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Re: [Phys-L] science +- politics +- religious denominations (plural)

Despite the fact that many people don't believe in evolution by means of natural selection and many of them belong to religious groups, it isn't necessarily the case that the faith itself (or nominally its governing bodies) adopt the line that the earth was created around 6000 years ago. 

In fact, most of the major movements have at least adopted a position saying that evolution is not incompatible with their faith. Check out http://www.pewforum.org/Science-and-Bioethics/Religious-Groups-Views-on-Evolution.aspx.

I teach physics and environmental science at a Jewish school (though in San Francisco) with students from the Hassidic movement to Orthodox to Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, to unaffiliated and have never had trouble teaching evolution even to my most traditional students, although I know that Marty has had a different experience. 

Zeke Kossover



________________________________
From: Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Sent: Friday, June 7, 2013 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] science +- politics +- religious denominations (plural)


38% agree that humans in their present form were "created" 10,000 years ago.  But, the world was 'created 6000 years ago!  That means 38& of Texans are not true Christians!  For shame!
30% say The Flintstones was a documentary.  I read once that if you ask these people why God didn't save the dinosaurs on the ark with the other animals a good proportion of them say that Noah didn't have enough room  (and some said the dinosaurs missed their chance  (what?  they didn't have their boarding passes?  the TSA stopped and frisked them for deadly weapons?) and another proportion actually say that dinosaurs were the Devil's creatures so God destroyed them along with almost everything else on earth in the flood. 

It's good that medicine has gone beyond this nonsense otherwise we would still be leeching people and bloodletting would be an accepted form of treatment.


On Jun 7, 2013, at 8:20 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

"And of course we know
that Republicans are more often anti-science than Democrats," - John Clement

However, A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey shows a large number of Texans polled said they still don’t believe in evolution and are convinced that humans and dinosaurs co-existed:
– 51 percent disagree with the statement, “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.”
– 38 percent agree with the statement, “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”
– 30 percent agree with the statement, “Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.” Another 30 percent said they “don’t know” whether the statement is true.

Since we are arguing by statistics - are we to assume that John Clement (Houston, TX) is probably a closet Republican?

Bob at PC


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