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TITLE: A View without Prejudice (Part 1) - 4/15/2015 By Richard McCaw 04/15/15 |
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A View without Prejudice
Let us suppose that I am “Jack Summers,” an
investigative reporter who has been an atheist all my life and a strong proponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution. For the past twenty years I have been compiling my own dossier of facts in order to win arguments against my creationist friends.
Because of my heavy research of the subject, one night I dream that science has advanced so much that men can travel backwards and forwards in time. I time-travel into 2025 and at about noon I jump out of a taxi and head for the assessment of the evolution controversy I hear is to be held in a community hall on 6 th.Street in Ft. Lauderdale.
On my way I stop to adjust my tie, and overhear two men arguing on the street.
One says, “The scientific community for years has accepted the theory of evolution.”
The other excitedly shouts, “Nonsense! The scientists of Columbus’ day believed the earth was flat. Is the earth flat?’”
“Don’t be silly!” comes the retort.
“Everyone knows Columbus proved the earth is a sphere! Besides, science once taught that heat from the sun came from its cooling off. Now it believes that heat comes from some 4,200,00 tons of matter changing into energy each second.”
“Where did you get that?”
“Internet! Scientists once believed that the solar system was formed according to the Nebular Hypothesis, and that our solar system started as a flat disc-shaped body of gas, that it shrank and speeded up as it cooled off.”
‘Internet again?”
“Sure! Those small parts of itself left behind formed the planets, and the main central part became the sun.”
“You study too much. Mind you go crazy!” says the other.
“I won’t!” squeeks the first.
Interesting, but I hurry on.
If today’s scientific community proposes that life evolved from some primordial soup through slow mutations over many ages, I would have to find out for myself. If fossils steadily evolved from the first simple cell to the first complex human structure, then I want to examine see the evidence?
Preparations had been underway in Ft. Lauderdale to examine critically the present state of Darwin’s theory. Would it stand up to unbiased scrutiny in the light of the advanced knowledge and technology of 2025? Many notable scientists like Darwin had time-traveled into 2025 from other centuries, some to defend the theory, others to dismiss it as mere speculation.
Some of the city’s big business men thought that the publicity would bring money into the city’s shrinking coffers. The courtroom was outfitted with the latest technology for transmission worldwide.
Tourists, reporters, men of importance with large documents underarm and a brief case in another strut toward the court entrance. It is the first day of the assessment, July 10, 2025. Passing quickly through security I glide upwards on the elevator while my mind ruminates.
When I slip into the courtroom, I observe a motley group of citizens, who had been called for jury duty, already sitting on the left. The circuit solicitor and another man, plus Alfred Russell Wallace, Mr. Darwin’s defense lawyer are sitting at tables facing the judge. A large black book with loose paper held by a marble paperweight sits on the solicitor’s table. Wallace’s table appears empty, except for a notepad and pencil.
I remember that although Wallace had also discovered natural selection, he had indicated in a leading London journal that when he considered the factors of conscious life, the physical characteristics of the human race, the exquisite design of the human brain, the organs of speech, the hand, and the external form of man, he firmly believed that an overruling intelligence must have guided each step into existence. However, here he is defending the theory of evolution.
A railing separates the spectators from the court, and witnesses sit on rose cushioned seats with their backs to us. Lord Monboddo, the chief judge sits on the bench, wigged and every now and then stroking his chin and looking importantly around at the anticipating crowd. Four distinguished scientists, Sir Richard Owen, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir William Herschel, and Sir William Ramsay, sit as assistant judges two on the right and two on the left of Lord Monboddo. The witness stand is to his right. Mere preliminaries close the day.
When I return four days later on July 13, 2025, because I know certain court personnel, I maneuver easily into the courtroom and watch the proceedings.
At 3:30 p.m. exactly Mr. Darwin, having been duly sworn in, takes his place in the witness stand.
Lord Monboddo then nods to Rudolph Virchow, a German scientist, who rises to read the case against Mr. Darwin’s theory.
“Your honor,” he begins, “The book, the Origin of Species by Mr. Charles Darwin has caused terrible concerns in the halls of truth. The book with its abominable concepts ought to be banned from libraries, educational institutions, bookstores and even the internet.
The philosophy it espouses has become a dangerous epidemic that must be stopped in its tracks for the following reasons.
Firstly, psychology teaches that whatever the mind of man can conceive it will achieve. If people believe that they are animals, then they will begin acting like animals.
Secondly, we are already seeing dangerous fall out from these concepts. Horrific crime increase within educational institutions and among youth indicate a descent into animalistic behaviors.
Napoleon Hill, in his book, Think and grow rich, wrote extensively on the power of cybernetics, i.e. the power of the human mind.
Children constantly told they will not come to anything, become unsuccessful citizens and in the business world, people who think success achieve success.
If an individual believes he is an animal without a soul or spirit, that he is accountable only to himself, then he becomes a dangerous threat to society.
In the face of these glaring facts we must ask Mr. Darwin, how does he plead?”
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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