I have to confess that I'm mildly concerned by some of the opinions expressed on this forum.
The problem is that once there were people who, quite sincerely, believed that God was calling them to attack Galileo, even threaten him with violence, because they believed that scripture commanded a geocentric model of the universe. This of course we now know to be seriously false, and Galileo's work combined with Kepler's was used by Newton to develop a system of mechanics which in the end took us to the moon.
(An aside on this is that I have once personally had a moon rock, a golfball sized lump of Lunar Basalt, in my hand, a strange and very moving experience.)
The point is that the attack on Galileo was conducted by people who completely sincerely believed that scripture commanded them to believe in a geocentric universe.
What concerns me is that the same kind of people now believe that scripture commands them to attack the idea of evolution, on the same quality of evidence.
If you believe that scripture commands you to believe in special creation, you should also, on the same grounds, believe that the earth is the centre of the universe, discard every astronomical observation made since the 17th century, and believe that satnav and satellite TV simply don't exist.
Any takers?
The problem is that once there were people who, quite sincerely, believed that God was calling them to attack Galileo, even threaten him with violence, because they believed that scripture commanded a geocentric model of the universe. This of course we now know to be seriously false, and Galileo's work combined with Kepler's was used by Newton to develop a system of mechanics which in the end took us to the moon.
(An aside on this is that I have once personally had a moon rock, a golfball sized lump of Lunar Basalt, in my hand, a strange and very moving experience.)
The point is that the attack on Galileo was conducted by people who completely sincerely believed that scripture commanded them to believe in a geocentric universe.
What concerns me is that the same kind of people now believe that scripture commands them to attack the idea of evolution, on the same quality of evidence.
If you believe that scripture commands you to believe in special creation, you should also, on the same grounds, believe that the earth is the centre of the universe, discard every astronomical observation made since the 17th century, and believe that satnav and satellite TV simply don't exist.
Any takers?