Why is it people with a strong belief in the literal six-day creation of the world seem to take the notion of evolution so personally?
“I didn’t evolve from slime, from monkeys!”
A friend gets a little perturbed when she’s watching something on Animal Planet and evolution is mentioned — as if that completely falsifies anything the particular individual who mentioned the “e word” might have to say.
Of course being offended by it doesn’t make it not true, but that’s beside the point. The point is this: why does where you came from millions of years ago have any affect on your personal value now?
There’s this underlying fear, “If we’re evolved from monkeys, then we can do whatever we want to each other! There is no such thing as rape, murder, etc — it’s all just animal cruelty!”
In this view, humans cannot make values, cannot make meaningful laws. And forgetting the pragmatic side of most laws, these folks promptly jump in their cars and drive to work on the right side (or left, in some countries) of the road…
You’re right. A lot of fundamentalists genuinely believe that humans can’t make meaningful laws or values; humans are so deeply flawed that morality and law must be imposed.
This is probably why so many fundies have such deep behavior problems, both in themselves and in their children. They don’t see themselves as having an internal moral compass. It’s also why they tend to harp about the importance of shame as a disciplinary measure, and probably why they believe that physical and mental abuse is a vital part of incarceration.
Strangely, though, I think they see the evolution issue as personal because the literal, narrow interpretation of the creation myth very clearly makes humanity the purpose for creation; if evolution is an ongoing process, whether or not God is in charge, then humanity might not be the peak of creation…
“if evolution is an ongoing process, whether or not God is in charge, then humanity might not be the peak of creation…”
I certainly hope it isn’t! If the folks on Jerry Springer represent the best nature can do…
One thing you said struck me as odd. “This is probably why so many fundies have such deep behavior problems, both in themselves and in their children.” What kind of behavior problems do you have in mind? And how could such a claim be quantified?
I imagine if you wanted to do a study on it, you could start by investigating a correlation between anti-social behavior and religious beliefs. This paper seems to be suggesting that, although I tend to think the argument is significantly overstated.
Here’s another example: it’s clear that abstinence-only sex education, with its deep roots in an authoritarian fundamentalist mindset, has very destructive results. I suspect this is because fundamentalism does not provide people the proper tools or information to deal constructively with complex issues and natural emotions.
Grr. I suspect I’ll have to write a more comprehensive post on this. But flay away, Gary, and help me focus my thinking. ;-)
I don’t know why I can’t decide whether to use “Thud” or “John”—it’s pretty random. Sigh.