Are we made in the image and likeness of God, as is told to us in the book of Genesis?
I don’t know.
I don’t think so, which places my faith in a very precarious situation – one that makes my heart ache and makes me feel like a foolish child. If I wasn’t created by God then what am I? What is this all about? Are we and all this matter simply the result of a random sequence of events? Chance? You mean I’m not a delicate and unique snowflake? You mean it’s all just absurd, as my old man would have me believe?
Faith, man. It’s a very hard thing to hold on to in this world: a thing that gets harder and harder for me every day. There are some mornings I wake up so full of faith I feel like I can shine God’s light to the world. And there are other days I feel like a mechanical lantern, dark and cold with no gas.
For me, I think my faith was really challenged in 2007 when I watched a documentary from Nova titled Intelligent Design on Trial, about a landmark course case in America centering on the teaching of evolution in public schools. For the record I was never a creationist, I was a theistic evolutionist, one that believes evolution is viable and compatible with the bible. But now I’m not so sure. The documentary seemed so final, so correct. It made me think God had nothing to do with our existence at all, and made me think that one day I may have to re-evaluate the foundations of human values.
Regardless, I tell all this not to lay out my questions of faith, but to say I identified with Iliana, Korsin Bentado, and Neera when they realized Yaru Korsin was nothing but a slave of Naga Sadow, their entire world view and sense of self-worth crashing to the ground – they weren’t special.
I can see Hilts now, writing frantically in his journal:
Yaru Korsin is dead. Yaru Korsin remains dead, nothing more than a runaway slave of Naga Sadow. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the Tribe has yet owned has been cut to bits under our sabers: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the truth of our origins too great for us to bear? We must make ourselves gods to the universe to be worthy of what we own!
I wonder if this means we’re on the cusp of a Keshiri revolution, leading to a new age of enlightenment for the purple natives of Kesh.
Anyway, JJM’s Lost Tribe of the Sith gets better with each addition. For a while now this series has been working its way up my all-time Star Wars favorites list. Beware Zahn and Perry!
For my next post I’m going to get back on to our chronological path at 39 BBY, and look at Secrets of the Jedi, the Qui-Gon section. Until then my friends, may the Force be with you.
Nice Nietzsche reference. I thought this story was great, too. I'm really looking forward to the next installment, but hating that we'll have to wait months for it. :(
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, what in the show about the ID trial shook you up so much? There's nothing in current evolutionary science that casts doubt on the claim that God used evolutionary processes as his tools for creating life (despite what know-nothings like Richard Dawkins would have you believe).
Plaristes, calling Richard Dawkins a know-nothing is just a way of making yourself look stupid. We both know that he is not, no matter what he says about religion.
ReplyDeleteFriggin' awesome blog, by the way.
Well, he's a know-nothing when it comes to what he's most famous for in the last few years, namely philosophy and theology. Seriously, it's painful to read his The God Delusion since it's so painfully obvious he doesn't know what he's talking about.
ReplyDeleteNot going to the religious debate (I appreciate every religion that says they are about love and actually do as they say) this was a very powerful story. One of the things that stood out the most, actually, was that the main character was an old man. Aside from Yoda, you don't get them much in lead roles in Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteAnd one document shouldn't be enough to stop anyone from believing. I'll watch it before commenting further but most of these documents are different people having different opinions and not much more.
For the record, in my school we had biology lessons of evolution with no mention of religions whatsoever, and then in religion lessons (Evangelical Lutheran)our teacher pointed out how they fit with religious texts. I thought that was nicely handled.
I think what shook me up most was when, at around the 50-56 minute mark in the documentary, the geneticist on the stand basically proved that modern genetics and molecular biology completely supports Darwin's theory of evolution. He set up the position that until modern genetics and molecular came along, there really wasn't a way to scientifically test Darwin’s theory. When modern genetics and molecular biology entered the scientific scene it could have demonstrated something contrary to Darwinian evolution, which would have resulted in Darwin's theory being tossed out the window, but it didn't. In fact, it completely supported Darwin's theory of evolution. So over 100 years later, even though Darwin had no idea of DNA and molecular biology, his theory was vindicated though modern science.
ReplyDeleteThough scientists never claim any scientific theory is "truth", scientific theories are " comprehensive explanations of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence". Though they are not "truth", many scientific theories are "so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them substantially. For example, no new evidence will demonstrate that the Earth does not orbit around the sun (heliocentric theory), or that living things are not made of cells (cell theory), that matter is not composed of atoms, or that the surface of the Earth is not divided into solid plates that have moved over geological timescales (the theory of plate tectonics)." Scientific theories are the closest thing to testable truth we have.
At the risk of sounding foolish, I WANT to believe in Intelligent Design, or Creationism, or whatever you want to call it, because then my worldview becomes much simpler, and I like simple. Plus, it alleviates that whole pesky ‘faith’ thing. I'm not sure life becomes easier, but it does clear up some big questions.
Well, thankfully current evolutionary theory is fully consistent with orthodox Christian doctrine (despite what Dawkins would have you believe). I don't see anything in evolutionary theory that should bother an orthodox Christian (and by that, I mean a real, genuine Christian who believes the classical creeds, affirms the authority of scripture, etc., not one of these contemporary pansy theological liberals, postmoderns, or whatever they want to call themselves).
ReplyDeleteFun fact while individual species ARE random certain niches tend o to repeat themselves in nature over and over again. Take trees for example. The first trees were huge ferns, later on they were replaced by conifers and so on. While the species may differ; the role, in this case a tall photosynthesizer, repeats again and again. So while the details may be random the big picture seems not to be.
ReplyDelete