Monkey say, monkey do

I came home with a new copy of Newsweek magazine today with a science article entitled "Cavemen, Chimps and Us." It would seem that a scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany is going to sequence the Neanderthal genome - the complete DNA of the closest known relative to modern humans. Rock.

I'm a bio nut, so the possibility of soon discovering the key molecular changes that led to our race makes me a little giddy. With only a 0.04 percent difference between our DNA and the Neanderthal's, we could finally identify exactly what it is that makes our race different. 0.04 percent - the genes that involve language, brain size, and metabolism. It's pretty amazing how far we've come in science.

In all this, I can't help but feel angry with the evolution/creationism debate. I can't even believe there's anything to debate. It's a scary prospect, knowing that people would rather not know, or would rather discuss science as something you have to "choose to believe" in, as if you could choose to believe or not to believe in carpet or something. Add this to the list of problems that the arrival of our current president has created - religious fanaticism under the guise of political rhetoric has brainwashed people into ignoring what is so clear. It's simply impossible to have a rational conversation with someone who refuses to accept that fossils and DNA of other living creatures exist from a traceable time period. I show you hundreds of carbon-dated skulls and you tell me it's imaginary. How am I to beat that? And I take almost nothing at face value.

The worst part of this debate is that it even exists. To be clear, I am a Hindu, which by definition makes me an agnostic. But I do believe in a greater purpose, and I meditate regularly because I think it works for me, and that it helps me to be thankful for my good fortune and to better understand my downfalls. These things I don't deny. So it's with even greater concern that I address this debate, because I see no reason to believe that evolution somehow destroys faith or the existence of god. I mean, isn't that the point of faith? Of course, while it does contradict some specific interpretations of god, especially ones requiring a literal interpretation, I would like to think that few people have this narrow of a view of god. If so, that kind of belief would breakdown in the face of numerous situations and realities of modern day life. Religion or faith or even spirituality would either have to be complete shit or all true, neither of which seem to be the case.

If the question is whether evolution contradicts a literal interpretation of religion, and more specifically the Bible, then it does. And regardless of what could have happened - regardless of god's potential to create the world in seven days or throw down fire bolts or permanently remove all murderers or whatever - the evidence would still show that evolution is the way things happened. I guess I just don't need dogma to make me feel like I have a purpose and that I might be accountable for the things I do in this life.