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i would think it a good idea to actually read darwin in class--if only because, once you do it, you see straight away that the opposition belief in god/theory of evolution is wholly fake.
the problem may well be that darwin and the american protestant evangelical movement have/had different conceptions of god--darwin more a nominalist (a transcendent god that may create things and put them into motion, but who does not intervene in the movement itself--this movement, over the long term, is evolution)---- american protestant conservatives seem to have a very different idea of god, more a dad who lays out everything down to its last detail. in darwin, you have room for autonomy, even at the level of long-term development of bio-divesity: the american evangelical right does not want to allow for any autonomy in history, only a space for choice--belief or its opposite, salvation or damnation. that's it. everything else is preordained. i dont understand how this gets squared wth free will--but this is not my problem.
i mean, it is not as if darwin was himself an atheist--nor does atheism follow from origin of the species or the descent of man--darwin addresses these questions directly in the text.
i do not understand why we should allow the views of far right american protestants to define what a religious person might think about darwin or evolution---because there are many conceptions of god within christianity, there are many ways of thinking how this god might interact with the earth/history etc.---but the far right protestant evangelical community is trying to impose its VERY particular theology on the rest of us in the name of christianity as a whole--when the fact is that their views are not even representative of christianity itself. it appears that these communities have not even reached the 12th century in terms of thinking about the nature of god, the theological problems that would shape this thought, etc.--they are not even at the level of the debate between aquinas and ockham---it is a very shallow form of thought that is being agitated for across the device of "intelligent design"--and a presumptuous one at that, because the far right protestant evangelicals claim that they and they alone know the true nature of god, have sussed out the proper role their god must play in shaping history and/or evolution. all this on the basis of--apparently--not having read darwin on the one hand, and a truly impoverished theology on the other.
so maybe the best way to deal with this non-issue is to present the views,and the texts, and watch as i.d. implodes again and again.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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