When [It] Strikes Me

Sure enough, in her picture book entitled Going Rouge (oh, wait, that said Rogue?), the biggest blow to American political legitimacy since Monica was on her knees admitted that she doesn’t believe in evolution.

From Michiko Kakutani’s NYT review:

Elsewhere in this volume she talks about creationism, saying she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: “My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.”

(via Think Progress, via Digg)

Sometimes I really doubt this country and am incredulous that so many of our citizens (and, sadly, many of our leaders) cannot reconcile science with faith. It’s not complicated, it’s just accepting that religious texts are written by men and framed by their understanding of how things operate. Whether a God inspired them is not vitiated by accepting that the Bible is not the actual, specific words used by God.

Heck, if you’re reading the Bible in English you’re reading a translation which, in and of itself, means necessarily that there is a human influence beyond the initial text. That is incontrovertible.

Click through to keep reading.

There are some who are willing to accept that Christianity is based on religious values and morality, and not on literal texts. These are people who understand what an allegory is and that saying a Biblical tale isn’t fact doesn’t equate to saying that the Biblical story is false. I respect these people in their exercise of religious faith. I can’t say the same of those who cannot accept differing views or reject challenges to their beliefs by saying “Just because.”

Anyway, I’m thinking of starting a Hellenistic Reconstructionism Facebook Group now. Heck, its mythology at least has more fun. Plus, liberals don’t mind when you teach our religion in schools (because people understand it’s allegorical, not literal).

My father, an MD by trade, is quite the Hellenic encyclopedia and he always told me when I was growing up that the main fault of modern religion is an inability to accept (or at least address) scientific challenges to the faith. He admitted that Hellenistic Paganism likely was dealt a death blow when technology made humans able to more easily scale Mount Olympus and see that the Gods were not there. The religion survived this, but left it susceptible to being overtaken by Christianity during the Roman era — a time when science hadn’t yet caught up to the questions in contemporary life.

But Christianity’s fierce opposition to scientific and empirical evidence has weathered everything from Galileo to the Hubble Space Telescope, dinosaur fossils to Ardipithecus, and Darwin to Pope John Paul II (who himself conceded evolution as fact and not incompatible with a non-literal reading of Genesis in his Message to Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1996). More depressingly, Young Earth Creationism has survived Scopes and Edwards v Aguillard, and has reemerged with of Pandas and People leading the charge in School Districts across the nation. In each American instance, using every imaginable manner of avoiding the Establishment Clause.

Anyways, Sarah Palin, you are my Creationist Moron of the Day. Let us hope that we get more of The Universe on TV and less of you.

[Images, Palin on Dinosaur via ScienceBlogs; Revolutions via Durango Bill's; Creationism via Trailer Park Refugee]