Creative Thinking

I didn't get to listen to much of the creationism debate, but I've read a bit about it (and heard and thought a lot about the subject before this.)  I'm not sure why Bill Nye agreed to do it; all it does is lend credence to the idea that there's a "controversy" that can be debated, and maybe even a result to be decided.  This is a manufactured controversy, like many started by conservatives.  Call it a created controversy, even, created by creationists.  I'm not sure why some religious people get so upset about evolution, and science in general.  Religion can answer the "Why are we here?" kind of questions.  Science can answer the "how," the specifics, the details of how things work and change.  Not that I'm a theologian, or a scientist, but I personally see no conflict: if there is a God (or gods,) he/she/it/they could easily have created this universe we have, set up all the rules the place operates by, and be keeping things running along smoothly.  Science, in that view, can explain all the wondrous details.  But I guess that somehow offends people.  Of course, it leaves open the idea that God isn't necessary to make the rules and run things, and I think that's what really frightens these people: the possibility that they're wrong.

I am open to a spiritual force, call it whatever you want, behind this wonder we call life, behind the terrible beauty of the world and universe.  I'm not sure there's anything there, but sometimes it's nice to think there's a life force surging behind what we see.  I'm not particularly dogmatic about it, or specific.  I certainly don't see an old guy up in the clouds, responding to our selfish prayers.  The world is a pretty unfair, unpredictable, cruel place.  But I can imagine some force behind the good I see when I stop to smell the roses.  Someone once said the forests were his church, and I can see that- being out in the wilderness, appreciating the awesomeness of the world.  Church itself has always seemed a bit confining, a bit too orderly.  And then there's my longstanding mistrust of authority...

I've gotten a bit off topic; maybe I need to write an essay about my beliefs.  As for this debate, it solved nothing.  People who are die-hard creationists simply cannot see anything but what they want to believe.  And they might tell you "evolutionists," whoever they are, are similarly blinded and guided by faith.  Which just goes to show how little creationists, and most biblical literalists/fundamentalists, understand science, and indeed the world.

To finish up these ramblings, here's an interesting article on the debate.  I love the tweet at the top.

And a picture that sums up the whole thing: