In the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence we find the stirring words,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.”
Remove “Creator” in the Preamble and you erase the premise of inherent rights.
The Preamble is not the only reference to God in our government documents. A Pew Research Center Analysis of August 17, 2017 reports that God or the divine is mentioned at least once in each of the 50 state constitutions and nearly 200 times overall. Yet, we have forgotten God in our public-school classrooms to our potentail peril.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes the horrors of his 8-year imprisonment in the Soviet Union’s labor camps in his book The Gulag Archipelago. The Gulag is the Soviet government agency in charge of a network of labor camps established by Lenin and later expanded by Stalin. They were filled by people who opposed communism and by many who were sent there for no apparent reason, raising the age-old question of how some people can be so cruel to others.
Solzhenitsyn answers this question in his 1983 acceptance speech for the Templeton prize, an award some consider more prestigious than the Nobel Prize.
“But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately that to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.”
He calls this the principal trait of the 20th century, recounting WWI, WWII, and select trends, including the rise of secularism in the United States.
If forgetting God is that important, then we have a problem. Students in public schools and universities are taught that science explains mankind’s existence using purely atheistic evolutionary processes. Mention of any role for a creator in the classroom is considered anti-science and a violation of the church and the state.
I think this idea needs rethinking. The “church” refers to a religion, and different religions have different ways to perceive and worship God. One can acknowledge the possibility of a God creator in a science discussion without addressing various forms of worship. Science can study the material aspects of our existence even if we are the product of a creator.
For an analogy, consider the Easter Island statues shown below.
Scientists have no idea where these statues came from. The probability that nature would produce these features is near zero, so they appear to be the product of an intelligent creator. This acknowledgement, however, does not prevent scientists from studying their material aspects.
A new source of information for some people is provided by AI algorithms, which are supposed to peruse pertinent documents on the Internet and assemble an answer, a source likely popular with future students.
Here are a few real questions posted on an AI site.
An AI bot writing helpful answers
Can monkeys really be our ancestors since we have evolved so much and they don’t seem to have?
ChatGPT
Humans and monkeys are both primates, and we share a common ancestor. However, the evolution of primates has led to many different branches, with humans and monkeys evolving in different ways. It is important to note that evolution is a continuous process, and there is no clear dividing line between one species and another. Rather, all living things are connected through a web of evolutionary relationships.
An AI bot writing helpful answers>
If monkeys are our ancestors than why only some monkeys were converted to human beings?
ChatGPT
It is believed by scientists that the evolutionary process that led to the development of humans involved a branching off of the primate family tree. This branching off occurred when a group of primates, believed to be a species of ape or monkey, evolved certain characteristics that set them apart from their primate relatives. These characteristics include the development of a larger brain, bipedalism (walking on two legs), and the ability to use tools and communicate through language. It is thought that these adaptations allowed early humans to survive in new environments and led to the development of human civilization as we know it today
In the AI answers above there is no mention of a creator. There is no mention of a long-standing creation/evolution debate.
This continuing debate obviously intrigues me. I have given several interviews about my book on this topic. The latest was about a week ago on a 30-minute radio program hosted by Dr. Angela Butts Chester. It is broadcast on FM radio in Atlanta, Cincinnati, several stations in Georgia and Kentucky, and then loaded onto various streaming platforms. If you are interested you can listen using the YouTube link or the other link provided here.
Is Your Ancestor A Monkey with Clifford Fry | EP 518 – YouTube
Daily Spark with Dr. Angela | iHeart
I appreciate all of you who read my posts. You are welcome to send any comments to jcfry@suddenlink.net. I am open to learn.
Is Your Ancestor A Monkey?:
An Exploration of Key Issues
in the Evolution Versus Creation Debate
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