PHOEBE: Go ahead and scoff. You know, there’re a lot of things that I don’t believe in, but that doesn’t mean they’re not true.
JOEY: Such as?
PHOEBE: Like crop circles, or the Bermuda triangle, or evolution?
ROSS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What, you don’t, uh, you don’t believe in evolution?
PHOEBE: I don’t know, it’s just, you know…monkeys, Darwin, you know, it’s a, it’s a nice story, I just think it’s a little too easy.
ROSS: Too easy? The process of every living thing on this planet evolving over millions of years from single-celled organisms, too easy?
PHOEBE: Yeah, I just don’t buy it.
ROSS: Uh, excuse me. Evolution is not for you to buy, Phoebe. Evolution is scientific fact like the air we breathe, like gravity.
PHOEBE: Ok, don’t get me started on gravity. (Friends)
So, we ended off our discussion last time with our introduction of cosmology.
cosmology = "the science of the origin and development of the universe." (Bing)
We have been asserting that there is a relationship between what you think is true, what you think is real, and where you think everything came from.
For example, let’s say that you believe–like the character Ross in the TV sitcom Friends–that Science is the source of “ultimate truth,” then you would probably be a materialist, or, at least, a naturalist. For you, you would have to try to explain where everything came from from within that context. The answer, then, for you would have to include evolution, natural selection, and “survival-of-the-fittest.” In other words–we are all just products of chance (over time).
But what if, like, Phoebe in the scenario above, there is something about that line of thought that you’re uncomfortable with?
Some people believe in “intelligent design.” That theory is that things are just too complex to have just come about by chance–you know, the galaxies, the solar system, the human body, the eye, even life itself. These folks think that someone or something created the universe and its contents, and mankind.
Where do you come down?
Take a look at our Cosmology grid printable document download.
