Helen, that’s a hoot! Reminds me of another comment I saw on the debate — the candidates said they didn’t believe in evolution and then started talking about fossil fuels.

“During last week’s Republican Debate, three of the ten candidates said they did not believe in evolution, including Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, who added that he would defend his conviction from one edge of the Earth to the other.”

As someone who is striving to be a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, I find the debate over creation vs. evolution an astounding waste of time and effort. Discipleship can be expressed in far more productive ways. Frankly, I belive that Yahweh created the universe through the process of evolution, but if he didn’t, so what? What difference could it possibly make? As a disciple, I can say, “God created the heavens and the earth.” The question thst is far more important than how he did it is, “Now what do we do?”

He also seems to think that full-bore belief in evolution necessarily includes accepting the idea that Man is just an accident. It’s okay to learn about and even believe in the general idea of evolution, as long as you don’t lose sight of the idea that God Made Man. (I guess like, it’s fine for your boy to join the Cub Scouts and go camping a few times, but forget about going all the way to Eagle.)

So Bill, I have to think that Sam is down with God “using” evolution to create the world and us. But we’re the top of the tree, the end of the line. Hard to believe God couldn’t do any better than this, but there you have it.

So I’ve come around to your way of thinking: all this is just trying to reassure moderate Republicans (who might be expected to read the NYT)that he isn’t an, er, unsophisticated fundamentalist Christian, while still claiming “the Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it.”

The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel

Also:

“ok, let’s talk about hebrew. and while we’re at it, let’s talk about the complete and utter nonsense attending the debate in america about evolution vs. creationism. i read an article today wherein it was reported that many schools are not teaching evolution because the religious right think that evolution is an unproven theory that is ‘un-christian’.

this is absurd, and allow me to presumptuously end this nonsense once and for all, ok? creationists believe that god created the world in 7 days(or 6 days and one day thrown in for a well-deserved rest). but most creationists never bother to take the time to learn ancient hebrew, so they’ve egregiously misinterpreted the creation story in genesis.

i had an old testament scholar explain it me as follows: when we talk about ‘the day of the romans’ we’re not talking about a 24 hour period, but rather an era or an epoch. and in ancient hebrew the word for ‘day’ that appears in genesis is much closer to our word for epoch, or era, just as ‘the day of the romans’ doesn’t mean one 24 hour period. don’t get me wrong, i love the creation story in genesis. it has a quality of simple majesty and restraint that i find very moving. but if you substitute ‘era’ for ‘day’ you see that it actually follows the commonly held understanding of how the universe was created and has evolved.

for instance: in the beginning everything was dark. then god created a big light(bang). then in the second era god brought forth land in the middle of the waters. and in the third era god brought forth plants on the land. in the fourth era god brought forth the moon, so that the moon shone during the night and the sun shone during the day. in the fifth era god brough forth life in the seas. in the sixth era god brought forth animal life on land. and at the very end god brought forth human beings. so what’s the problem?

that’s the order of creation in genesis and, lo and behold, it’s also a rough description of the order in which life evolved on earth. water. then land. then plants. then sea creatures. then animals on the land. and at the very very end, humans. so why is this even an issue?

i mean call me crazy, but it seems pretty clear that science and religion actually seem to agree here. and how is it blasphemous to posit that humans might have evolved from apes(and the bonobos, my favorites. they sing and have sex all the time)?

christians believe that god made apes, right? why do christians seem to have such a hard time with the messiness of creation? didn’t god make orgasms? and bone marrow? and synapses? and poo? and intestinal flora and fauna? according to the bible, god doesn’t seem to be particularly squeamish or prudish, so why are so many christians?

fighting science and evolutionary theory doesn’t make you a good christian, i believe. being loving and humble and compassionate and non-judgemental makes you a good christian, right? or is there something i’m missing? do these right wing christians use a new testament with which i’m unfamiliar? ok, goodnight. moby”