Is Evolution a Dangerous Idea? If so, why?

Why do you approve of it? Is there a church tax?

There is a church tax. The Lutherans and the Catholics get it whether people attend their services or not. No better way to bribe the indolence of the clergy, of which I approve very much. In free-market America, churches have to be much more virulent, entrepreneurial, and activist to make money.

PS: You don't have to pay the church tax if you leave the church. So I didn't have to pay it.

You haven't said why you consider it a good thing to bribe the indolence of the clergy. Why not just make the worthless feckers go out and get a job and make themselves at least marginally useful to society?

Churches in the United States can get away with that **** because they aren't taxed. That's only serious problem i have with organized religion--they're freeloaders who don't pull their own weight in the social contract.

I thought it was obvious. I'm not fond of religion. At the same time, I realize they're a fact of life. So the best way of having as little of it as possible is to have the market for religion controlled by lazy monopolists.

Sorry, but, I heartily disagree with you. When I was in 6th grade at a small Catholic elementary school in blue collar Dearborn, MI, a classmate asked our teaching nun whether it was 'alright' to 'believe in' evolution.

Her response was as long as you believe that at some point, God chose to put a soul in the most clever ape. Sounded like a nice compromise to me as an 11 year old and it still sounds like a nice compromise for today's Bible Beaters.

I just gave your response a thumbs up because you were in the negative column. I thoroughly approve of your having bought the Charlmagne bios, the work of a person a late friend called the Venemous Bede and Bunyan. We need to keep the classics of human thought current in our knowledge. Period.

I also agree 100% that a great many religious people shun adding to their knowledge and education.

If there is danger in Darwin, the danger exists because of those who simply do not limit their acceptance of his ideas to their own selves but who wish to impose their limited, 'religiously' proscribed view to others, as those who would take over school boards and request that Intelligent Design be taught side by side with science.

The state of the teaching of science in American schools is pathetic enough without diluting precious school time further. I suspect that some of those same people marching to the beat of sarah palin's drum, screaming that Obama's every action is unConstitutional fail to realize that their insistence on ID being taught in school is unConstitutional.

I find it interesting that Swedish churches have statues of the Blessed Virgin MAry. But, then I think of the Icelandic film, The Shadow of the Raven, in which an itinerant artist paints a picture of a bride . . . burned to death in a house fire, set as part of a revenge motif . . . as Mary.

Anyway, it is my understanding that most Protestant sects reject the perpetual virginity of MAry.

How could it be dangerous . . .http://www.theonion.com/articles/evolutionists-flock-to-darwinshaped-wall-stain,2523/

Although i understand the principle, i doubt that it would work that way in practice. However, it does seem to me that the established churches of Europe have effectively languished.

Perhaps your aware that Bede is habitually referred to as "the Venerable Bede." Much of Bede's work celebrates the "triumph" of the Roman church over the Keltic church--which is to say the triumph of centralized authority over local consensus. The early Keltic church was very nearly Presbyterian in its congregational spirit.

Bunyan succumbed to the lure of literary celebrity, and wrote a second screed which is just generally referred to as Part Two of The Pilgrim's Progress. It follows Christiana, the wife of the hero of Part One, Christian, along with their sons on their journey to the Heavenly City. Bunyan was actually quite a prolific writer--but the Progress is about all he is remember for.

Would evolution be a dangerous idea if genetic engineers changed humanity but argued they were only doing what would occur naturally anyway. Lighter frames, bigger brains, greater dexterity for fingers, no nails, no body hair, etc a very long list. What if they could justify it based on evolution like they now justify genetically engineered/cloned crops and animals ?

The Swedish Lutheran Church just like all other Lutheran churches are not sects.

It was not so bizarre at all from the beginning. It was natural to have a subject of religion.
As a matter of fact if you have no instructions about religion either in school or in church there will be a lot you do not understand in life. If you don´t know the symbols and people of the bible you cannot understand much of church art, including some non church art, many references in books.
I does not only has to do with religion, but with a certain level of education.

Churchtaxes don´t only go to worthless feckers as you call them. Some might be but the ones I know are hardworking people.
Churchtaxes also go to churchbuildings. We have so many beautiful churches
several hundred years old or older.
Tourists - including Americans - love to look at them and ah and oh.....so don´t complain about our churchtaxes - we don´t have if we leave the church. 85% of the Swedes are member of the Lutheran Church. Then we have Catholic, Jews, and others.

It is 63% of the German population which is member of a Christian church.
http://www.idea.de/nachrichten/detailartikel/artikel/deutschland-weniger-als-zwei-drittel-kirchenmitglieder.html

You made a key point, Ionus. Whereas past evolution was a product of survival of the fittest where those who were not the fittest could do little or nothing to change their futures, we are now rapidly going into an era where man can CREATE himself. New Organs, Extended Life Spans, Designer Babies--the possibilities are enormous. The ethical and ecological questions that will arise because of this may be more than man can handle since it is clear that man will want to obtain as many of the scientific advances for his own use as possible. What will this do to the world and to the relationships between those who have easy access to this brand new self-directed evolving and those who have little or no access?

A key point- Ionus. Let's hear more!

I can foresee what will happen. With all the enthusiasm of a new drug and many times the profit to be made, a start will be made to eliminate unwanted features. Multiple Schelrosis, Spina Bifeda, Downs Syndrome, etc will all be argued that they should be eliminated from the human genome.

They will isolate the genetic cure for lets say Downs Syndrome. We already have the frankenstein scenario of being able to kill your children if they are tested positive to Downs Syndrome whilst still in the womb. Perhaps they will get it right first time, but it doesnt matter because the first time will be an experiment, something we condemned the Nazis to death for...but the danger lies in the unknown. They took to innoculating the world against small pox despite knowing that there are side effects for a small percentage of people. So they innoculated the minimum ...cost was also a factor. But with genetics "innoculation" will have to be done every generation to everyone lest the original mutation reoccur, or wait for it to reoccur and then innoculate. In which case it will be too late for someone.

What about a multiple dose "innoculation" for all childhood killer diseases ? How certain will we be that we know every single effect possible if it is driven by a pharmaceutical company arguing that it is no more than evolution would do anyway ?

Having achieved genetic interference, we then only have to move the goal posts. One couple wants a blonde haired blue eyed boy...another couple wants a light brown girl with brunette hair and light grey eyes...nobody wants a blue-black baby do they ? Already in places like China couples kill children if it is the wrong sex. We want to prevent that dont we ?

First, i didn't "complain" about your church taxes. I frankly don't give a rat's ass what taxes you pay. I do get tired, though, of the bullshit straw man arguments you are always trotting out.

Why do you assume that religious instruction can only take place in the schools? Why do you assume that if there is no religious instruction in schools, people will be ignorant of religious principles? Why do you assume that one can only understand religious art if one learns about it in schools?

It seems to me that you are the narrow-minded one here, who doesn't understand that the religions will find the ways and means of inculcating their dogma whether or not supported by the state. As for "hard working" clergy, working hard to feather one's own nest is not evidence that one has anything worthwhile to contribute to society at large.

Once again, i didn't complain about your church taxes, i just said i find it bizarre--and i do.

Nonsense. Lutheranism is simply one of many Protestant sects.

Stage three will be we no longer know what we should look like. It will start with regrowing limbs. Some people have scarring and enough metal in their face to rival my childhood mechano set. What if I want wings...everyone would like to fly...what could possibly be wrong with that ? It is no more than nature can do and does anyway...all we are doing is combining them....wings from a condor (slightly enlarged) on the bones and heart of a bird in the frame of a human. Lovely. Perhaps with some gills for the beach holiday. What morality will stop this ? Not science...there are no factual reasons to stop it any more than there are factual reasons to stop body piercing.