The most interesting thing about the passages culled from Grand Canyon: a Different View, edited by Tom Vail, is the way the word "evolution" is used:

You can do perfectly good geology without concerning yourself with the origins of life and where species come from, just as you can do perfectly good chemical engineering without concerning yourself with the precise value of the cosmological constant. What I read in this passage is the equation Evolution = Secularism = Any body of knowledge that contradicts my religious beliefs.

Perhaps the reason that biologists (and to a much lesser extent, geologists) are singled out for steady attack by Christian fundamentalists is twofold:

• these scientists deal with phenomena perceptible at the macro level, neither micro nor mega: this is the realm where common sense is a tempting but misleading guide, one that will tell you that a heavy bowling ball falls faster than a light one;
• the day-to-day consequences of any particular explanation of reality aren't that great; Earth's population could be created by God, evolved from pond scum, or stranded by alien spacecraft, but it won't get me to work on time or keep my kid off drugs.

Nobody gets hurt if Johnny grows up thinking that babies come from the garden under cabbage leaves; but I doubt that even the most rock-ribbed among us would use the Bible to design a jet engine or an elevator safety subsystem.

(Thanks to Bookslut.)

posted: 7:49:28 PM