Is the USA the only country that even bothers with Intelligent Design bullshit?

[mswas]

@jjimm

I’ve checked all the tables, and I think your adding up re. scientists is wrong.

So it is, I’m tired.

[jjimm]

@Valteron

If we are going to give kids ALL sides of the story, and not just Evolution, as the creationists demand, then surely the Japanese Shinto creation version must be part of what American kids are taught. After all, as George W. said, why are these Evolution people so afraid of a little competition, of letting all kids be exposed to more than one version?

I said this before, and I’ll say it again: let the atheists make a point by demanding, if Christian myths are to be proposed as a “theory”, that school boards should promote all creation myths alongside: fund the Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Cargo Cults, Obeah, Wiccans, Thai Animists, Tibetan Bons, Zoroastrians, Cao Dai, Ua Dab, Polynesian Mythos, etc. etc.

And thus make it impractical to include any religious tripe in scientific teaching.

[Voyager]

@jovan

That’s not the position I was taught by Catholic teachers. If you posit that God is omniscient, then it’s perfectly reasonable to believe that he could set in motion a chain reaction whose end result would be human beings. An omniscient creator does not need to trip the predator, he just needs to set his dominos in just the right places and the predator will inevitably trip – perfect knowledge means perfect foresight.

I guess it depends on whether you think God plays dice. Even if he intervened, it being logically impossible to set things in motion with that degree of precision, he’d still know he would intervene, and he’d know how he’d have to intervene (invisibly) to get the desired results. The Catholic way kind of eliminates free will, doesn’t it? But for purposes of evolution, they are equivalent.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Voyager

I guess it depends on whether you think God plays dice. Even if he intervened, it being logically impossible to set things in motion with that degree of precision.

Why would it be impossible? The belief is that he makes the Big Bang happen in such a way that every single atom falls exactly where it needs to fall to culminate in abiogenesis and evolution. Deterministically, a hypothetically omnipotent and omniscient God should be able to pull this off with no problem. There is obviously no evidence that such was the case but why do you say the idea is logically unsound?

[garius]

My Catholic School upbringing taught exactly the same as Diogenes - although i hasten to add that it was never taught in Science class (evolution was an accepted Scientific Theory) and barely covered in RE.

I studied it more than most, however, because i took Theology at A-Level.*

The Catholic way kind of eliminates free will, doesn’t it? But for purposes of evolution, they are equivalent

Not really - because it’s based on the idea that the supreme being is omniscient and omnipotent and therefore (by necessity) outside of time and space. That means that, to carry on with the metaphor, the dominos can be stacked based on the decisions you will make.

That’s either:

a) wonderfully logical
b) possible, but also proof that all the best philisophers/theologians are pot-heads
c) utter bollocks

depending on your own personal point of view. Either way, as you say, Theological Evolution is completely and totally compatible with the theory of evolution in its strictist scientific sense.

Apologies for that explanation not being couched in more flowing, philisophical language replete with quotes and whatnot (complete with counter-arguments and debate). Be assured that my teacher did his utmost to make these stick in my enquiring young mind.

Unfortunately for him my enquiring young mind was more concerned with attempting to get into the knickers of Anna, the girl sat next to me, who was witty, beautiful and generally wearing a skirt at least 4 inches shorter than the normal rules of decency allow.

*anyone who worries about Catholic faith schools should do a Theology A-Level in one - you’ll be fucking amazed at how no-holds-barred it is.

[TokyoBayer]

@John Mace

But is there some home-grown anti-evolution movement or movements? Seems like the Japanese sense of separateness and specialness would lend itself to casting doubt on evolution.

As you can see from the graph shown in the NY Times, Japan has a very small percent which don’t believe in evolution.

My guess is that the ones who claim they don’t are the right-wing nuts which want to believe that the emperor is is god.