At lunch today my friend Dave was wondering how long the human species has been around. I tried to recall, and threw out a number ( a million years ) that was a bit high. Current estimates have humans (Homo sapiens) evolving about 200-300 thousand years ago. To my credit, the very human-like species, Homo erectus was around a million years ago.
Dave then made a joke. He sarcastically retorted, “No, we all know that man was created exactly 7,000 (or whatever) years ago.” He immediately and profusely appologized, for not knowing if anyone listening was a Fundamentalist. I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings.
But this makes me wonder about how to deal with diverse beliefs in a sensitive manner. On the one hand, evolution is a certainty. The age of the earth is undeniably billions of years old. But there are people who mix these scientific observations with religious faith. The web site Talk Origins discusses these issues in great detail, and presents the scientific point of view with clarity.
On the other hand, I have no need to embroil my coworkers in a debate about evolution. If one of them is a fundamentalist or a believer in “Intelligent Design”, isn’t that their problem? So do I avoid discussing evolution because it might incite them? No. Do I avoid making jokes about how stupid they are? I suppose I should… I really try to be nice to people, even if I think they’re stupid about something. But this creationism and I.D. crap is so bad. It undermines legitimate science. It poison’s peoples minds. How can someone become a successful scientific thinker if they’re uncertain about one of our most significant scientific discoveries? You know, I’m sure there is a trite metaphore about the building with a foundation made of shit.
If there was a religious group that didn’t believe in gravity, wouldn’t we all laugh at them?
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