How many times have we heard that the science is settled and that is all their is to it. These dogmas are common from people who can't validate their belief from true science. We have seen it with the hole in the ozone, global cooling, global warming, Y2k bug. Yea the science is settled only because you can't prove your pathetic theories which are full of holes. At least bible believing Christians are truthful enough to accept that we do believe by faith. Thankfully that belief is far more observable than the evolution myth/fallacy.

Bennie
You're quite right - mainstream churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Uniting etc) etc have long accepted evolution.
Two ideological fringes have a common interest in insisting that Christians take Genesis literally:

– Militant fundamentalist Christians, who insist on a literal interpretation of scripture as the only one permissible, and invent creationism and “intelligent design” in an effort to defend the indefensible

– Militant fundamentalist atheists, who find it far easier to attack this literalist interpretation as unscientific than accept the more complex, nuanced and symbolic interpretation of Creation that mainstream Christianity embraces.

Runner wrote:

"How many times have we heard that the science is settled and that is all their is to it."

Dear Runner,

I don't think any scientist would make such a statement. Any scientific theory is only provisional. If there is evidence that it is not a valid theory then it must be abandoned. However, there is no scientific evidence against Darwin's theory. If such evidence should appear in the future then Darwin's theory will be abandoned.

The biblical accounts of the creation are only Jewish tribal legends like the Aboriginal legend of the Rainbow Serpent. Most Jews and Christians do not take the Bible literally. They recognise that there is wisdom, beauty, legend along with a lot of other material in it. However, the Bible is neither a reliable history, a scientific text nor a moral guide. It is a book reflecting the thought and mores current to the time it was written when slavery, polygamy and other practices were accepted that are no longer accepted in current society.

It is mildly amusing to me that extremely religous people who deny science often do so via the medium of the computer, fruit of scientific endeavour and simply not possible without the progress of science thought through application of the scientific method. Biblical thinking produces not one iota of useful knowledge to help solve real-life problems or explain the world as it is. Darwinian theory is confirmed in a practical way every day in biology labs. Its reality or otherwise is not an issue - it works and therefore it is useful. The strength of science is that it can be elaborated endlessly. Each scientific idea is preliminary and tentative, the better to ensure that nothing becomes dogma. Everything can be disproved and active attempts are made to do so. This is enormously powerful because it finds out any weaknesses in our knowledge base and opens the way to them being rectified. It is the best way we have of ensuring that knowledge doesn't stagnate but is always vibrant and forward-looking and able to be made more nuanced.

Dear runner,

Could you please enlighten me as to what some of these "holes" in evolution are that you refer to? Could you also list one observation that makes creationism more observable?

I look forward to your response.

Hi Miranda

I agree that scientific method is powerful and effective, and has done much good for humankind. But I don’t accept that “Biblical thinking produces not one iota of useful knowledge to help solve real-life problems or explain the world as it is”.

Human existence is not just a scientific problem. Evolutionary biology can produce completely plausible and scientific explanations of why parents are heartbroken by the deaths of their children, why husbands cheat on their wives, why we fear to die, or why human societies go to war. But it can tell us little or nothing of what it means to be a human living in a world where these things happen. In my view, the Genesis creation accounts grapple with what it means to be human at this deeper level – moral consciousness, dependence/ independence and free will, the capacity to do harm, self-awareness and the fear of death. These are no less “real life” problems than the things science is good at, like curing disease or ensuring broadband access