I can remember the classes on evolution at school when I was 15. I remember being in turmoil about it because church had filled my head with, ” if you believe evolution then you will go to hell, you need to witness to the biology teacher, take a stand for christianity, defend the bible, make converts or be damned “, etc but I hated the idea of threatening anyone with hell and i had a lot of misgivings about christianity too so I just kept quiet about it. I was tied in knots about the whole thing not knowing if i wanted to go toward christianity or away from it. However I think i missed my chance to get help from the teacher, although he might have been too afraid to comment on religion in case somebody’s parents complained. Partly I couldn’t think what to say or ask.
Maybe from that position I should have just said to the teacher, ” But the bible says God created the world, so how can it have been by evolution ? What about the difference between the Bible & evolution? ” What might his reply have been ?
Would he have recommended some books for me to read.
Would he have said in front of the class that Genesis was the best guess of those writers 2500 years ago but that evolution by natural selection was a much better theory & had much more evidence to support it?
Would he have said, ” Well if evolution is true then there probably is no hell so you can’t go there “.
Would he have said , ” You need to study history & comparative religion & higher criticism of the bible “.
Would he have recommended some books for me to read.
Would he have said in front of the class that Genesis was the best guess of those writers 2500 years ago but that evolution by natural selection was a much better theory & had much more evidence to support it?
Would he have said, ” Well if evolution is true then there probably is no hell so you can’t go there “.
Would he have said , ” You need to study history & comparative religion & higher criticism of the bible “.
What is the standard response for teachers to hand out now a days ? How many teachers say, ” Well for a start you should study ” Why evolution is true ” by Jerry Coyne. Get to understand the case extremely well before you make a decision about whether it is plausible or not.
I don’t remember my teacher asking, ” Now has anyone got issues with the theory of evolution because if you do then read x,y,z and if you still have issues write me a question and I’ll try to answer ”
I don’t remember my teacher asking, ” Now has anyone got issues with the theory of evolution because if you do then read x,y,z and if you still have issues write me a question and I’ll try to answer ”
Maybe if I’d had a chance to voice my doubts I would have been reassured & learned the details . Doubts like, ” Aren’t most of the fossils just tiny bits like 1% of the skeleton and a whole load of guessing is going on? The fossils aren’t clear what they are, they need expert interpretation , so then you are trusting the scientis
No comments:
Post a Comment