Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Bush Not Intelligently Designed

GWB has done it again...how does the saying go, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread"? Well, young George has proven the point when it comes to mixing religion and politics. Seems like his physicians gave him a clean bill of health but forgot the mental exam. Certainly his recent comment that schools should teach "intelligent design" alongside evolutionary theory shows that, as a thinker, he was not intelligently designed.

As a Christian, I believe that God did create the universe with some purpose in mind. And I choose to believe that some day I will get a much better sense of what that purpose was and how I fit into it. But prove that, I can't. It's just a belief. And if it's a belief it belongs in church and in what I say to others - but not in school. School is for theories that science can work on.

But what about those critters that some "scientists" say they can't explain through evolution? Those critters that have parts that needed to develop all at the same time? OK, I'll admit these assertions have aroused some curiosity on my part, but science has always dealt with mysteries and has generally solved them. I'd rather leave these critters in the pending file than jump to a giant conclusion with no better reasoning than "we don't understand how...". And, I must add, I don't believe God leaves physical clues designed to give us certainty about God. I think God wants to remain a mystery who must be believed rather than proven.

But, just for fun, let's say George W. Bush is right in believing that the universe was intelligently designed and that we should teach the concept in schools. The next obvious question is "what was the purpose of the design?" Did God do it just to do something difficult, or as a throwaway, or as one of many parallel universes, or for God's entertainment? Surely George has a pat answer for that one, as well. Probably something about God designing us with free will to choose Him or not, with the "not's" going to a really hot place. And the proof for that one? The Bible, of course. Next thing we'll be studying the Bible in school, just like our Pakistani foes study the Koran. Where would it stop? At some point we'd all be killing each other over religion.

My president may well be a fool with noble motives. History is full of such people who went down the wrong roads for the right reasons. If he wants to have the faith of a child, that's his prerogative, but it's hard to believe he would cross the line and start talking about putting religious beliefs in the schools. But he did. And if he's not a fool, but stirred this pot for political reasons, then he is responsible for whatever is done by the idiots who are willing to follow this line of reasoning to the end. Think Timothy McVeigh. Thanks, George, for another great job as a "unifier". Right.

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