Taken from American Fascists.
Chris Hedges on Creationism:
"The danger of creationism is not that it allows followers to retreat into a world of certainty and magic - which it does - but that it allows all facts to be accepted or discarded according to the dictates of a preordained ideology. Creationism removes the follower from the rational, reality based world. Signs, miracles, and wonders occur not only in the daily life of Christians, but also in history, science, medicine and logic. This belief system becomes the basis for understanding the world, and random facts or data are collected and made to fit into the belief system. If facts can't be made to fit, they are discarded or treated as misguided opinions.
"When facts are treated as if they were opinions, when there is no universal standard by which to determine truth in law, in science, in scholarship or in the reporting of the events of the day, the world becomes a place where lies become true, where people can believe what they want to believe, where there is no possibility of reaching any conclusion not predetermined by those who interpret the official, divinely inspired text."
He needs to define which form of creationism he is talking about. There is creationism that posits god created science, that that god created an will-open universe capable of shaping itself, that god created evolution etc etc etc. and of course the other type of creationism that says no system of development and self-forming was put in place - just instant answers. The writer needs to make some type of distinction here since not all views of "created" mean the same thing or refer to the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI think it's pretty obvious that Hedges refers to the "man walked with dinosaurs", eternity in 6,000 years, capital "C" creationism. The fellow does embrace Christianity and did get a Masters in Divinity from Harvard.
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