So it was the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth yesterday. Of all of the major educated/industrialized countries, only the US is struggling with the theory of evolution -- how embarrassing. Back in 2005, during the height of the Bush administrations' attack on evolution and increasing popularity of intelligent design, I wrote a rant entitled Intelligent Design is not Intelligent. I think it is a pretty good piece where I hoped to be somewhat balanced in my arguments. The image on the right is from a great comic by Gary Larson which I've always loved -- click for larger. Here's another piece on the struggle against evolution here in the US. Happy birthday to Charles!

Religious pundits brush off scientific evidence of millions of years of earth history and astronomical knowledge as "tests of faith". I think it is at least as likely that the bible is a test of faith -- that Christians must fine the nuggets of the word of god in the midst of a book mostly about the opinion of man. So much of our modern religious texts and thought has been created by men in a time when the religious institutions were the power brokers of the world having domain over all governments, wealth, and knowledge. Maybe the test of faith is in the rejection of the religious institutions born of man.

Either chaos or some intelligent power has put extensive evidence that supports theories of the foundation of our universe: eons of tectonic formation, ancient fossil records, redshifted light from distant and ancient galaxies, and evolution of the species. Maybe they are tests of faith but which way? Is it our challenge to believe in the wonders of the universe -- of infinite time and space -- or is it to treat them as an illusion designed to confuse us? Is it god who is asking us to refute the evidence of our own insignificance or is it the human religious power-brokers who controlled the religious texts and belief systems for millennia?