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Dear Paleonetters-- Ok...I will admit that I stirred up a hornet's nest with my initial posting. I am not sure if that was my overt intention, but I cannot object to the outcome. I apologize to those overseas who truly must be shaking their heads and wondering if we, in America, have gone off our rockers. I sometimes wonder that myself! Maybe my recent trip to Florence could offer some illumination. One only has to visit the cathedral of San Croce to witness the tombs of Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Bruni, Dante, and da Vinci to understand how difficult it was to transcend the influence of the Church. Those artists, writers, scientists and philosophers brought forth ideas that would change Western Civilization. I find it sad that we, in many respects, find ourselves back where we started. All that transpired....revolution after revolution, stemmed from those great men of letters and of science who, in many ways, went against the all-powerful Church to put forth important ideas that transformed the world. I think that people forget that the "Founding Fathers" of America were often Deists. Sensu strico, Jefferson and Franklin and many of their contemporaries were not Christians. Yet, many of the people (like Mr. Jones III see below) seem to think that they were. This is a dangerous misunderstanding of history and a misreading of the US Constitution. Now....why is this important to our friends abroad? Well, as Jere Lipps ably pointed out, what happens in the US, unfortunately affects others in the world. These lines of thinking influences our policies on climate change, AIDS, stem cell research and the like. I think it was my original intent to bring people to this awareness and to plea to our brethren abroad that we find a way to help the US through its moral crisis. That we find a way to convince people that if you understand and accept the facts of evolution, you are not a morally corrupt person. I think what we should ask those who do not accept evolution: What are you afraid of? Answering that question will go a long way to understanding the schizm that exists in the fabric of American society today. And...guess what.....we paleontologists are in the middle of it. Whether or not we want to admit it. Finally, while I do not consider any of this "hate e-mail," I would ask all of you to read the letter from Bob Jones III to President Bush to understand the true meaning of "hate" and distrust. This letter could have easily have been written 400 years ago, before the Renaissance. Have we learned nothing? Has science done that poor of a job in educating the masses that they still rely on ideas so far behind what we know in science to be laughable? How come our physics is allowing us to explore Mars, Io and quarks and our metaphysics is stuck in the 17th century? Is it that the evolution of humans cannot cope with such rapid change? That our scientific advancement is too rapid to be understood and absorbed by our biological side to cope with change? Have our brains become too sophisticated for us to comprehend ourselves and our understanding of the Universe? I truly think that these are the issues at hand. Too much, too soon, too fast, too hard to comprehend. It is simpler to accept Jesus and call it a day, than to try to understand DNA, quantum physics and superstring theory. Ironic that most fundamentalist Christians organize themselves using the Internet.........just an observation. I am deeply concerned for our future, as scientists. We continue to leave it to others to explain ourselves to the world, because we are too busy or too important to do it. What I ask of you is this: if not you, who? if not now, when? Robert Kennedy once said (paraphrased) "To those who much has been given, much is expected." Please try, in your own small way, to make a positive change towards scientific literacy. It is important to everyone and cannot be underestimated. Respectively, Lisa Park A letter from Bob Jones III to President George Bush, November 14, 2004: In your re-election, God has graciously granted America -- though she doesn't deserve it -- a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly. Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you. Dr. Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University, in a letter to President Bush -----Original Message----- From: paleonet-owner@nhm.ac.uk on behalf of Alexander Glass Sent: Sun 11/21/2004 6:13 PM To: paleonet@nhm.ac.uk Cc: Subject: paleonet How about some numbers? Seeking to lower the "heat index" of the current science-religion discussion with information.... For those of you who love numbers and statistics (and I know you do...) here are some more to stimulate your brains with. Gallup just released a new poll on America's view on creationism, evolution, biblical "literalism" etc. See if you were a regular visitor to the NCSE website (www.ncseweb.org) you would already have known about this poll...:) You can read a short article on the results here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/content/?ci=14107 It is a sobering message - believe me. People have been throwing a lot of labels around during this discussion such as "fundamentalist", "evangelical" and "biblical literalist". It has been said that "Nothing about religion is simple" (that's a plug for all you Dune fans...) and different people appear to "hear" different things when confronted by these terms. Just for consistency...this website gives a nice little introduction to these terms, their definitions, and their socio-political-religious history. I can't vouch for accuracy but I found the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College an enlightening resource (yes that is THE Wheaton College of the PBS/WGBH Evolution series fame). So directly from the horse's mouth (so to speak): http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/defining_evangelicalism.html#Defining DISCLAIMER: I apologize if all of this is old news to you. I fear that some of the most recent paleonet postings may have involuntarily been filtered down my spam/virus drain rather than land in my inbox. Our server is currently being bombarded by an unprecedented amount of spam mail. ---------------------- Alexander Glass Paleobiology of ophiuroids, asteroids, and crinoids Ph. D. Candidate Department of Geology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1301 West Green Street, NHB 245 Urbana, IL 61801 United States ---------------- Tel:217-333-4963 Fax: 217-244-4996 ---------------- “The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows – a wall against the wind.” Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohaim (Frank Herbert, Dune)
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