The more science is distorted by dishonest governments and by religious medievalists, the more the following needs repeating:
.…………….the essence of wisdom is the willingness to say "I don’t know." Why is there something rather than nothing? "I don’t know." Why are the laws of nature what they are? "I don’t know." Why does Bach’s St. Matthew Passion reduce me to awed silence? "I don’t know." Why does the sight of a Black Swallowtail in the meadow make me smile with delight? "I don’t know." What is the meaning of it all? "I don’t know."
On the other hand, consider all the questions for which we have answers. Why does the sun go dark at midday? Why does the comet appear in the sky? Why the plague? Why the drought? Why the infestation of locusts? Why the mountains and the valleys? Why the fossils on the mountain top? How did the universe begin? And on and on.
As long as our answers to these questions invoked the gods — as they did for thousands of years — no reliable public knowledge was possible. Only when a few curious people said "I don’t know" did science begin. Admission of ignorance is a prerequisite of scientific discovery, and by the same token, the more we learn, the more we are aware of what we do not know.
(Chet Raymo, Science Musings http://www.sciencemusings.com/2006/09/through-glass-darkly.html)
The so-called religious right does not even know what the meaning of "theory" is.
Conservatives know enough, thank you, you patronizing s.o.b. We know that God created the world 6000 years ago, and that’s the main thing to know. Plus math and reading.
Hey Charlie!!! I am a Christian and I am very aware of all I dont know. A day in the Lord’s eyes is a thousand years which makes the Creation 2,190,000 years ago by your reckoning. (actually it was a Bishop called Ussher who reckoned 6000 years, not the Word of God.) And now we are getting to be ridiculous I hear you say. Surely faith that closes the eyes to the glories and intricacies of scientific discovery – (all God’s laws revealed) – is a very monochromatic faith???
What I know is that you have to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and be born again. There’s no reason to make things difficult by questioning this and questioning that. Leave that to the atheists, Darwin-junkies and moslems and so on. All you have tosay is “God, I know that I have sinned against you and am deserving of punishment. But Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in Him I could be forgiven. I place my trust in You for salvation. Thank You for Your wonderful grace and forgiveness – the gift of eternal life! Amen!”. As for how many years its been since the Creation, waht does it matter. What you need to know is that God did it in seven days, like it says in the Bible. You could be right or the bishop could be right.