Mainstream

In this morning's Oregonian I read an article by Leslie Kaufam of the New York Times News Service entitled Evolution, Climate and the Skeptics. It was nothing I have not read before, but one line jumped out. Kaufam wrote, "For mainstream scientists, there is no credible challenge to evolutionary theory." Is that a true statement or do we have to define what it means to be mainstream?

As soon as some of you read my question you start getting upset. Why do some of us immediately get angry and begin indulging in name calling, or worse, instead of doing a little research of our own? Have you ever thought about the triggers that ignite your emotions? Have you ever wondered if some people use those triggers against you?

Whatever, I just wonder about a lot of things. Right now I'm thinking about this word, this idea, this concept of mainstream and what it means to theories on evolution as well as everything and everyone else.

Has mainstream accomplished anything? Is being mainstream like treading water? Would a list of great pioneers ever have been possible if they had all been mainstream? Think about it. Is science possible if all scientists are mainstream? Why is mainstream so afraid of anyone who thinks outside the box? Mainstream can be like an incubator, but can it become a prison the second it shouts down, shuts down, silences every voice unlike itself?

How much freedom, how much free choice do we have when we are all huddled together in the middle, afraid to say anything least we upset our fellow cowards? Is it not far easier and much more popular to begin name calling, getting emotional and using inflammatory language toward anyone or anything that is not just like us? Is mainstream so fragile, so delicately balanced it can only be maintained by emotional tirades and violence?

Lily and I volunteered along with many-many others one Saturday to help clean a middle school near us. In one hallway there was a large bulletin board with a zodiac chart on it. Surely all the teachers and all the students and all their parents had seen this chart. What message does a zodiac chart convey to those who see it? Is this mainstream science? Apparently it bothers no one.

"The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Does this quote from Oswald Chambers upset you, make you angry? Why does it matter so much when a zodiac chart in a school doesn't?

Why are we so afraid to allow others to think for themselves, to express their own ideas and to be who they want to be? Isn't that what freedom is all about? Isn't that what America is all about? Didn't the God that so many of us deny give us all the choice to choose? Why do you get so upset if I choose Jesus?

Do you ever wonder why the very name of Jesus Christ upsets so many? Is it Uranus squaring Mars in your fourth house or something else?