Messages posted by: NeilICN000313080

I am in the Army National Guard and going to Iraq in January, so I wear a flag on my right shoulder when I am in uniform.
Yes, it is important to teach evolution as science and not religion, but there are not any biologists trying to teach a Godless universe in Sunday School at my Church. Dover made it very clear that there are religious people who want to dictate subject matter in science classrooms.
In America evangelical Christianity is much more a matter of experience than a settled habit of virtue. So it is no wonder those believers gravitate to the ends of the Bible. It is much more fun to speculate about the end of the world or put saddles on dinosaurs than to do the dull stuff in the middle--feed the hungry, care for widows and orphans.
We act as we believe. I do not want to have national science and environmental policy set by someone who thinks the world is going to end within her lifetime or that the science that underpins is wrong and the true "Deep" science is on the Answers in Genesis Web site.

I am an orthodox Christian believer. On matters of faith, I am closer to Sarah Palin than any of the other candidates. But I also work at a library and museum of the history of science. We keep the records of the people who pursued truth through the study of nature for more than two millennia. Those records show how ardently these men and women pursued truth. Their work has given us modern medicine, clean water, safe food and longer, healthier lives. In my case I have three times escaped death, paralysis and blindness through modern medical care. It is crazy to think that the science that lead to replacing the 7th vertebra in my neck with a cadaver bone (DNA bone matching—evolutionary biology) is false while saving my life and thousands of others, but the rubbish that decorates the Creation Museum and saves no lives is true.

Like Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome project, and author of the book “The Language of God” I believe that God created the universe in a way that neither atheists nor creationists can force their opponents to believe. Creation is complicated, beautiful and beyond the full comprehension of any of us. What we do know of the mechanics of creation, we know from the work of scientists—pursuing truth whether they are believers or not.

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate changed the presidential campaign in a moment. Issues like abortion and gun rights which had receded will now be in the front of the debate. On science the Barack Obama and McCain hold different positions, but both accept the dangers of climate change as real and both know that science and science education is critical to our economy and our future. Joe Biden agrees. But Palin has said, “Teach the controversy” referring to the Intelligent Design and Young Earth Creationism. To be fair, she has not pushed creationism in Alaska schools, but like the current President she sees a controversy where there is none. The high technology that underpins the best of our economy is based on science as practiced by scientists, not untested science dreamed up in Seattle or on display in the Creation Museum in Kentucky.