Does God Want Us to be Idiots?

I recently read a post on hubpages. I won’t link the page in question because this isn't meant to be an attack on a particular person, but rather a broad look at what I perceive to be a problem. The post was asking a question about evolution. Several people posted reasonable if amateurish attempts to explain evolution. Then someone comes along with a quote something along the lines of, “Its simple, evolution doesn't exist. Its not in The Bible. Its all a lie.” My first thought was something along the lines of, “Way to bury your head in the sand, dipshit” Then I started thinking, not about how stupid this one individual’s comment was, but why does being a good Christian, or Jew, whatever it may be, mean that you cannot be progressive in thought as well? I do want to point out here that I am not an atheist. It just bothers me to see ignorance being practiced in the name of God.

The first problem in my opinion is the book. Be it the Old Testament, Quran, King James whatever it may be. For the rest of the article I’ll focus on the Christian Bible, because I am most familiar with it. Regardless of if you believe that The Bible is the word of God, it was penned and translated by man. Furthermore the words of God were given to man in a fashion so that they would be understood by individuals who lived their lives more than 1000 years ago! This is the main point of my argument against those who stubbornly hold to the words of the book unerringly. Being reasonable you can't expect God to have given his people either directly, or through prophets, concepts they couldn’t hope to comprehend. Then expect his word to be adhered to. The word of God had to be spoken in a manner that could be understood by the masses or the message would be lost. Can you imagine John the Baptist sitting down with his followers and saying, “Alright listen up guys. I know this is gonna sound new to everyone, but I got some news from upstairs. Today we are going to talk about quantum theory.”

Absurd right? Now, how is that any more ridiculous than expecting explanations given to persons over 1000 years ago to directly apply to us today? Simply put, you can’t. Sure the morals in the book still do. The text can still teach us things. Help the lost find their way. But not the understanding of how the universe or life originated. What the sparklies in the sky are. Hell these people still thought the Earth was flat! If you happen to be one of the people who think that inspite of all evidence thinks that the earth is only a few thousand years old, or that dinosaur fossils are all a hoax....... I don't know what to tell you. Just go sit over there in a corner and try not to hurt yourself. How does intentionally being ignorant makes you a good member of your church. Theres no way I can see any God wanting it that way. If God made man he made them to be creatures of discovery. Constant forward motion. Not to mention that it seems hypocritical to me to embrace creation theories a thousand or so years old, but conveniently embrace other advances like central air conditioning. If you are a person who refuses to believe in advanced concepts like evolution you damned sure shouldn't be telling me about it on the internet. Why do you have car insurance? Jesus is all the protection you need! Show me how serious you are. Go live in a hovel next to the dead sea. Eat salted mutton for every meal. At least that way you wouldn't look like a hypocrite, and the rest of the intelligent world wouldn't have to listen to you! Everyones a winner!

All this isn't to say that all churchgoing religious folks are the backwards sort I've been ranting about. There are plenty out there who have thought progressively to blend modern scientific theories into their own beliefs. The Catholic Church I believe has been on record in integrating not only evolution, but the Big Bang into their own ideals. In my opinion thats genius. The Big Bang is a mostly unexplainable burst of energy that began our universe. I can't think of a better place to fit the G man into creation than a random burst of energy that creates something out of nothing.

My biggest issue with all this is the indoctrination of youth. Really I could care less if a bunch of full grown adult decide to put their hands over their ears and scream, “I CAN'T HEAR YOU,” to the voices of reason. Knock yourself out. Have a super awesome kool aid party while you are at it. I am however a big “Children are the Future” believer. When you indoctrinate your kids with ridiculous beliefs you are doing the world, and the future of the world a giant disservice. What if a child would have grown up to achieve a cure for cancer? I can't think of a more noble and religion friendly accomplishment. To rid the world of sickness. Only he doesn't make it. Never got the chance. Instead of nurturing his gifts his parents fill his head with antiquated notions and hateful intolerances of others. Rather than going to med school he goes to protests at the funerals of American soldiers, chanting despicable things to the family of the deceased.

Down to brass tacks I wish people would just do a little more thoughtful introspection into their actions sometimes than they do. We are all intelligent creatures. Maybe we’re not all rocket scientists, but we should all have the capability of understanding the difference between the theories of the world in the time of the Apostles, and what’s going on in the here and now. If after that introspection you still choose to think Jesus rode on dinosaurs......Then please just don't involve your children. Let them develop their own views of the world. Do not force them into your own visions. Because it isn’t fair to them. And its not fair to my children who are going to have to share the world with them in their own time.

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