Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Evolution versus Creation.....really?

It seems that now-a-days everyone has an agenda when reporting the news.We're often given only selected details in place of facts. So,I feel that I should put in a disclaimer at the beginning of this post, lest someone mistakenly believe I have a dog in this fight.

In the battle between the Evolutionists versus the Creationists, neither side completely describes my views on the subject. I am a Catholic and believe the Church's view to be the most reasoned. I believe in God but I don't look at Genesis as a history book or scientific manual.The book, like quite a number of books in the Bible, was written by a poet and mystic. The book was not intended to give an exact description of creation.

I don't have a problem with "evolution" per se. It is the (so-called) skeptic's removal of God from the picture that I find disingenuous.

I came across a story on another blog jamesmcinerney.blogspot.com/.
His head-line was provocative , to say the least, as was the headline at the link he provided, Evolution vs creation row ends in stabbing .

The story tells of the death of Scottish backpacker in New South Wales in January, 2006. According to the news story, Rudi Boa was killed by Alexander Christian York following a drunken argument over evolution.Mr.York was found guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

"Mr Boa and his girlfriend Gillian Brown arrived in Australia from Scotland at the end of 2005 and went to Tumut to pick fruit as their first port of call on a round the world holiday.
York had been in the country since April 2005.

The Scottish couple and York, neighbours at the caravan park, were becoming friends and spent the night of January 27 drinking at the Star Hotel in Tumut.

However, towards the end of the night, an argument between York and the pair about creationism versus evolution escalated into a shouting match at the pub.
The couple, both biomedical scientists, had been arguing the case of evolution, while York had taken a more biblical view of history."

There seemed to be something missing in the story, so I Googled the name "Rudi Boa" and came across a few more articles.

Although the argument over creationism did occur, the argument was not the focal point of the earlier news reports. Making the argument the point of the story is the "journalist's" way of drawing attention to his piece.

I eventually came across a website that gave a transcript of the legal judgment in the case, Regina vs York.

Judge Adams' decision seems more appropriate after reading the transcript. We have a tragic story of a life cut short and a man in prison due to bad tempers and alcohol.The earlier argument could have just as easily been about football.....the evolution/creationism bit was beside the point.

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