OK, I’m going to start this off by saying that I respect the religious views of my friends and readers and am not posting this in an attempt to mock anyone’s views or beliefs. I merely find this particular story to be interesting and wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention.
The most interesting part of this to me is the fact that they were able to raise 25 million dollars in private donations to fund it. A lot of other museums and libraries would have trouble raising that kind of money without a bond issue.
I feel bad for Newton and a lot of those other Enlightenment thinkers who represent the tip of the wedge. They were (on average) devout men of science who looked at the way things are in our world and sought out the laws of Creation in hopes that understanding these would bring us to a greater understanding of God. And now it seems like you can be for God, or for Science, but not both. I know that’s oversimplifying the case. A lot of modern people are able to be devout and pious Christians and still find room in their understanding for modern scientific theory and fact. In a way, it’s really underestimating God as a Creator to think that instead of building the framework of the universe using the elegant and immutable mechanisms of gravity, energy and the nuclear forces that instead He just brought everything into creation fully formed, *Bampf*. I’m sure there is truth in the tales of Genesis. Why does it have to be literal truth, though? I’m going to have to read some more on the Creationist side to see if I can understand the logic.
Sparkly Things 