Archives for June 2008

Why can't we question science

Jun 30, 2008 . Comments (59)

I just saw Ben Stein’s “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” last night and felt compelled to share a little about the movie and my thoughts. I know this is completely off topic from my typical blog posts, but hey, it’s my blog. For those who have not heard of the movie, Ben Stein provides commentary and interviews various scientists and philosophers from around academia regarding Darwinism, Intelligent Design and the effort by the pro Darwinian scientific community to exclude any debate and research that runs counter to classic evolutionary theory that all life evolved from non living material into a single cell into today’s spectrum of life on earth.

Here is the trailer to give you a very brief overview of the movie. The basic function of natural science is to question how and why things work and then to try and find an answer but in the case of evolution and Darwinism it seems like the scientific community, and to a large extend mainstream media, refuse to allow any questions or alternatives to be raised that counter Darwin’s ideas and theory.

Personally I do not belief in the traditional evolutionary theory that all life evolved from a single cell, that through some unknown process came to life, was able to survive, thrive, replicate, and eventually over time evolve into higher and higher life forms. I am not a biologist but I can grasp the basic complexity of a single cell and all the things that happens inside of that cell for life to happen. Essentially it is a mini factory that contains vast amounts of information (DNA) for sequencing proteins and manufacturing the various pieces of cellular structure for life and generation of other cells. Evolution requires us to believe that through some unknown process, various amino acids and other chemicals merged into a single cell that contained all sorts of information for functioning and reproducing.

How can something so complex happen by complete and random chance, even if given millions or billions of years? DNA is probably the most complex and compact information known to man, how does that happen by chance. If I took apart a computer piece by piece, placed all the pieces in a clothes dryer and turned it on tumble dry for a billion years would I end up with a fully assembled computer that also had vast amounts of legible and complex data stored on it’s hard drive? Why are we then expected to believe that is how we came about? How is it possible for the majority of the scientific community, and society as a whole to belief that outcome is possible yet reject any other options.

If evolution is true where does morality, ethics, compassion and justice come from? These are certainly not “physical” things, so how did they evolve? Why do humans exhibit these qualities when the rest of the physical living world does not? If everything evolved and natural selection (survival of the fittest) is the only guiding principle then who is to say what is right and what is wrong, everything should be relativistic, there should be no moral absolutes, the only “law” is the one I make that benefits my survival. If that is the cause why is murder wrong? Who could argue that murder is not right, it would simply be survival of the fittest, this person was stronger than that person, humanity would be no different than the animal kingdom. If evolution is true we are no better or different than animals, sure we look different but that is it. If evolution is true, there can be no moral absolutes (ie murder is wrong), if there are no moral absolutes who can say the Nazis where wrong. If Germany had won WWII would that mean they were right, only certain “desirable” people deserved to live? The thought repulses me to the core, and yet that is the slippery we must go down if we follow the path that Darwin started and society seems bent to accept and follow at face value.

The bigger question for me is why does society accept evolution and Darwinism? What is so appealing about it that makes people accept it without question, without considering alternatives, without thinking about the consequences and ultimate outcome of it. Are we just born, live, do what we want and then die? What is so scary about considering an alternative to that? What if we have a purpose? What if we go somewhere after we die? What if something or someone created life on earth? Is the answer to that question what scares society into evolution’s camp? What if we were created, what if there are moral absolutes that were programmed into us? What does that mean, that we answer to a higher power? Is that why science can not accept anything outside of evolution, because it would require humanity to acknowledge that we are not in complete control and yet something or someone else is? Is it a fear of religion, or possibly that if we were in fact created, that one religion is correct, that keeps us from considering anything other than evolution as the means of our origins.

My own personal beliefs are that the entire universe, the earth, and all living things were in fact created, by a loving omnipotent creator. I belief that science and religion are not necessarily contradictory but rather complimentary. When I look at the world around me, the wonders of nature, the complexity of things, I feel an overwhelming sense of awe and amazement. I am not some random chance that grew out of a pile of muck billions of years ago, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

I respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, that we do not all have to believe the same thing, we are free to make our own choices. All I ask it that you question current mainstream scientific thinking. Question your origins, do not accept at face value what a text book says, where it says you came from. Consider that science does not know everything and can not explain everything. Consider that belief in evolution, belief in the fantastic, virtually impossible odds of life occurring by random chance require as much or more faith and belief than belief in a greater power that created life.