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Jon
Kennedy's 'Postcards from
the Nanty Glo in My
Mind'
Monday, July 4, 2005
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Word studies
One of the favorite recurring bits from the Jay Leno joke bag is his claiming that because of new government rules, products must be renamed or labeled for what they really are instead of what their marketers would like consumers to think of them as being. So the new Burger King breakfast sandwich with allegedly excessive levels of fat and calories must be relabeled an "instant coronary" rather than "Breakfast on a Bun" or such like. Though my recent reflections on the use and misuse of some frequently mentioned terms are more serious, they suggest some of the same implications as what Leno is pleading for: truth in labelling.
Intelligent design. A recent appearance on a cable-news chat show by a "scientist" opposing the current development in evolutionary debate, "intelligent design," got my attention. After contending that "intelligent design" is bogus scientifically and evolution is well supported by the best science, he said he is a theistic evolutionist because he believes in God but he also believes in science. But if there is a God, surely all of creation is the product of intelligent design. Or is he actually a radical "deist" who thinks "God," however that is defined, because it's not as "Creator," wound up the clock but has been ignoring it ever since? You can't be a theist and not believe in intelligent design, as I see it. It just doesn't compute. You don't have to accept any other particular "intelligent design" advocate as defining what you mean by it, but you have to start by God = Intelligent Designer, ergo the world is the outworking of intelligent designs.
Theistic evolution. Likewise, if you believe in God and you believe there has been change in species ("evolution," if you will) since their original appearance ("creation," if you will) you are, by the common sense use of the words, a theistic evolutionist. You may extend or contract the limits of "evolution" to suit your own scientific findings, but God + evolution = theistic evolution. And that's not in conflict with "intelligent design," which is a given if God is permitted to enter into the equation. See the preceding paragraph.
Evolutionist. If you believe in pure evolution or "only" evolution, you believe in chance plus time equals everything. You have no God.
Evolutionism is invariably atheistic; the religion of pure evolution unaided or uninterfered with by any God.
Religion means "the most important thing in life and the world; the reason we're here." Any other defniniton is irrational. Of course after you've put that down in your lexicon you can add subcodicils like "Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, animism, wicca," etc., and further define any or all of those. But if religion is "the most important thing in life," whatever that is, and you then say "religion and politics should not be allowed to mix" ipso facto is to say you're an atheist or, at least, your "religion" is yourself and you want to do politics as though you alone are the center of the universe. Either that, or you/re hiding your real religion, which could be Marxism, scientism, humanism, or any other ideology, worldview, or philosophy of life.
—Webmaster Jon Kennedy
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Thought for today
When we are green, still half created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever.
— Toby Wolfe (contemporary novelist)
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