The Gen(i)e in Genesis

By Johan de Haan --

It is testament to the development of secular reasoning, and atheist arguments against religious claims of the scientific accuracy or acceptability, that the involvement of institutional religion in the affairs of the sciences has been reduced to plank time.

Image by cewil via Flickr

Indeed, when critically reviewed, none of modern theologians or religious leaders of any name or stature present substantive objection to either the prevailing scientific rationale concerning the origin of the universe nor indeed the development and evolution of life on this planet.

Unfortunately the development and endorsement, or at least the tacit acceptance, of the theory of evolution by church leaders has appeared to have gone by the general bleating flock unnoticed. Indeed, on the contrary, the repetitive rhetoric of “show me the evidence” and “where are your missing links” not only illustrates the deep seated ignorance of billions of our fellow men and women, they also belie a worrying willingness on the part of institutional religion to leave the sheepcote unsupervised and let the flock run wild. Very few of the Catholic Christians I come across have even the bare minimum of understanding of the theory of evolution let alone their beloved former Pope's endorsement of it. Indeed, even fewer realise the implication of Pope John Paul's message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences 1996, in which the dear holy father made a spectacular non sequitur in his attempts to justify his assertion that whilst evolution was, by virtue of the irrevocable evidence in its favour, true, extending it to mankind was impossible as it did not “ground the dignity of the person”. In truth this feat of intellectual simplicity was put forward only after he cited the works of Pope Pius X11 in the Encyclical Humani generic namely “animal enim a Deo immediate creari catholica fides nos retinere inhet" – God provides the soul in the body of man upon creation, yet it remains a fascinating example of the degree to which not only the concept of evolution is smudged by the religious, but also the idiocy of the manner in which its principles are warped and bent in the hands of religious leadership.

To any rational mind the the subjective position taken by the previous Pontiff, in which on the one hand he cites the overwhelming evidence in favour of evolution as justification for his acceptance of the principle evolution, whilst on the other retaining the myth basis allegation that mankind enjoys the special blessing and preference of a divine entity and stands above the laws of nature and the evolutionary process that shaped all life, the entire cherry picking of scientific principles is a shameless act of self-serving protectionism. Yet institutional religion would has us believe that either the tale of creationism is true, in which an unevidenced extra terrestrial being swooped out of the nothingness of nothing in order to create all we behold at a whim, or that a selective and limited rendition thereof holds the truth of our existence, in which an enevidenced extra terrestrial being swooped out of the nothingness in order to add his chosen brand of primate to an existing world adhering to evolutionary rules. Not to mention that the aforementioned being did so in a manner that would suggest to the rational and scientific eye that notwithstanding a divine purpose god's chosen was in fact part of the very life cycle into which it had been infused.

Needless to say, there are countless versions of the creation myth, from the strict literal interpretation of Genesis to varying broad interpretations of the overwhelming scientific evidence in support of Darwinian evolution in light of the claims of creationism. However, it is the very inability of institutional religion to identify any central doctrine to the divine origins of our world that yet again remind of us of the danger of relying on bronze age superstition for any scientific, rational or logical explanation to anything.

Despite the clear and apparent invalidity of the scientific or religious claims of religion, modern society continues to tolerate its misleading and fraudulent allegation of truth. In all matters of any import we have become accustomed to insisting on reason and evidence before tolerating any proposition of consequence, yet in bizarre fashion we continue to tolerate religious claims not just in relation to the mundane but concerning the origin of the world and our existence. This tendency would be justified to a degree if these claims were with foundation or indeed if there were no scientific alternative that satisfies our desires for answers.

The origin of creationism is to be found in myth and legend, a story of primitive simplicity and ignorance which envisaged a small, simple and limited universe which offered little in the way of wonder or “miracle”. The fact that despite all that we know we maintain these dated notions could cause one to wonder, perhaps for a second, whether there is something exotic in these tales, whether there is a genie in the Genesis bottle. Sadly for our self image as the planet's “smartest” primate, the truth is clear and ambiguous and reveals our weakness as a species, a species easily tempted by the simple, mesmerized by illusions and fearful of a stark harsh reality in which we enjoy no special “fatherly” protection, in which we are but part of a timeless and beautiful cycle of life. A cycle without controlling agent and without divine purpose, but capable of creating a frightened, self-centred and erratic higher primate easily lead to fantastic claims of self grandeur.

We are the genie and will continue to lose ourselves in the smoke and mirrors emanating from our oil lamp for as long as we tolerate the primitive ignorance of our forefathers as constituting anything but the uninformed wishful desire for answers by generations of the uneducated and unaware.

Filed Under: Johan de Haan , Rants