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My wife and I have made profound changes in our lives through green Paganism and simple, ecological living, which have resulted in unforeseen, yet very positive opportunities for peace, joy, laughter, and success. In fact, these opportunities have been so powerful, that I was stirred to share them with others, and not keep all these amazing discoveries to ourselves. We 'unplugged from the matrix' that is the cause of so much distraction and busyness in our lives and created a magickal Pagan homestead. I will share some of these discoveries of how, as a Pagan, you can simplify your life, while living more in sync with your purpose, nature and open up an incredible world of opportunity and possibility.

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When Evolution Debates Creation

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Earlier this week Bill Nye, the "Science Guy", debated Ken Ham, founder of the creationism museum in Kentucky, and it was billed as "Science vs the Bible", among other things. I watched it, and participated in a Twitter discussion for a short time during it, and then moved over to a Facebook discussion among a friend and others who are all Atheist, as far as I can tell. When the debate was over, I was left with a few thoughts.

 

The topic for this debate wasn't really "Science vs the Bible", it was really "Evolution vs Creation," but it struck me part way through listening and watching Ham repeatedly bring up the "word of an infallible god" as direct evidence for questions posed by Nye. These two parties, and I'm guessing their respective colleagues as well, are trying to answer completely different, fundamental questions when they look out into the world. It's this basic goof that cements firmly within my mind that there is no room for any gods in scientific discovery, not even mine.

Scientists looking into the origins of the universe ask the same question as scientists looking into animal mating habits, and explaining light, and gravity. "Why?" (or "why not?", but usually "why?"). The process of scientific discovery in any field begs this basic question, and then the follow up of "how?". The question that scientists don't bother with is "who?" because the answer is irrelevant to the discovery...unless credit or grant money are involved.

Creationists, like Ken Ham, don't ask these questions because they truly believe that since they already know "who?", they don't need to ask "why?" or "how?". I personally feel that the Bible doesn't really satisfactorily answer "who?" given the history and nature of the work(s), but when Pat Robertson and I agree that people make a joke of their own beliefs by ignoring the fossil record in order to adhere to a medieval Biblical timeline of existence equaling roughly six thousand years, then that should be a clue for you.

I honestly believe that scientific discovery and religious ideology don't mix, but that one cannot disprove the validity of the other, at least not unless your dogma overreaches. I want to know about dark matter, and time, and space, and having those answers will not in the least affect my beliefs. I think when religion has attempted to ingrain itself into so much of civilization, even where it truly doesn't belong, then it boxes itself into having to defend contradictory and even obviously wrong conclusions based upon that overreaching dogma.

In my opinion, religion, faith, and belief should never be tools used to destroy others, or influence general society which invariably has members who don't subscribe to your religion, faith, or beliefs. To do so only ever results in weakening the whole system, of which we're all a part, dependent and interconnected, in more ways than we can possibly know. As I put it on my Facebook page:

A book riddled with contradictions to itself, attributed to a multitude of people, compiled by committee, more than once, with a systematic annihilation of the equality of women within the faith(s) derived from it, cannot possibly, by any reasonable, intellectually honest person, be considered a primary source of fact for anything, but I do not question anyone's right to believe it, as long as that belief stops at the threshold of civilization (education, politics, science, etc.) because one's belief's has no place influencing the world which contains others. Which is why so many "believers" are always trying to or in favor of exterminating "the others"
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Peter is an American of British and German ancestry who lives in Missouri with his wife Mary, where he is (re)discovering his connections with nature and the Gods. When he's not tending to their homestead, which feeds his family and provides an expression of gratitude and work in veneration to the Gods, he writes for several blogs, and works as a freelance artist/graphic designer. Having many years of experience in various forms of occult systems, including Asatru, Celtic, and Dragon Hollow Wicca, and Witchcraft, Peter finally found what he had been looking for all his life in a blend of Traditional Witchcraft (the nameless art), Heathenry and personal gnosis/exploration (vision/mystic).

Comments

  • Arwen Lynch
    Arwen Lynch Friday, 07 February 2014

    Very true words, Peter. "religion, faith, and belief should never be tools used to destroy others"

    Thanks for an interesting look at this debate!

  • Greybeard
    Greybeard Saturday, 08 February 2014

    If "the word of an infallible god" has any place at a debate the infallible god should show up and say so. Otherwise its just heresay and inadmissible.

    On the other side, scientists have trashed their own credibility by selling out for government money on the "global warming" scam. Overall their fraud has cost science a generation of credibility just as the "Piltdown Man" scandal did a century ago. The phrase "Because scientists all agree" now has no more credibility than "the word of an infallible god," or some lying politician from Chicago.
    Blessings.

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