Why didn't I ever hear anything about ID in Europe?

[Fischfang]

Please, Please pretty Please with sugar on top, don't turn this into another ID/evolution debate. It's pointless.
I want to know why there is no such debate in Europe and the rest of the world? The only people who seriously believe in some sort of "scientific"-Creationism(don't know how to call it) are AFAIK some Muslims in Turkey and South-East Asia, some orthodox Jews and some Americans.
I didn't even know that there were people in Western countries who don't believe in the Theory of Evolution. I thought that debate belonged to the 19th century before I started visiting American Forums like this one.

 

[MamboJoel]

Maturity.

 

[AceChilla]

That's not completely true. A Dutch member of the governement recently started babling about ID, but nobody listened really and she stopped.

 

[Gabryel Karolin]

Yea, we´ve just had a more successful separation of church and state, I guess. If anyone proposed the idea to teach intelligent design in schools here they would be laughed at.

Might be a different thing in countries such as Poland and Ireland, not sure.


EDIT: ID is laughed at, not evolution .

 

[Steph]

Yea, we´ve just had a more successful separation of church and state, I guess. If anyone proposed the idea to teach evolution in schools here they would be laughed at.

I guess evolution is commonly taught in schools...

 

[silver 2039]

Europeans is more sensible than Americans perhaps.

 

[gunkulator]

My take:

Europe went through its Christian-taliban stage early (inquisitions, crusades, etc.) and emerged with collective opinion that religion is nice for pageantry, cultural history, and beautiful tourist attractions - but that's about it. Any more than that seems to cause trouble. Despite having the greatest population of Christians in the world, most Europeans don't go to church every week and religion doesn't tend to factor into their everyday lives. Interestingly, as Europe has become less religious, they've also become more humanistic, tolerant and less xenophobic.

 

[Fetus4188]

Europeans is more sensible than Americans perhaps.

that grammar error couldn't come at a better time.

 

[Rhymes]

I'm asking myself the exact same question... In my Quebecer Brain, its not conceivable that some people still argue about Intelligent design. It makes as much sense as arguing about the existence of leprechauns at the end of the rainbow.

 

[Steph]

It makes as much sense as arguing about the existence of leprechauns at the end of the rainbow.

Good example. Everybody knows there is no leprechauns at the end of the rainbow. They are at the beginning of the rainbow

 

[The Last Conformist]

I suppose whatever social factors made literalism become big in America but not in Europe a few generations ago are to blame.

 

[Masquerouge]

I tend to agree with Gunkulator. Having a 2,000-year old Christian history is a nice remainder that some things are better left in the private sphere.

 

[MamboJoel]

My take:

Europe went through its Christian-taliban stage early (inquisitions, crusades, etc.) and emerged with collective opinion that religion is nice for pageantry, cultural history, and beautiful tourist attractions - but that's about it. Any more than that seems to cause trouble. Despite having the greatest population of Christians in the world, most Europeans don't go to church every week and religion doesn't tend to factor into their everyday lives. Interestingly, as Europe has become less religious, they've also become more humanistic, tolerant and less xenophobic.

How could I agree more ?

 

[Urederra]

I think is because there is not religious extremists in Europe like the ones there are in America. In USA being catholic, for example, means no premarital sex, whatsoever, but, Do you think that in Italy or Spain, two countries with a huge percentage of catholics every catholic person follows that rule? No way, we have other perception of religion, IMHO.


My experience. I graduated in Pharmacy in Spain, in a private university that belongs to the Opus Dei, (If you have read The Da Vinci Code you know what I am talking about) and, although they are qualified as rather extreme catholics, all the botany classes I received were based on the evolution of plants. I cannot imagine teaching botany without taking evolution into account. You see the evolutionary trends when you study botany, from the magnolia flower with the petals very similar to the normal tree leaves (you see that the only difference is that the petals lost the chlorophylle) to the orchidea flower, one of the more evolved plants.

The head of the botany department belonged to the Opus Dei branch of catholicism and she was one of the most peculiar catholic person I have ever met. It was said that she used to take vacation to go to Russia to predicate the Holy Bible (I think it wasn´t true, she was quite mad anyway). But, on the other hand, she wrote this botany book that she used to follow in her classes and the book was entirely based on the evolution of the flower in spermaphytes (real plants).


I wonder how do they teach botany in the USA. I cannot think about any other way of teaching it without taking evolution into account.

 

[gunkulator]

I wonder how do they teach botany in the USA. I cannot think about any other way of teaching it without taking evolution into account.

Catholicism has changed its stance on evolution. It is no longer considered an issue of faith that God created man as written in Genesis. Catholics are not Biblical literalists or fundamentalists. Catholicism now emphasizes the lessons of the Bible as paramount rather than the literal belief in every word. As an example, pretty much everything in Genesis prior to Abraham is considered allegorical. That gets rid of most of the embarrassing, silly and obviously wrong stories like Adam and Eve, talking animals, Noah and the flood, tower of Babel creating different languages.

 

[blindside]

I think is because there is not religious extremists in Europe like the ones there are in America. In USA being catholic, for example, means no premarital sex, whatsoever, but, Do you think that in Italy or Spain, two countries with a huge percentage of catholics every catholic person follows that rule? No way, we have other perception of religion, IMHO.

Many Catholics in the US are just like that.

 

[bathsheba666]

One worrying development is Blair taking money from creationists and allowng them to set up schools where this is taught, and where the Heads of Science are committed to it.

 

[Fischfang]

Catholicism has changed its stance on evolution. It is no longer considered an issue of faith that God created man as written in Genesis. Catholics are not Biblical literalists or fundamentalists. Catholicism now emphasizes the lessons of the Bible as paramount rather than the literal belief in every word. As an example, pretty much everything in Genesis prior to Abraham is considered allegorical. That gets rid of most of the embarrassing, silly and obviously wrong stories like Adam and Eve, talking animals, Noah and the flood, tower of Babel creating different languages.

But not all Europeans are Catholics.

 

[Hundegesicht]

I wonder how do they teach botany in the USA. I cannot think about any other way of teaching it without taking evolution into account.

They teach evolution in the USA too... (How does "a couple of fanatics asking to teach ID alongside evolution" turn into "they don't teach evolution in the USA" anyway???)

 

[nonconformist]

Because in all of Europe (with maybe the UK as an exception) even the devoutly religious are rabid secularists.