Presence at the Creation
Lee Emmerich Jamison
There apparently is a controversy about whether the shops at the Crand Canyon should offer for sale books giving a creationist point of view abou the creation of the Grand Canyon itself. Gee...
I find both creationists and those who get all hot and bothered about them rather humorous. In the story referenced above what is referred to as a "protesting group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an alliance of scientists, land managers, environmental advocates and others, calls it distressing that the park service is not sticking to pure, mainstream geology in the information it dispenses at the Grand Canyon.", as the story states. The overwhelming body of publications offered at the canyon shops support the prevailing scientific view. Why on Earth are they so upset?
For one thing there is no such thing as "pure, mainstream geology". All good science is forever in a negotiated state of flux. It is a 'do the best we can with what we know' adventure of the mind.
I am a Christian. None the less I have no doubt whatsoever that the universe is billions of years old, the Earth is billions of years old, and the Grand Canyon is millions of years old. Creationism is flat wrong. It is both bad science and very, very bad religion. All that said it is foolish in the extreme to suppress the views of the very wrong in the service of what we think to be the truth. If we suppress the expression of error we lose most of the best opportunities the world grants us to teach and most of the best challenges we are given to express what we know so that laypeople can understand. We can't eliminate foolishness by forbidding expressions of foolishness. People have to be trained out of not knowing and inaccurate knowing.
By all means keep the creationist books at the Grand Canyon shops. Keep the science books right beside them. Play up the controversy! Write books that answer the creationist complaints point for point. What is the great danger? If the creationists win the argument in the eyes of the public does that mean the canyon is 4,500 years old? No. It will still be billions of years old no matter what human beings believe. If the science texts win the argument does that mean God does not exist? No. God is as God is, well beyond our feeble comprehension, even if the canyon was not created by Noah's flood.
There was a picture I saw from one of the Voyager spacecraft about a year ago, looking back at the central solar system from beyond the orbit of Pluto. In it there was a little blue speck against a field of utter blackness. That was us. Neither that speck nor the opinion of its inhabitants have any bearing whatever on God's existence. Nor can all the combined volume of the crania of its inhabitants contain the information necessary to describe the wonders of all the rest of the universe. Nobody here has the franchise on truth.
Don't be real fools and make dogma of science. Keep both the stupid and smart books in the Grand Canyon's shops. ...And let time tell us which is which.
Comments
Well guys, I didn’t expect to see anything like that here. It’s amazing. So many shocking news on one website. I’m not sure I can agree with everything , but I’m totally astonished by this words. To be honest, I have never heard this kind of information online. It’s really something very special.
Posted by: Justin | April 3, 2008 03:07 AM
It is one of things I can never understand ... how people can think that way. It's so illogical that it can only be based upon moronity.
Posted by: VoIP Blog | April 6, 2008 09:55 AM
It is one of things I can never understand ... how people can think that way. It's so illogical that it can only be based upon moronity.
Posted by: VoIP Blog | April 9, 2008 03:19 AM
Forgive ME, but more about the subject, please!! You are going away from the topic too frequently, therefore it is uneasy to read your posts.
Posted by: sohbet | April 9, 2008 04:56 AM