The Creation of God's Fundamental State
Truly, there is no country quite like that of the United States of America. A huge and varied land mass, replete with all manner of natural resources; a huge and truly diverse population base, a national history of great pride and some little guilt-in-hindsight, with a schizophrenic reputation for upholding the rule of law and the rights of individuals internationally as well as at home, while at the same time taking steps to inhibit the sovereign rights of foreign countries and in the process wreaking havoc within the home as well as the foreign population.In the number of frequently cited scientific papers published per million population, the U.S. scores second in the world, just behind Switzerland, establishing its academic and intelligence quotient among researchers and scientists in the world. The United States stands second to none in the numbers of its Nobel laureates, singly-honoured or shared among colleagues elsewhere in the world. Demonstrating its capabilities and genius in the fields of literature, economics, physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, and peace.
So how it is, one might logically enquire, that fully one-half of its population remains suspicious of the Darwinian scientific theory of the descent of humankind? That natural evolution is viewed with great suspicion and hostility, in favour of creationism, the hand of God in the creation of the world as we know it and all its inhabitants - as well as the universe of which we are an integral, but infinitesimally minuscule portion...?
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences released the results of a study related to the discovery of a primeval fish skeleton, a 375-million-year-old fossil "fishapod" discovered in Canada, on Ellesmere Island. This fossil, named Tiktaalik roseae, is set to be the primary piece of evidence in the promotion of the study of evolution, in the Academy's struggle to contain and counter demands for American schools to teach creationism.
In the year 2008, the contenders within both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States know that their chances of election to realize their aspiration to ascend to the White House as president of that great country will be immeasurably enhanced if they succeed in persuading the electorate that their personal dependence upon and belief in religion is beyond dispute.
This, despite that the founding fathers in their great wisdom, based the Constitution upon a secular base. Staunchly believing in the viability and necessity of the separation between Church and State.
In the first contest (caucus) held in Iowa Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, an ordained Baptist minister who vehemently denies that humans descended from apes through natural selection and evolution, was declared the winner for the Republican party. Evangelicals, numerous in the state, gave Mr. Huckabee a 46% advantage over the other challengers in his party.
Mr. Huckabee is on record, during an interview as saying: "If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, I'll accept that. I believe there was a creative process ... I believe that there is a God and that he put the process in motion". Mr. Huckabee won his Iowa success on the very day that the publication Science, Evolution and Creationism revealed the focus on the fossil record of Tiktaalik.
This was a species of predator fish given to hunting in shallow waters at a time in the development of our planet when Ellesmere Island - Canada's northernmost land mass - was a subtropical swamp close to the equator. The fossilized remains of the 3-metre-long Tiktaalik (an Inuktitut name classifying it as a "big, shallow-water fish") indicates it to have had the scales and fins of a fish but the ribs, neck, head and limb-like bones of a terrestrial.
"The major bones in our own arms and legs are similar in overall configuration to those of Tiktaalik", according to the report by the National Academy of Sciences. "The discovery of Tiktaalik, while critically important for confirming predictions of evolutionary theory, is just one example of many findings made every year that add depth and breadth to the scientific understanding of biological evolution."
The polemics of creationism continue to give fuel to that fifty percent of Americans who reject the science of evolution as a "theory", unproved and unprovable. In favour of the fervent belief and trust in the words of a human-spiritual-construct where the Holy Bible sets out the truth of the formation of the world and its inhabitants. Which, they steadfastly assert, should and must be taught to American children as the truth and the only truth.
And one of creationism's stalwarts places himself up front and centre as a credible presidential candidate. To head this country of over 360-million people, a country whose president's social-cultural-political orientations and predispositions has inordinate impact upon the rest of the world. It is to shudder.
Labels: Religion, Science, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, January 12, 2008
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