Week Four

 I begun the Dennet reading, which really plays into what we have been discussing in class, basically what is evolution and what does it mean.  He brought up an interesting point in the beginning, that it took Europe a century to accept the idea that the world was not the center of the universe.  Copernicus and Galileo were the Darwins of their time, and their theories definitely rocked the general religious thought of the times.  No one could comprehend, or would comprehend the idea that the Earth was not the center of everything, because if it wasn't, then where is heaven?  Where is everything else in relation to the Earth?  People had to start thinking about their worlds differently, and it was terrifying, rightfully.  I think that the same is true of the Theory of Evolution.  This theory has been around for about 150 years and is still a source of debate.  I wonder if religion won't evolve around this theory as well.  Last week we discussed the idea that religion evolves just as much as other areas such as education, etc.  My grandfather, for example, was born in the beginning of the century in a small all-Catholic town in the middle of the Midwest.  He believed education rotted the mind, he believed in Adam and Eve, and he believed in the theory of evolution.  I don't understand that, but he made it work, so I suspect that slowly more and more people will do the same.  I am not religious, but I recognize that religion has a remarkable ability to hold on and change to fit whatever people's idea of the world is.