Intelligent Design. (revised while sober)
There's been much ado about this lately and I hadn't really thought about it because I operate under the assumption that the Right is always wrong. However, I was on my way to a party on Saturday and a thought occurred to me:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An old, fat, bald white man is sitting across the table from me. He's ranting on about this invisible force that moves the universe in mysterious, but deliberate ways. I'm kind of listening, but really I'm zoned out, staring at his head wondering if his wife polishes it in the morning or if he does it himself. Anyway, he's going on about how all of creation is blah blah blah...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Except he's talking about quarks. Or mu-mesons. Or some other quantum body.
All encompassing, invisible force, acting deliberately to move every single thing in the universe according to some grand plan. Change plan to law and it's science instead of religion.
At this point the inquisitor in me says "I've never seen it, I've never touched it, convince me." And both sides yammer on through their doctrine, The Gospels, mathematical proofs, electronic devices so complicated no single person understands them completely performing experiments that deliver whatever results they do, meaning whatever any of that means... Why is that different from receiveing sacrament and being forgiven of your sins? An arbitrarily developed apparatus performs a more or less mystical function, the results of which are then interpreted, but never fully explained, to us by members of an elite class.
Oh, but it takes so much learning and practice to become a theoretical physicist. Really? You don't say. I'm told it's not all that easy to become a bishop either.
So what you get is our doctrine of faith versus theirs. I'm not deigning to interpret the foundations of either one, but each is founded on an pledge of faith in some constant force that is expressed in the universe we see.
God? Gravitons? Who cares? I'm not saying intelligent design should be taught in schools, I just think the left should stop being so goddam smug and admit that there are other possibilities for once.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An old, fat, bald white man is sitting across the table from me. He's ranting on about this invisible force that moves the universe in mysterious, but deliberate ways. I'm kind of listening, but really I'm zoned out, staring at his head wondering if his wife polishes it in the morning or if he does it himself. Anyway, he's going on about how all of creation is blah blah blah...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Except he's talking about quarks. Or mu-mesons. Or some other quantum body.
All encompassing, invisible force, acting deliberately to move every single thing in the universe according to some grand plan. Change plan to law and it's science instead of religion.
At this point the inquisitor in me says "I've never seen it, I've never touched it, convince me." And both sides yammer on through their doctrine, The Gospels, mathematical proofs, electronic devices so complicated no single person understands them completely performing experiments that deliver whatever results they do, meaning whatever any of that means... Why is that different from receiveing sacrament and being forgiven of your sins? An arbitrarily developed apparatus performs a more or less mystical function, the results of which are then interpreted, but never fully explained, to us by members of an elite class.
Oh, but it takes so much learning and practice to become a theoretical physicist. Really? You don't say. I'm told it's not all that easy to become a bishop either.
So what you get is our doctrine of faith versus theirs. I'm not deigning to interpret the foundations of either one, but each is founded on an pledge of faith in some constant force that is expressed in the universe we see.
God? Gravitons? Who cares? I'm not saying intelligent design should be taught in schools, I just think the left should stop being so goddam smug and admit that there are other possibilities for once.
