The traditional Creation story of the Christian bible tells us that God created the Earth and us in 6 days, but as many of us now believe (I say many as there are some “creationist” Christians out there) we popped up after a random natural experiment called evolution happened. So as Scientists how do we tell the public the true “story” of Creation without offending anyone, or without sounding to forceful? For the most part someone will always be offended no matter how you phrase something, but for Joe Bloggs, the 40 something factory worker who has no real idea about what evolution is, it is an important communication matter. He doesn’t understand why other species of primate exist if we are supposed to have evolved from monkey type animals, and he thinks that dinosaurs and cave men lived together in perfect harmony (Thanks Flint Stones). I know that these examples seem extreme, but from asking around my non geological friends and family these are pretty common thoughts. So what can we do to dissuade from these ideas and teach everyone that we’re actually long descendents of 3.5 Billion year old bacteria? The BBC do a wonderful job of producing documentaries, maybe they could produce a story of life one? That’s come across fantastically in my opinion, or maybe we could teach children from a young age in school. The Evolution vs. intelligent design being taught in schools debate hasn’t properly reached our shores yet, but I hope that when it does our government won’t try to be politically correct and trey to please everyone, I hope that they stomp their feet and say “NO, we are not going to teach our children a fairy tale and tell them it is a fact!”. Religion should be left to Religious Studies classes; a subject I think is arcane anyway, which is on its way out of our curriculum (thankfully) besides. Religious Education should be taught for tolerance purposes only, and if you are the parent of a child and believe in the alternative then send your children to a specialist religious school. Although be aware that you may end up with some pretty messed up children on your hands. There is nothing loving or kind about kneeling in front of a God and praying for forgiveness... that’s a bit creepy, and I’m fairly sure that you don’t tell your children to kneel in front of you or you’re not going to love them anymore. So there’s the solution to the future, what do we do about re-educating the masses across the world that take Genesis literally? How do we help them to “see the light”. We probably can’t. The more we try to tell them there is an alternative view, the more they hold onto it. Many years ago religion was needed; we couldn’t explain the Universe or the seasons, so we thought it must be a higher power. Now we know why these things occur. So why do people still believe? Simple, it’s fear. I can understand that many people see religion as a comfort thing. It is comforting to believe that when we die we go to a better place, that our loved ones who have passed are in a better place. And that’s fair enough. But you can believe in a life after death without believing the 6 days creation story.
And before any one gets on my back that I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m a hard core atheist. Yes, yes actually I do know. I was brought up by my devout Catholic Grandmother, I attended a catholic school, I have read the bible cover to cover several times and I hold an A-level in religious studies. So I know more than most how damaging to a person religion and creationism can be.
And as a final thought, I urge everyone religious, non-religious or just plain curious to follow this link and watch the video, and as Phil quite rightly says;
Science Saved my Soul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6w2M50_Xdk&feature=player_embedded
GF
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