September 7, 2005

Creationism and Evolution

I am inspired by a post over at the Neanderpundit to expound a little on the Creation vs. Evolution debate. I tried to post a comment there, but something in my comments triggered a ban. I will therefore take this opportunity to pontificate on my own site!

I spent a great deal of my teen and young adulthood as an agnostic at best, an atheist in many ways. I was raised a Methodist, I had the benefits of Church and Sunday school just about every week until I was 11 or 12. Some of the lessons remain in my mind, most have not. I studied the Bible in college through a couple of religion courses. Here the Bible was broken down,the history of the passages, the inter-relationships of the Books were examined. I found it interesting, and entertaining, but I did not believe. I was never ready to completely renounce God, but I came pretty close, certainly I was a blasphemer. I will be presented with the consequences in the hereafter. The funny thing, it is through the "educated study" of the Bible that I became a believer again. I still am not a Bible thumping, go to Church twice a week, Born Again Apostolic. I do not go to Church. I do pray to God several times a day. HE always answers my prayers, sometimes I just do not hear or like the answer.

If you have read much here you will know I view myself as an amateur historian. I cannot in good conscious intellectually or emotionally accept the earth is a few thousand years old. I accept the fossil record, Homer and Herodotus may have stretched the truth, but man's life on this planet is detailed in many ways.

I believe the dinosaurs roamed the earth, I accept the ice ages. Continental drift and volcanoes and sedimentary rock and fossils all present me with incontrovertible truth to evolution.

Do I think we understand it fully? Not a chance. Most people cannot even get Darwin straight. He never claimed man descended from apes. Read his very boring work.

You see, for me the fact that there IS evolution is all the evidence I need to prove there is a God. Only an omnific God could have created the amazing mechanisms that are life. The incredible sequences involved in cell replication and the codes found in DNA and RNA and the amino acids that make up life are so complicated and amazing, I cannot accept that it is all random chance! I cannot accept that the entire interlocking aspect of all life on this planet is random gene splicing. God put the entire process into motion. Some animals had roles to fill, some did not survive, some evolved faster and adapted better. This is a genius plan. Only a GOD could have done it. Look at the human circulatory system, I cannot believe this is just random cells forming over time.

Do I believe man has evolved? Yes. We continue the process even today. Indiana kept very precise records of the men who enlisted in the Civil War. We know that the average height was 5'4". The average height of a human is now around 5'9". We are bigger, stronger, and faster as a species than ever before (steroids not withstanding). Sports records are doomed to fail. Look at the intellectual accomplishments of the last 100 years. Tell me man is not smarter than ever before. He spent eons trying to fly, and now he is exploring the space of the universe.

By coincidence I watched part of a program on PBS last night that discussed these very issues -- life how it formed, is there life on other planets, etc. We do not know the answers. Even the brightest scientists, those who worship knowledge, not God, cannot answer how a collection of carbon atoms and molecular structures went from inanimate elements to LIFE.

In the beginning there was just the unformed clay and the wind and the water. And God said "let there be light". Life was formed and the evolutionary rollercoaster that is Earth started down the track. Why can't both sides be right?

9 comments:

GUYK said...

Excellent post! Both can be right! Just as you have shown. Very few people are truly athiests, me included. Agnostic, yes but I do not deny the existance of a supreme intelligence that started it all on earth. Just too much points the way that life didn't come about by chance.

A recent study was punlished that 96 percent of chimps dan is identical to that of humans. Missing lnk? Of course not. But some more proof to me that evolution is not just BS.

The hard heads that are fighting the teaching of evolution have no concept of what the study is about yet will take advantage of the medical knowledge that is gained by this study. The Christian right who stands in the way of the quest for knowledge are of the same school as the Roman Church of centuries ago who burnt people at the stake who were trying to practice medicine. It is about two things, one is their own insecurity with their religion -to question it might prove that they have been wrong- and the other is simply the quest for control. Those who want control always use their beliefs to belittle the beliefs of others to get control and once in control persecute any who do not at least give them lip service as believers. It is for that reason as well as others that I refuse to conform to the requirements of any organized religion be it christian, muslem, or hindu. I choose to be free and a free thinker.

The Conservative UAW Guy said...

If one believes all this is an accident, they have very great faith in randomness.
But it is still a faith.

Anonymous said...

For once, HB, I mostly agree with you. Just because one believes in evolution, does not mean that they cease to believe in god. There is room for god in evolution. There is no room for evolution in creationism.

My major problem in the whole debate is the whole push for ID in science class. Its not science, its FAITH. They are separate subjects.

Anonymous said...

I'm really sorry, others seem to be having this problem too. Please stand by while I attempt to hit my computer with a big rock until it starts functioning properly again.

TheWayfarer said...

I believe in "The Big Bang" Theory:
God spoke, and BANG! It happened.

Joe said...

Breezy, long time no comment. Believe it or not we agree COMPLETELY on this subject.

Anonymous said...

Good to be here...and nice to agree for once!

GUYK said...

evolution doesn't teach that it was all by accident. But it does teach about mutations and survival of the fittest. Any time one doesn't think that evolution is taking place just remeber that even viruses mutate and become immunte to anti biotics. Any one who has ever used a herbicide and/or pesticide will tell you how weeds can become immune and insects become immune to the killing agents. This in evolution happeneing over a period of a few years. The earth has been here for over four billion years. Lots of time for a lot of evolution.

TheWayfarer said...

As in much else in the philosophical arena, much depends on who is spinning the facts.

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