Here’s a new one from the “I know God agrees with me” files.
The Texas School Board recently held a meeting in which board member Barbara Cargill argued for improving Earth Science standard by replacing the phrase “the concept of an expanding universe that originated 14 billion years ago” with wording that “leaves it up to [students and teachers] to discuss how many billions of years“.
This is what happens when we humans futilely pretend to understand the true intention of the scripture, and attempt to awkwardly fit everything we know into what we believe the scripture says. Here are my observations:
- Everything we know, everything we observe, the amount of time it takes for the light of Sun to reach Earth, the gravitational models of stars, the orbits of planets, observed behavior of galaxies, carbon dating, etc. are all consistent with a universe that is about 14 billion years old. If you believe the age of the universe is only 6,000 years, then God must be personally sending your phone signals to cell phone towers, because those signals behave differently and have different speeds in a 6,000 year-old universe than ours.
- Can science explain everything? Of course not. There are major holes in all theories. Here’s the point. Gravity existed long before Newton worked on his gravitational theory. Similarly, the nature of gravity was unchanged when Einstein modified Newtonian gravity in his 3 dimensional representation of astronomical objects. Theory does not mean untrue.
- Contrary to what Ms. Cargill claims, there are not different estimates of the age of the universe. From a scientific perspective, the estimates are 13.7 billion years plus and minus about 200 million years. That’s an uncertainty of 1.5% which, by itself, does not constitute a different estimate. It’s a long way from 13.7 billion down to 6,000.
- From the “I know that literal interpretation of the Genesis is right and I’m sticking to it” perspective, the universe was created 1,000 years after the Sumerians invented glue! If Jesus was around, he would reach out and slap you, followed by saying ‘if you’re not going to use the intelligence I’ve given you, then here’s your sign’.
- Don’t get me started on the idea of “God created an aged universe”. You’re only fooling yourself, not God. Again, all you’re doing is making a futile attempt at fitting everything within the model of what you think the scripture says. Wow, God sure seems like a very impatient fellow if he had to fast forward the age of the universe. I wonder what remote control model he’s got? I want one.
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May 14, 2009 at 4:44 am |
ROFL, it isn’t bad enough that we are falling far behind in our educational standards. Now we need to deliberately teach children things that aren’t true so that we can make them even worse…
WTF?
May 19, 2009 at 8:57 am |
I still believe in separation of Church and State. That would avoid this whole mess for me it seems
. (I know its a cop-out, but like you point out, otherwise something is ‘compromised’.) Which leads me to my explanation: I am not a scientist, so I have to have faith the scientists know what they’re talking about, and that there are checks and balances in place to avoid outright untruths. Then there are theories, and I get to choose which ones to invest in. When it comes to religion, I’m a faith kinda guy. I’m not thinking that there is scientific proof of what I believe, but I have faith in the core beliefs (and leave it at that).
Was this the one you were curious about my reaction to?
May 19, 2009 at 12:05 pm |
John,
Yup, it’s the one. Thanks. Now I’m curious what you think of this:
http://tinyurl.com/r4cm7w