very
anti-evolutionary and anti-public-academic-establishment, perhaps even “fighting”
alongside YECs and rightwing politico-fundamentalists as allies. They have
mostly ended up criticizing science and seldom being constructive. However, having
said that I must add that Granville Sewell has recently posted a UD entry where intelligence is acknowledged as a process
with a history rather than a catch-all-black-box; this is the first time I have seen something like this, so things might be looking up!
But otherwise these creationists have muffed their opportunity in my opinion.
Relevant links:
***
The big problem
with both these kinds of creationism goes right back to a point I picked up from Ken Miller when
I first started studying the ID movement; that is, both versions of creationism
proceed with an a priori background philosophy/theology
that takes for granted a God vs Nature
dichotomy. The consequence is that it
casts the whole question of Divine intelligence into a science vs. theology
mold, inadvertently helping to reinforce the old idea of science warring
against religion. Theology (and Christianity) will be harmed if this dichotomy
creeps in by the back door into the UK’s schools under the guise of
“creationism”. Ironically it might thereby play into the hands of evangelical secularists.
So, because of this I'm for the ban myself.
***
Banning bad science and pseudo-science
is one thing, but there is another aspect to this affair that is more
disturbing. Right wing Christians have above average association not only with
creationism (in the two senses defined above) but also with anti-taxation,
anti-public domain, antigovernment and gun lobbying groups, not to mention the
paranoia of the conspiracy theorists. So
perhaps not surprisingly we find the paranoiac vision of the Christian right,
which is inclined to imagine malign intelligences with evil intent working
behind the scenes, has a rather sinister outcome: They are starting to think about the violent overthrow of the state. Well, at least according to PZ Myers’
blog! Check out his links:
In fact we read:
I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these
United States, where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C.,
to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren. (Republican Bobby Jindal at a conference hosted by the Faith and
Freedom Coalition, a group led by Christian activist Ralph Reed)
I wonder what he
means by “hostile takeover”? Now here are some guys who have quite a
clear idea about just what that means:
The worrying thing is that they are probably armed to the teeth with no shortage of ammunition!
The formation of North America was triggered by a taxation dispute spurred on by a genuinely democratic vision (and based on Christianity) that traces back to the English civil war. Moreover, European migration to America was often encouraged by ideologues with a vision of setting up a mini heaven-on-Earth as they reacted by escaping interfering governments and religious persecution (God help you if you were thought of as a “heretic” in one of these "heavens-on-Earth"!). In fact my own church, Norwich Central Baptist, was historically against the British government’s war with the American colonists; not a surprising stance given that Norwich’s Baptists had been persecuted by church and state in the seventeenth century. The legacy of all this today is that some people in North America have still yet to grow out of the bitterness and habits of mind engendered by the conflict between the state religion and dissenters. The creationism issue is, perhaps, in part a memory of this bitterness in as much as it represents high hostility against the government funded academic establishment.
The formation of North America was triggered by a taxation dispute spurred on by a genuinely democratic vision (and based on Christianity) that traces back to the English civil war. Moreover, European migration to America was often encouraged by ideologues with a vision of setting up a mini heaven-on-Earth as they reacted by escaping interfering governments and religious persecution (God help you if you were thought of as a “heretic” in one of these "heavens-on-Earth"!). In fact my own church, Norwich Central Baptist, was historically against the British government’s war with the American colonists; not a surprising stance given that Norwich’s Baptists had been persecuted by church and state in the seventeenth century. The legacy of all this today is that some people in North America have still yet to grow out of the bitterness and habits of mind engendered by the conflict between the state religion and dissenters. The creationism issue is, perhaps, in part a memory of this bitterness in as much as it represents high hostility against the government funded academic establishment.
Other relevant links:
http://quantumnonlinearity.blogspot.com/2013/11/50-years-ago-kennedy-assassination.html
Both Cameron and Obama are openly Christian, but that won't convince the hyper non-conformists who will likely see them as malign influences, perhaps even Satanic!
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