Science is Failing the Youth

Science, and their theory of evolution, in my opinion is failing the youth of our world. It is really standing in the place of faith in God in the youth's minds and hearts, and a lot of adults too.

Having a faith in God, and knowing where we came from and having a sure hope for the future can give someone stability. From talking to my parents, and others I have heard how in their day when they were young most teens and people went to some church. Everyone was associated with some religion. Nowadays that is not the case. There was no drug problems with kids back then. They might have drinked a bit, but not drunkeness every weekend.

The theory of evolution has made many believe a personal God is not there. It offers no hope for the future, and it does'nt give convincing proof of how we got here.

Now look at the effects. There is an epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse in the world's youth. I saw a show on tv about kids in New Jersey smoking ice, or some PCP drug mixed with formaldehyde or something. I was sick to myself. The kids were killing themselves. They were in the prime of their life.

I am not blaming all the ills of society only on the science institution, or the theory of evolution. There are problems with religious institutions not preaching the word of God, governments, ect. not doing their job too, but don't tell me science or evolution does'nt have to answer how we got here and where are we going. Don't tell me that science does not have to give a substitute for God. You are responsible for your actions. By your not giving the youth satisfying answers you have failed them. Bad fruitage is what I see.

By the way, I cancelled my subscription to Scientific American. They insulted people who believe in creation, and kept preaching evolution. I did like the astronomy articles, too bad.

Actually, these conditions with our youth falling was prophesied by Amos , a prophet for Israel (at about 803 B.C.E.) at Amos 8:11-13:

"Look! There are days coming,' is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, 'and I will send a famine into the land, a famine not for bread, and a thirst not for water, but for hearing the words of Jehovah. And they will certainly stagger from sea all the way to sea, and from north even to the sunrise. They will keep roving about while searching for the word of Jehovah, but they will not find it. In that day the pretty virgins will swoon away, also the young men, because of the thirst;..."

I am now finished my rant. I feel better now.

Brien

There seems to be an implicit welding-together of faith and belief in a lot of these discussions, and I'd like to note a relationship between these two activities. Faith, generally speaking, is that stuff that I accept with little or no reproducible evidence. Things like the concept of addition telling me that adding one to unity entails adding at least one more to that. I have faith in this "Principle of Addition" because it seems necessary to create useful relations between countable objects like sheep and wives and little circles of shiny metal. In time I come to believe that the counting I do with these rules can show whether I've got more sheep or wives or shiny metal than I need and decide perhaps to trade some of my wives for some of your shiny metal. We work out a deal based upon our belief that counting sheep and wives and shiny metal means the same thing to each of us, so our deal won't go sour. In this case, our belief grows out of our faith and depends directly upon our sharing it for it to have any meaning at all. If deals go bad often enough, our faith gets challenged and we sometimes change our beliefs. Maybe a wife is worth 4 sheep or a few more pieces of gold. Maybe a sheep is not for sale this season at any price. Still, with faith in the agreeable bounds and bonds of the faith, we've got us a system. If faith goes, though...if we find that counting does not work any more..that in fact the 2+2 sheep we thought made 4 gold coins now turns out to have made 3.999 Copper Coins, our whole system comes into question and all our deals are suspect. You might even want your wife back. Throughout my life I've had my belief adjusted over and over. I suspect it will happen again. Through all of that, however, my faith has remained as solid as the heart of a neutron star. Faith may give one person a rigid structure to build a system of beliefs upon that make him feel secure and protected. It may give someone like me the courage to ramble on through the strange twists of life and love and fortune, health and sickness, excitement and fear that is this long and interesting life without drawing one single conclusion about the author of it or His intent for Me. If I can't read whatever signs people tell me God has plainly put out
there for me, I just fall back on my faith and keep rolling in the best way I know how. One man might see a sign for me that I see as nothing more than a decorative poster on the road. You might look at the road and see a tiresome trail to work. I might look at that road and see a long adventure in the world on its roadsides. Keep the faith and be careful what belief you wrap around that faith and you'll get down that road or out that door or where ever or nowhere ever you want to go.
But in the end, friends, don't ask belief to support your faith. It don't work that way. Belief is perishable on its own. Faith must be consciously destroyed.

I would just like to mention that someone is always saying the kids are all going to hell. Consider that the power brokers of today were students in the 60's.

And about the creation thing. Scientists are not theologians. If they wanted to study folklore they would have gone to seminary, the shaolin temple or anywhere far from MIT. Even if they decided to, how would they choose between thousands of religions and hundreds of creation theories? Where would they even start if the church leaders can't agree on anything?

Not to get too far off topic but why should a christian feel slighted because scientists aren't out there proving buddhism and palentology are false?

Mark Bernhardt

>>By your not giving the youth satisfying answers you have failed them<<

Now there's a load of dingo's kidneys.

Why in hell anyone requires 'answers' such as these just to function in completely unrelated matters is beyond me.

Answers are for people who can't handle questions -- which is quite an oversimplification, I know, but from experience it seems to have basis in fact. The Answers you're talking about come across to me as having been pulled out of a hat; and since my ability to live & work & get along with people has not been impeded by keeping origins & destiny as open questions, I'm baffled as to why people would be stymied by a lack of suspiciously convenient Answers.

If this reply seems heated, good. There was a strong implication here that those without spiritual beliefs can't possibly look after themselves or follow a strong system of morality. This is getting to the heart of why this kind of thing just can't be discussed rationally with fervent believers; since they have the Answers, thinking for yourself becomes utterly foolish.