Blog 8

                The documentary, “Judgment Day,” is about one town’s school conflict over evolution and intelligent design.  Intelligent design is the product of religion dealing with the modern world.  Before Darwin’s theory of Evolution, Christians believed that god created all life on earth, known as creationism.  The teaching of creationism and evolution was a controversial topic and has been the subject of multiple trials.  In 1986, the United States Supreme Court ruled that creationism cannot be taught in public schools, because it violated student’s constitutional rights.  The Dover School Board required a statement to be made to biology students that stated that intelligent design was an alternate theory to Darwin’s theory of Evolution.  Intelligent Design combines creationist ideas with scientific rhetoric in an attempt to pass creationist ideas off as science.  Intelligent Design is the product of religion dealing with the modern world.  Religious bodies wish to teach their theories in schools, so they created Intelligent Design to try to meet the standards needed to teach something in public schools.  Many people are opposed to Evolution because it hypothesizes that humans evolved from apes, mammals, and even single celled organisms.  To those that oppose evolution, this relation means that humans are not better than other animals and are not created in god’s image.  Both intelligent design and creationism give humans higher standing than other living things.

                As time passes new ideas are formed.  Some of these permeate society and change it drastically. One idea that has a profound impact on modern society is science.  Science has led to the formation of new ideas based on observation and experimentation.  Within science is the process for science to correct itself.  Scientific theories have created new technologies which have an impact on society.  These changes are either accepted or rejected.  Religions have had to deal with the changes technology has caused.  Some religions accept the changes, while others have rejected them.  Fundamentalist religious movements have rejected these changes and try to return society to the state it was before the changes were made.  These movements usually separate from another religion that accepts the changes society has gone through.  They start as sects and then eventually grow in size and become denominations.  Religions that accept the changes are usually denominations wishing to maintain support, so they accept changes in society.

                America in the past century has gone through great change.  Liberals are those that accepted and pushed for change, and conservatives are those wishing to undo these changes and halt future changes.  This spectrum is no one dimensional, as people have their own views on each issue.  Organizations have been formed by both sides to advance their views on issues.  Many conservative groups are affiliated with religious groups.  They are either directly affiliated with religious groups, or are led by religious people.  Conservatives wish to keep society in a state before the change they oppose.  These changes include abortion, immigration, and equal rights. 

                Scientology is a religion that has been influenced by modernism.  Scientology rejects psychiatry and claims to have a different way to solve the problem which psychiatry claims to solve.  Scientology tries to repair the damage done to a person’s soul.  They claim this damage prevents someone from reaching their full potential.  Religions that emerged in Native American groups when Europeans arrived were impacted by modernism.  Some Religions emphasized changes to society that helped them deal with Europeans, while others reverted to old traditions.  Both were reactions to the changes to their society caused by the introduction of Europeans.  UFO movements vary in belief and organizational level.  These groups are believed to be modern day folklore and fairies.  UFO movements have been influenced by modernism, because science has led to the knowledge of the possibility of life from somewhere that is not on earth.  Satanic churches have been the center of controversies, because their symbols are opposed by the Christian religions.  Christian religions believe that Satan is evil and therefore anything associated with Satan is evil.  Symbols are not absolute and are defined by each group.  Symbols can be the widely used within a society, but the meaning is not absolute, so a group may attempt to change the meaning of a symbol.  Anti-Cult groups are a reaction to the large number of new religions.  People try to diminish these new religions and maintain the strength of the major religions.  They use examples of other new religions that have had adverse effects on its members to prove that all new religions are bad.