Amen!

Thank you Donna - I couldn't agree more!

Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Donna Adams
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 3:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] Evolution Debate and us less educated southern folk

Once we take our last breath on this earth I don't think we will be
concerned about how the world was created, but whether we know the God
that created us and to whom will we be accountable to.

We have a wonderful Designer, and how God made the universe may be open
to debate but I can assure you there is a reason and it was not a series
of accidents.

If more people as you say that are higher educated believe in evolution,
what does that tell those of us that are as you say "have less education
and live in the South."  It tells me that I am pretty smart........

You can be a Great Ape if you want to ----

As Dr. Graham said, "I do not feel competent to speak on the various
theories held by scientists with reference to the origin of the
universe.  But the one thing I am very sure of - any theory which leaves
the Sovereign God out of His own universe is a very poor one."

Right On!!








-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Lyn Miles
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 12:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] Evolution Debate

UTC Community,

Galileo was tried and convicted of the non-Biblical teaching that the
earth
moved around the sun in 1633. As Galileo, and others before him who were
killed for teaching science, learned, it takes time for people to accept
new
scientific discoveries.

Now, several centuries later, all the creationists I know do not dispute
the
"heresy" that the earth revolves around the sun, and Pope John Paul II
has
even declared, for 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide, that evolution is a
fact.

Other "believers" will need more proof from science before they accept
evolution--I count some among them as my friends--but I suspect they
will
gradually change also. Human evolution has grown in acceptance over the
last
150 years to about 50% in the U.S., which actually lags behind other
developed nations which have about 75-80% acceptance.

A factor here is educational level. In the U.S. acceptance of human
evolution is about 70-80% among those with advanced degrees, in contrast
to
40% or less among those with high school or less education, or who live
in
the South. Tennessee is not known as the "Education State," and while we
continue to fall behind Georgia and North Carolina in educational level,
economic development, and jobs, we can always have some more Scopes
Monkey
Trials, or legislation purporting to advocate academic freedom, but
actually
restricting it, if we want.

Regarding evolution, besides radiocarbon testing, we have several other
lines of evidence. Life is based on a genetic code of four base
pairs-individual creation would not require this, but it is consistent
with
life forms evolving from earlier forms. Great apes share 99% of our
genetic
code: human chromosome 2 is two ape chromosomes end on end.

Why would the second most intelligent life forms on earth share so much
of
our DNA, blood types, behaviors, and culture? Their DNA could be based
on 6
base codes, entirely different codes-or no codes at all, if we were all
separately created. Vestigial organs in the human body replicate our
evolutionary path from earlier life forms-would a creator put them there
to
make it "look like" evolution? The human fossils we find in different
layers
of the earth make sense-the older ones found in deeper layers look more
primitive and apelike-if things were just randomly tossed about by one
Flood
they would not be distributed that way.

I do not tell my students what to believe; I respect all religious
beliefs
that do not violate human rights, and I applaud our diversity on this
campus. But, I require my students to understand what evidence
anthropologists have uncovered about human evolution, and how we reason
about that evidence.

When well-meaning people complain or suggest that "both sides" be
presented
in our anthropology and biology classes, a serious point is missed:
evolution and creationism are two different ways of knowing. Although
science is based on assumptions that the world is knowable, ordered, and
has
some consistent processes over the millennia, evolution is based on
empirical evidence about how the world works, including atomic processes
for
dating materials; similarities in DNA, culture, anatomy, and behavior
with
great apes; fossil evidence, etc. When new evidence is discovered, as it
was
recently with bipedal apes from Spain 13 million years ago, and a new
species of humans, 3 ft tall, from Indonesia 12 thousand years ago,
science
changes its perspective, and accommodates to the evidence in new
evolutionary scenarios.

Creationism is based on the received knowledge of religious
interpretations-the problem is whose version and interpretation of the
Bible
from which of several thousand fragments, translations, and Books? Whose
creation myth shall we use? Those from fundamentalist Christians, Hindus
or
Muslims, or my own Native American Abenaki creation myth of Ozeehozo?

Nearly each year, a bill is entered into the Tennessee legislature that
would require teaching creationism, or possibly send professors to jail
much
as we did John Scopes in Dayton, TN in the 1920's. So far these bills
have
been defeated, as I hope the present one seeking to actually limit
"academic
freedom" will be as well.

As the professor on campus who teaches human evolution every semester, I
would be honored to stand with Mr. Scopes, or with Galileo, for the
right to
use human reason to understand the world and avoid the tyranny of any
religious group, not just fundamentalists. Just remember to bring to me
in
prison, great Italian food and good Tuscan wine. Galileo, "prende
qualcosa
da bere" (would you like to have a drink)? Salute!

Galileo was forced to recant in 1633 (see below), but under his breath
he
said "and yet it does move" referring to the earth revolving around the
sun,
and the Church's insistence that it didn't. Well, people, . . it does.

Galileo's words:

"I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei of Florence, aged
70
years, tried personally by this court, and kneeling before You, the most
Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinals, Inquisitors-General throughout the
Christian Republic against heretical depravity, having before my eyes
the
Most Holy Gospels, and laying on them my own hands; I swear that I have
always believed, I believe now, and with God's help I will in future
believe
all which the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church doth hold, preach, and
teach...

I abjure with sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and detest the
said
errors and heresies, and generally all and every error and sect contrary
to
the Holy Catholic Church. And I swear that for the future I will neither
say
nor assert in speaking or writing such things as may bring upon me
similar
suspicion; and if I know any heretic, or one suspected of heresy, I will
denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor and Ordinary of
the
place in which I may be...

In Rome, at the Convent della Minerva, this 22nd day of June, 1633"



H. Lyn Miles, Ph.D.
UC Foundation Professor of Anthropology
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403 USA
423-425-4440 Email: [log in to unmask]