2) Take a stand and post your opinion on a controversial subject. Your goal should be to persuade those who would disagree with you to at least consider your position and points.
Creationism vs. evolution. Why is there such a
debate about the two of them, as though the two of the cannot co-exist?
Creationists insist that the world was created in 7
days, with everything falling into place exactly as it is today, with no
changes other than those of the divine plan. The bible is literally translated,
taken word for word as truth.
Because if this, some schools are forbidden from teaching the concept of
continental drift, the idea of Pangaea. Because of this, evolution is seen as
lies, denial of divine truth, sinful.
In fact, the creation story can be taken simply as
an allegory. Every civilization, every group of humans ever has their
own interpretation of how we came to exist. With modern resources and
scientific evidence, we are able to theorize about our creation not just as a
story, not just a metaphor for something incomprehensible. I ask you, do you
think it possible that the civilizations of millennia ago could have even begun
to understand the concept of space/time being created in a cosmic explosion of
unfathomable magnitude? That our planet is a lump of rock whizzing around a
fiery ball of hydrogen and helium millions of kilometers away? Of course not.
To paraphrase Terry Prachett, "Humans create little stories for themselves
to explain away the unexplainable. Then once they feel they understand the
story, they feel that they understand the huge, incomprehensible thing".
Does this mean the creation story is false? No, it means that it is an
interpretation of what could be true, what could be comprehended at that point
in history.
I am a Christian who believes in evolution. Does
this make me any less Christian? I don't believe it does. I think that
evolution is part of the divine plan, that the history as interpreted in the
bible is a metaphor for the ancients to understand the utterly
incomprehensible. I believe that science is a way of seeking to understand
God's magnificent creation instead of just accepting what I am told in the
bible. I want to go beyond the ages-old text and discover something more about
this universe in which I live.
Once, I saw a boy wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with
cartoon characters of Jesus and Darwin. Jesus was in the midst of shooting
Darwin in the head with a shotgun, and the image was captioned "Evolve
THIS!" I was deeply saddened by this perversion of Christian ideology.
Jesus was a man that preached, "love your enemies", "turn the
other cheek". Above all else he taught peace and love, for every one. This
seemingly deliberate contradiction of what is taught in Christian scripture is
what gives Christians their cultural stereotype of non-acceptance and
ignorance.
That form of Christian identity is not one which I identify with, one by
which many Christians are horrified. But the most vocal of groups is the one
that gets noticed, and the stereotype catches us all in its net.
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