This post as an open thread where I’d like to hear your thoughts. I see three main camps in the science-religion world. One screams angrily that evolution is true and Christians are stupid. Another, just as angry, screams evolution is false and evolutionary biologists are stupid. The final group calmly tries to help evangelical Christians see that evolution is compatible with their faith.
I think there needs to be a fourth camp. We need to highlight that even though evolution is true, it really doesn’t matter very much whether people believe it or not. After all (you must be getting sick of this!), you can reject evolution and still become a doctor. We need to stress that, as wrong as creationists’ are, scientists’ responses usually aren’t much better. This as of now non-existent fourth camp would probably have to reach out to scientists, and help us recognize how flawed our own arguments are and how much we violate our own ideals.
Any thoughts on how best to do this? I’d be interested in anything from marketing to writing advice. You’re of course free to say this is a terrible idea and I’m completely wrong about everything!
Nice post. I don’t have ideas about this. I would just say what I’ve normally found to be good for me in life. Mix, rub shoulders with one another. It’s in living life with all kinds of people that misconceptions and preconceptions and prejudices begin to fade away. I don’t know if it’s as much about education and marketing and awareness as it is about all of us learning to mix, work, play, eat, laugh, and cry with people who are different than us. We all need friends different than us, and not in a superficial way. We need to develop and nourish deep ties and profound relations with a variety of people to see how people view ourselves and to enrich our own understanding of ourselves as much as we deepen our learnings of others. Than those misconceptions fade.