Philsophy or Atheism?

I watched my first philosophy class yesterday. It's a sort of discovery channel type show called the "Examind Life". I have to say I found it rather frustrating. Perhaps it's just how some philosopher's talk but it seemed more like some of the speakers would be saying definitively how things are rather than exploring possibilities. It seems like this is most prevalent when it comes to the philosophy of materialism and darwinism. Some of the modern philosopher's were stating that ideas from great thinkers like Aristotle and Descartes are now known to be defunct. They would say things like: now that we know humans are simply higher animals, human purpose is now understood to be developed rather than intrinsic. And things like, now that we have developed science to understand physical laws, we know that mind is not separate from matter as Descartes theorized since it has no physical qualities in and of itself.

Looking at Descartes theory which is that there are two ultimate substances in the universe: mind and matter, his explanation arose from the idea that mind has no physical qualities, therefore it is of a different substance than the physical. So how can you test it's existence using physical sciences? How can you look for something with inadequate tools and just throw up your hands and say definitively "it's not there!"

There was one really good analogy on the show where a philsopher, not a materialist, likened looking for the mind to a drunk man looking for his keys under a street light. When asked where he last had them he said " I dropped them over there in the bushes" So why was he looking for them under the street light? "It's too dark over in the bushes to find them".

Most disturbing is the complete acceptance of the "theory" of evolution. While Darwin's theory has some really good points and all, it has huge holes in it. A fact Darwin admitted himself. It has never been proven how one species jumps to an entirely different kind of species. It never explains how life magically begins from non-living material in the primordial soup. And it can never explain how DNA actually works. I feel that science has stagnated itself simply accepting this theory rather than looking for alternative explanations. Could the ethereal mind that Descartes spoke of be the missing link that science has been unable to find?

It's interesting to me that this course and others like it are required for a science degree. When I requested to take World Religions for my elective I was denied. There seems to be a general idea pushed forth in the world today that if you are open to broader possibilities about human nature, philosophy, and creation, you must be some backwoods idiot who has no place in the scientific community. Atheism is pushed as the religion of science; however, there are many scientists who have looked deeply into space, or inner space and feel there is no better explanation for how things work than some kind of divine influence.

And still, materialism is pushed as the accepted view for today. Even though there is evidence that the majority of Americans are believers in some kind of divinity, our newspapers and television talk from a viewpoint of understanding materialism to be wholly accepted. So much so that even believers now operate from a materialistic viewpoint. Along with the materialist point of view what kind of damage have we taken? How can we expect our leaders to care about our lives when this viewpoint predominates? Would a materialist viewpoint somehow make me a better nurse? I seriously doubt it. We all want someone to care for us who sees us as more than a slab of meat.

I guess the good side of all of this is that I'll certainly get into writing my papers disputing these ideas.