Creation and Evolution
Jul 10th, 2009 by ljkim
Here’s the thing about creationists that irks many smart people: we have these established facts about evolution that clearly shows species developing as a response to their environment. We have cold hard facts about the age of the earth through an incredibly reliable measure, carbon dating. We even have multitudes of ways in which evolutionary theory works out with non-living things, like ideas, memes… Random variations within species that have an evolutionary advantage will win the evolutionary numbers game. To miss or deny these things means you have checked your brains at the door… Just the way Allah does not really hold an airplane in the air with his hands, we do not need divine miraculous intervention to proceed with biological history.
Now here’s the thing about evolutionists that irks other smart people: Evolutionary theory works great in explaining the survival and development of living things, but Darwin himself never thought it answered the other question… The question of “Where did life come from to begin with?” Rocks don’t evolve into fish or monkeys, or even plants… If there’s evolution at all, they evolve into smaller rocks and sand. From what I understand, Darwin never intended to answer this particular question… How did organic matter come about? How did life come about? Where did everything come from in the first place?
Now I know what you’re thinking “At least evolutionists have a theory, we’re at least TRYING to solve these things rationally…” Okay, kudos! But please please understand the position, that to believe life came about through an accidental combination of inorganic matter and a bolt of lightning requires an enormous amount of faith…one could say “blind faith.” It’s a guess, a bet, and not a result of any kind of science. And this hypothesis is not fact. Just because Darwin’s brilliant evolutionary theory explains some things, does not mean that it is capable of explaining EVERY thing, and life itself any more than it helps me figure out what I can deduct on my taxes. On the other hand, some people have gotten very clear messages from beyond suggesting a very different kind of beginning… If we’re going to be scientific about this, we need to pursue the claims and test the hypotheses. That’s part of what we do here: Intelligent, relevant, spiritual community. Come check it out.
[Personally, I'm with Ron Moore: we came from Cylons and humans after the war on Caprica. 
But that just begs the question, where did those humans then come from?]
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Why couldn’t God have created “The Big Bang”? Is it so hard to believe that God created us through evolution? Is it so hard to believe that God is truely about love and that God just wants us to learn how to be good loving people, without all of the prejudice and hate that fills our world, even amongest religions.
If God is the only God who can judge us why do we feel the need to tell people what they should or shouldn’t believe in? After all, if I’m not mistaken the Bible does say that God gave man the greatest gift of all “free will”, why?
Hey David, welcome to the site!
1. Yeah there’s no reason why God couldn’t use evolution – but from the anti-theistic evolutionist POV, they feel that evolutionary theory makes the idea of God unnecessary. So “theistic evolution” (what you’re saying) sounds to them like when a Muslim cleric in Afghanistan says that planes don’t fly because of science, they fly because Allah holds them up…
2. When it comes to the idea of evangelism – getting other people to “think or know” what you “think or know” – we do it largely because we can’t help it. Even the people who tell people they shouldn’t bother evangelizing are really evangelizing their own point of view.
3. The Bible doesn’t actually SAY God gave man the gift of “free will” – but one can make a case for it. It doesn’t say it because the idea of “free will” is actually a pretty new Western idea…and when pressed, most people don’t really understand it all that well. Mainly we use it in a semi-political sense in that “people are free to do whatever they want” – but free will does not mean that we get to choose what it is we happen to want. (eg, I could not choose to like rats for food even if my life depended on it. But I am free not to eat rats… ) Instead, scientifically we rely more on nature or nurture to determine and understand our “wants.” Otherwise “free will” becomes the same thing as “lack of causality.”
But yes, there is something called a will, and one must exert it at some point if one is to ever follow Jesus.