Keeping A Distance From Religion

A primary reason evolution is believed by many is because what is thought to be the alternative, religion, is feared, dreaded and unthinkable. And it is true that scientific advances only occurred because knowledge was wrested from the autocratic clutches of religion. Our age of wonderful technology came at a cost of great persecution and brought us out of the cave and off the pews into the light (fluorescent).

The memory of clerical obscurantism has been riveted upon the human subconscious. Religion – and by association anything paranormal or spiritual – is rejected out of hand because it is associated with dogma, bias, charlatans and moral confinement, not openness and intellectual advance. Religion and metaphysics are seen as retrogression, capitulation and surrender.

If we look back, the gods and creeds that were used to explain the knowledge voids of the past were jettisoned one after another by the march of science. I know, I know, the time can be pointed to when holy book thumpers and skeptics ranted that man would never fly, that the sun circled the Earth and that electric light was evil - and of course how the dogged march for scientific truth proved them wrong. So it is an easy step from there to conclude that if there is something we don’t know, materialistic science will come to the rescue.

There is a lesson there, agreed, but again, a molehill should not be made into a mountain. The fact that we discovered that disease could be caused by germs and not from skimping on tithes, is no reason to think that there is no barrier to knowledge. Humans are finite, the universe is infinite. We are constrained by definition. The fact that we discovered the wheel is not proof that we will one day be omniscient any more than the ability of a dog to roll over on command proves it will one day do calculus. As quantum mechanics has shown, reality is not even physical. As physical creatures we will always be dogs just doing fancy tricks. Yes, we should forever test the limits with our sciences, but at the same time remain wise enough to see that there are limits.

When it comes to the question of origins, materialists assume that anything that cannot be caged and poked at or surveyed with an instrument and carried out to the twentieth decimal point should be rejected. But in their haste to flee from the spiritual into the arms of evolution, materialists leave behind the rigors of the scientific method – there are no observations, experiments or predictions applied as proof that life arose from nonliving matter and that creatures can transmutate into one another.

Moreover, logic and evidence forsake materialism at the fundamental level of reality and when applied to the question of origins. As I have explained previously, the materialist reaches limits and must resign to unanswered questions about first causes. He has reached no intellectually advantageous position whatsoever by leaving gods and swooning over matter.

Admitting ignorance and incapacity or acknowledging intellect beyond our own need not mean that we must return to the dark ages or begin sacrificing lambs, blowing ourselves up in a Jihad or kissing the boots of church leaders. Nor does evil, suffering and injustice in the world preclude an underlying intelligence. If there are dimensions, powers, intellect and purpose beyond our scope of understanding, that’s okay. It just means either we must swallow a bitter ego pill and accept limits or that exploration may only be possible by means other than microscopes and telescopes.

Evolutionists must be careful that they do not fall victim to the very thing that is repugnant to them and blindly remain devoted to an ideological shrine in spite of the evidence. Unfortunately, in their zeal to escape the perceived irrationality of religion, evolutionists dig irrational holes under their own feet with shovels of faith, bias, bigotry and even fraud.

Good logic and science require that questions be faced with an open and receptive mind. Yet the notions of creation and a greater intelligence than ours are rejected a priori by materialists not because of the weight of evidence but because of rejection of religion.

Dr. Wysong: A former veterinary clinician and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical, nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research director for the present company by his name and founder of the philanthropic Wysong Institute. http://www.wysong.net. Also check out http://www.cerealwysong.com.

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