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Dear colleagues, Thanks to Bill Chaisson for explaining the difference between evangelical and fundamentalist (below). I was not aware of this difference in my email yesterday. The media does not appear to distinguish these groups well either. There are so many different "Faiths" in the world that all of the terms can be confusing! I agree with Alex and Bill that the academic community (i.e., faculty, students, staff) needs to be more engaged in public dialouge regarding science (in general), critical thinking, and evolutionary theory (specifically). We need to dispel disinformation that many groups want to spread about our work and methods. The academic community may also learn how to better interact with various communities when other issues arise. I admit that I have tended to shy away from these sorts of exchanges in the past, but no more. Based on the last election, public misunderstanding CAN adversely affect us all. (NPR reported that 78% of evangelicals voted for Bush. Polls also show that >70% of Bush supporters think that Saddam Hussain was linked to 9/11 or Al-Qaida before the war...even after all of the investigations have concluded otherwise!) This certainly won't be an easy process, but dialouge is needed now more than ever! Thanks again to Lisa Park, James Mahaffy, and others for participating in this discussion over the past day. I think this has been worthwhile. Best Regards, Cary R. Easterday PhD student, Geology/Paleobiology, University of Illinois at Chicago (start Jan 2005) Moderator, Paleogeoarthropoda and FossilBugz http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paleogeoarthropoda http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FossilBugz 206/650-9747 (cell) xenoblatta@hotmail.com >Somehow we have gone from writing about "evangelical" Christians, of which >Bush is avowedly one, to writing about "fundamentalist" Christians, which >is a different kettle of fish and definitely a more germane group for >geologists/paleontologists to be concerned about. As far as I am aware >evangelicals don't necessarily hold with a literal interpretation of the >Bible, while fundamentalists most certainly do. Evangelical Christians are >going to come down on the "anti-progressive" side of the right to choose >and stem cell research, as are a lot of strict Catholics. But I don't >think you will find them to be unified on the subject of evolution (as >Prof. Mahaffy notes) or even environmental protection.
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