Is Evolution Going To Reform

Why is religion so slow to reform?

Religion believes its “holy book”, so Christianity is still stuck in the 4th century CE - and probably will be until it becomes a laughing stock, believed by a handful.Judaism is stuck even further back - in the 6th century BCE.Islam is stuck in the 6th century CE.Science changes as new facts become known, religion tends to make up things to make the facts go away. Look at how long it took Catholicism to accept heliocentrism or evolution. Science accepted evolution when Darwin was about 4 years old.

What is the difference between revolution and evolution?

Well let’s start with a visual: the word revolution connotes going in a circle, like I did 20 revolutions around the track. Revolution is timeless, something that circles back on itself over and over again. Evolution connotes a linear process over time- the evolution of man from lower forms took place over millennia.If we are thinking in terms of the cerebral hemispheres, revolution would be the right brain- simultaneous, non-linear, holistic (like a circle), anologic, whereas evolution would correspond to the left hemisphere- linear, logical, digital language-based.These juxtaposed terms can be used in different contexts. The one that comes to mind immediately is politics:revolutionary politics (Marx, Rousseau) preach equality and seek abrupt, radical change- to root out the existing inequalities immediately and to replace them with a common people approach- i.e. the Bolshevik or French Revolutions. These were driven by the passions of the masses.Evolutionary Politics is based on the increasing complexity of existing political institutions in a more gradual, peaceful, rational way. It tends to preserve the status quo relative to revolutionary politics. It probably heralds liberty (as opposed to equality of the revolutions). Darwin’s theory of evolution was used to justify the higher station of the ruling class in England because the strong are the fittest. Nietzche’s philosophy idealizes the freedom of the Superman in contrast to the mediocrity of the masses (i.e. equality).In a broader sense, evolution and revolution can be thought of as the two antagonistic forces which lead to the dynamism and duality of life. The evolutionary force is conserving (conservative), slow, gradual; the revolutionary force is violent, sudden, and uprooting. An extreme of the evolutionary leads to stagnation, dogmatism, crystallization. An extreme of the revolutionary leads to chaos, terror (as in the French revolution’s reign of terror) and instability (the Thermodor Cycle, see further The Anatomy of Revolution - Wikipedia.Success in life, politics, institutions or endeavors means a skillful balancing of the evolutionary and revolutionary.Seppi EsfandiLos Angeles Criminal Defense Attorneys - Free Consultation | ELG

What is the legacy of China's land reform?

Land reform in China was largely a failure. Landless labourers and poor peasants mostly do not have the skills or discipline to run a farm. Also they had no money. They had to borrow money for seed and implements from former rich peasants or surviving landlords. They mostly did not make enough to pay off their debts and ended up selling their land back to the former rich peasants from whom it had been taken. Mao commented on this return to the status quo ante and was very disappointed. He tried setting up local coops to try and get more of a community spirit going. But peasants are not community minded and hated the coops which limited their ability to sell their own products at the free markets  at their own prices. Mao finally gave up and commanded the formation of communes, which to the peasants was tantamount to taking back the land they gained through the Land Reform. As a result they went on strike and refused to farm. The results are too we'll known to recite here. In the 1980's Deng effectively returned their land to them and in 2008 a law was passed giving them effective ownership rights. But of course this return to small holder farming, while it provided a big increase in the national crop, was not a long term solution to agriculture. In the Northeast there had been great state farms which practiced broadacre mechanized farming which should have provided a model for future development. But these in turn were dismantled and the land parceled out. Recently the land usage law was modified to allow farmers to merge their land to create a single large holding. Hopefully this will lead to more corporate style farming which has made the U.S. so productive. So the Land Reform was a popular measure, designed to get the support of peasants during the pre-revolutionary phase. As a mode of development it was destined to break down and turned into a large commercially managed modern agricultural sector. In this Mao was correct in moving to a larger mode of farming. But far too early in China's development, and with an inherently unsuitable economic mode. Chinese peasants were far too individualistic to herd into collectives in the '50's. Let's hope the 21st century sees China develop a modern agricultural sector.

What do Orthodox, conservative, and reform Jews think concerning a seven-day creation?

Actually, Judaism does not hold to a simple 6-Day Creation view like most Christian Creationists do. Let me go further, and by the way, just for the record, I’m an Orthodox Jew.Kabbalah says that the universe is 15 billion years old, the earth, millions. The Talmud mentions evolution twice, that Adam was created with a tail, and that up to the generation of Enoch, men had the faces of monkeys.This is not to say all life came from inorganic material, it is just a Judaic way of looking at evolution.Lets also remember that there were 974 generations prior to Adam.But now we face a conundrum. How can all this be reconciled with the words of the Torah, specifically Genesis 1:1?Well, there’s a simple answer to this, and believe me, it’s very Jewish. The Sages taught that the first few days of Genesis were a long period of time, sort of like eras. Then on Day 4, everything crushed down to literal days, when man and beast are finally created.This is not some new view in response to evolutionary theory or the age of the earth, this view is very old, and one which has been valued by the rabbis for over two-thousand years.My complaint: if only Christians read the Talmud!