[Vision2020] Bishop Spong on "intelligent design"

[Ralph Nielsen]

> Marion from Kansas writes:
> "In my state the Board of Education threw out the teaching of  
> evolution a few years ago. Upon election of moderate members, the  
> Board brought it back again. Now conservatives are in the majority  
> again and the whole issue of universe origin is being debated  
> again.  This time the issue of "intelligent design" is being  
> brought in as needing to be taught. Is this just another way of  
> bringing in conservative belief about instant creation?"
>
> Dear Marion,
>
> On one level it really doesn't matter what the Kansas Board of  
> Education thinks, evolution is real and is not subject to majority  
> vote any more than whether epilepsy is caused by demon possession.  
> Yet it is embarrassing to live in a state where public ignorance  
> can force people to deny reality. It will also ill-equip the  
> children of Kansas to live in the modern world. Already American  
> school children are far behind Asians in the field of science. The  
> pursuit of knowledge should never be compromised to protect  
> religious sensitivities. That is where religious tyranny begins.
> Intelligent Design is just one more smoke screen. The task of  
> geologists and anthropologists is to study the sources of the life  
> of this world. They should be free to follow wherever their  
> scientific research carries them. If Christianity is threatened by  
> truth, it is already too late to save it. Imagine worshiping a God  
> so weak and incompetent that the Kansas School Board must defend  
> this God from science and new learning. It is pitiful.
>
> The challenge of Darwinian thinking to traditional Christianity is  
> deep and profound. That means that Christianity's survival depends  
> on its being big enough to embrace a post-Darwinian world. If we  
> cannot then Christianity will surely die.  I do not believe that is  
> the fate toward which Christianity is headed unless it becomes that  
> petty, small-minded enterprise that must hide in ignorance and fear  
> lest it be destroyed.
>
> I hope you and others will resist these tactics at the ballot box.  
> If that fails then you have to assess whether or not you want your  
> children to grow up in the environment that Kansas is creating. If  
> not, you might consider moving. I for one hope you will stay and  
> fight for ignorance will not prevail forever, even in Kansas.
>
> Bishop John Shelby Spong