Jul 20 2009
Fearful Fossils, Treacherous Genetics
Maybe we non-believers in the Biblical Creation story should show some compassion toward non-believers in evolution. For the very ground they walk contains fossil evidence which they must deny or rationalize away. If that weren’t bad enough, the rapidly advancing field of genome research is revealing a trail of clues leading back not to a Creator, but to ever more remote ancestral forms.
Sometimes maintaining ignorance just ain’t easy.
Consider this relatively run-of-the-mill science news release: Evolutionary Event Underlying Origin Of Dachshunds, Dogs With Short Legs, Discovered. This article, like hundreds of others, is not pro-Darwin or anti-Gawd. It is simply pro-better-understanding. And that understanding has threatening implications for those who resist evolving on a cognitive level.
First, the finding:
A single evolutionary event appears to explain the short, curved legs that characterize all of today’s dachshunds, corgis, basset hounds and at least 16 other breeds of dogs, a team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Now the intellectually treacherous part . . . to benighted minds:
“Every species, including canine and human, carries an amazing record of evolution scripted in its genome that can teach us about the mechanisms at work in biology, as well as about human health and disease,” said NHGRI Scientific Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D. “This work provides surprising evidence of a new way in which genome evolution may serve to generate diversity within a species.”
Oh-oh. DNA research spells disaster for Creationists. Maybe not today. But one day.
In some cases ignorance may be bliss, but in others it is emotionally taxing hard work. You’ve got to sympathize with the old-school fundamentalists.
Or do you?
