₦airaland Forum

This year marks the 13th annual Evolution Weekend.

While all participating congregations will address the relationship between religion and science, many will focus their attention on the theme selected for this year: Our Shared Humanity.

9 - 11 February 2018 -- Evolution Weekend

Evolution Weekend is an opportunity for serious discussion and reflection on the relationship between religion and science. The ongoing goal has been to elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic, and to show that religion and science are not adversaries. Rather, they look at the natural world from quite different perspectives and ask, and answer, different questions.

Religious people from many diverse faith traditions and locations around the world understand that evolution is quite simply sound science; and for them, it does not in any way threaten, demean, or diminish their faith in God. In fact, for many, the wonders of science often enhance and deepen their awe and gratitude towards God.

By taking this perspective, Clergy Letter Project participants demonstrate that when some define religion so narrowly that it is categorically opposed to evolutionary ideas, or any of the findings of science, it both demeans and diminishes religion. As members of The Clergy Letter Project have stated so often and so clearly, this narrow perspective is at odds with the broader conception of religion held by thousands upon thousands of relgious leaders.

This year, those congregations opting to embrace our theme, Our Shared Humanity, will demonstrate how religion and science, each working through their specific lens, have come to the same conclusion: racial divisions are neither meaningful nor productive. Religion teaches us that we are of one familly and that we need to care for each other while evolutionary biology and genetics teaches us that race is a human rather than a natural construct. As members of a single species, we can move past the superficial differences that have divided us and create a healthier, more equitable environment for all.

Through sermons, discussion groups, meaningful conversations and seminars, the leaders listed below show that religion and science are not adversaries. 

To examine some of the sermons members of The Clergy Letter Project have delivered on this topic, to find scientific consultants willing to help answer questions or to read media reports about our activities, please explore our web pages. Similarly, if you want to examine some liturgical resources created and recommended by Clergy Letter Project members for Evolution Weekend, click here.

Whatever way participants choose to celebrate Evolution Weekend, their activities demonstrate, as do The Clergy Letters themselves, which have now been signed by more than 15,000 members of the clergy in the United States, that those claiming that people must choose between religion and science are creating a false dichotomy.

Nice one!!! I love the letter written by the American Christian Clergy!!!


"We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children."


They are not like the Nairaland christians who will claim that Evolution sounds improbable, then tell you tto come and watch a video of a woman who turned into a snail!!!......................................................http://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Christian_Clergy/ChrClergyLtr.htm

@budaatum,

Did you see what the Unitarian Universalists said about their fellow christians who read the bible literally?


"While most Unitarian Universalists believe that many sacred scriptures convey timeless truths about humans and our relationship to the sacred, [/b]we stand in solidarity with our Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters who do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook.[b] We believe that religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

Fundamentalists of various traditions, who perceive the science of evolution to be in conflict with their personal religious beliefs, are seeking to influence public school boards to authorize the teaching of creationism. We see this as a breach in the separation of church and state. Those who believe in a literal interpretation of the Biblical account of creation are free to teach their perspective in their homes, religious institutions and parochial schools. To teach it in the public schools would be to assert a particular religious perspective in an environment which is supposed to be free of such indoctrination."


The link:.............................................................http://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Unitarian_Universalists/UnivUnitarianClergyLtr.htm

Yeah, I saw. Good ain't it. Makes me want to become a Unitarian, since I wouldn't have to believe! I'm hoping it would be a lesson to our more fundamental literalists.

Niflheim:
@budaatum,

Did you see what the Unitarian Universalists said about their fellow christians who read the bible literally?


"While most Unitarian Universalists believe that many sacred scriptures convey timeless truths about humans and our relationship to the sacred, [/b]we stand in solidarity with our Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters who do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook.[b] We believe that religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

Fundamentalists of various traditions, who perceive the science of evolution to be in conflict with their personal religious beliefs, are seeking to influence public school boards to authorize the teaching of creationism. We see this as a breach in the separation of church and state. Those who believe in a literal interpretation of the Biblical account of creation are free to teach their perspective in their homes, religious institutions and parochial schools. To teach it in the public schools would be to assert a particular religious perspective in an environment which is supposed to be free of such indoctrination."


The link:.............................................................http://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Unitarian_Universalists/UnivUnitarianClergyLtr.htm

What is Evolution?

Youtube! 8 minutes.