This is why Westboro Baptist Church is a joke

[kandrathe]

Just a little side note to your and Jester's discussion here, but I actually took a course on evolutionary biology from a creationist in college. He wasn't frowned upon by the rest of the scientific faculty; he didn't force feed you creationism. What he did was point out was point out some of the minor lack of data points with the hypothesis of evolution while he was teaching the parts of it that have been universally accepted. He didn't leave out what we had been taught previously to force people into accepting creationism instead, but did point out what atheistic scientists don't bother to mention. It was really interesting to see the lack of fossil record in big chunks here and there and he did point out that it may just because we haven't seen it yet or it may actually be that evolution happened in step-like progression rather than an even slope. You don't have to teach things to be A or B. You don't have to drill into people that each thing is caused by just simply ONE thing. It doesn't have to be a case of either/or with damned near everything. That's the biggest failing we have in teaching, regardless of what level of education you're talking about. I think the problem came about because of how the scientific method is taught and how we're basically just spoon fed info rather than being taught to think about what we're being taught. You have to isolate one variable when setting up your experiments, but that doesn't mean there is ONLY one factor in what you're trying to figure out. Like the whole deal of nature vs nurture in so many cases. WHY does it have to be one or the other instead of a blending of both? That's such a pet peeve with me. Sorry.

With being taught by people with really differing views on religion and how it pertains to science (he wasn't the only one who was "different", but he was the easiest one to use as an example), I found out that science is really just another way to get a handle on how the world/universe works, just like religion is a way to explain how/why the world/universe works. It's just easier to believe in science over religion because there are things that you can do to get concrete results. But just think back and see how scientific hypotheses have changed over the years, starting with when the scientific method was really put into place. We've had to radically change some of the hypothesis simply because we couldn't measure and record everything we needed to in order to get accurate data and experiments. We're still learning new things with every jump in technology that allows us to measure more and more things. Who is to say that we won't eventually find a way to measure theological beings? I don't think it's likely that we will, but choosing religion over science or science over religion just really isn't as necessary as folks have been taught to believe. They are both just ways to view the world and since it's your own personal world view, you are allowed to grab a little from bag A and a little from bag B.

I can't remember much on my Evol. biology course, other than I had to do too much lab work and always messed up calculating statistical error. Good thing I married a statistical genius. She always reviewed my work and fixed it for me, and in exchange I helped her write most of her computer programs.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree that it's best to keep an open mind, but also to remain skeptical. If you watch any number of magicians on TV, you know you can't even believe everything you see.

I guess my approach is that nothing gets wasted. As an employer, if someone wasn't a good fit for their position I would move them to a position better suited for them. I feel the same way about knowledge. I'm in a constant learning state, but if something doesn't fit in one place, it might make sense somewhere else. For example, I don't need to be a Buddhist, or Taoist to enjoy their philosophies. I think it would be foolish of me to reject some tidbit of wisdom prejudicially.