This is the beginning of my first series of posts, Myths (or Mistakes) About Evolution. There are probably quite a few, but I will only be dealing with four.
The first mistake is getting mixed up in the definitions of Evolution. I covered this a little in my last post.
According to the National Association of Biology Teachers, the definition of Evolution is this: "An unsupervized, impersonal, unpredictable, and natural process of temporal descent with genetic modification that is affected by natural selection, chance, historal contingencies and changing environments."
Basically, that definition says that life began as an unguided fluke and evolved into all the beings we have today by chance, strategic inheritance of helpful traits, and changing environments.
Some people, even Christians try to believe in both Evolution and creation by relying on different definitions. Some Christians, fairly well-educated Christians, say that they are Creationists as well as Evolutionists. They do not realize how utterly incompatible the two beliefs are, and one of the ways they confuse themselves is by getting mixed up with the definitions of Evolution. Some Evolutionists will even let such people make that mistake, not bothering to correct them.
Now, if the definition of Evolution were something like "a gradual process of God-guided creation", that might be something worth looking into. Unfortunately, that is not how the intellectual elite of today's society define Evolution.
In short, this post is saying, "Watch out. Check your defintions before agreeing with something." Evolution-believing scientists will go out of their way to make Evolution appeal to people, sometimes even bending the facts and definitions. If they think feeding you a slightly (or extremely) altertered definition of Evolution will make you a believer, they will do it.
I'm certainly not saying that all scientists are scamming little hypocrites. Not at all. I'm not even saying that all EVOLUTION-BELIEVING scientists are scamming little hypocrites. I'm just saying be careful. Don't take things without at least thinking them through. I'm not suggesting you Google and look up every piece of information you come across, but DO use your good sense.
If someone tells you the word gullible isn't in the dictionary, just laugh, okay? If someone tells you that you can be an Evolutionist and stil retain your Christian faith, feel free to laugh at that as well.
Because sorry, folks, that's just not happening.
Before I end this post, I want to get into one more thing: creation itself.
Now, I've (obviously) read the Bible's version of creation in Genesis, and I, too, have noticed that God creates light before he creates the sun.
Don't ask me! I don't know how that's possible! Who knows how literal the creation is supposed to be taken?
I don't.
And some people argue that God couldn't have created the whole universe in SIX DAYS.
My answer is, well, seeing how he's GOD and all, I guess he could if he wanted to.
But, maybe he didn't. Maybe that part of Genesis is figurative. Maybe God counted days differently than we do. But, here's the bottom line when it comes to stuff like that:
It doesn't really matter.
Yes, I wonder. Yes, I'm curious. I don't know how literally that part of the Bible is to be taken. We can't exactly waltz up to Moses and ask him.
But, if you're just arguing over HOW LONG it took God to make the universe, who cares? The important thing about that is that he did, that it wasn't just an accident.
I know I haven't given evidence for or against Evolution or Creation yet, but, all in good time. I want to do this series the right way, and that means taking things one step at a time. It's important to start with a good foundation and then build on that.
I think all of us, Evolutionists and Creationists alike, agree on that, don't we?
And that's what this series is all about: starting with a foundation of solid facts, and exploring the world of true science from there. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stick around for the next chapter in this series, Caring vs. Detatched God.
Yes, you're right about the fact that God could create the universe in six days. God can do anything. But I don't think that part of Genesis should be taken literally. God didn't directly write the Bible. He inspired creation and he inspired Genesis. Why should there be talking snakes and 40-day rains back then and not now?
ReplyDeleteWow, sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this! I'm usually much more prompt.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think the talking serpent part is meant to be taken pretty literally. And I don't think most of the animals talked, just the one serpent. And the 40-day rain was meant to be a one-of-a-kind thing.
So you're saying that there's no middle ground? That you have to be one or the other? Wow, that's probably the most narow minded thing I've heard in a long time. I'm a Christain and an evolutionist and like it or not, I'm part of the biggest group of people out there. Surverys have shown that the majority of Americans believe in both evolution and Christainity. I believe in God inspired evolution. And some scientists do stray from the original belief of evolution to convince people, but I've seen creationists do it much more often. An example: some evoltuions say that they're were dinosaurs and they were on the ark and then evolved in a period of a few thousand years (impossible) into birds. The Bible says nothing about dinosaurs, so how is this true? I believe that a good part of the Old Testament is more figurative, than literal. There's pleanty of evidence to prove evolution, put not much to prove that God snapped hsi fingers and the world "happened".
ReplyDeleteTo be blunt, no, there is no *real* middle ground. I think I might answer some of these questions and comments in my latest response to Christopher on Faith vs. Reason. You can read that here if you wish: http://toseizethenight.blogspot.com/2009/07/faith-vs-reason.html#comments
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
To be blunt yes there is a real middle ground, and scientists are not lying to you! They're not trying to set a trap! And WFY, people don't really like it when you say things like "I think you may be falling to their trap." Your brain interprets that as saying that you are weaker and more corruptable which is really annoying to think about even if that's not what you meant to say. I think there is a real middle ground. It's actually the largest school of thought on the issue and really the most reasonable. I don't understand why you don't think there is. The actual definition of evolution has nothing to do with God or religion it just says that things naturally evolve over time.
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious that neither of us are going to be swayed in our beliefs, at least just yet, so I'm going to refrain from saying much on this for now.
ReplyDeleteThe actual definition of evolution has nothing to do with God or religion? It most certainly does. When it says "mindless, purposeless", does that not imply that there was and is no God?
I can honestly say that I am not going to become a creationist anytime soon. If anything, these posts have caused me to question my faith. And the problem is, you don't have to acurate definition of evolution. It doesn't say anything about "random" or "mindless". It just says that things naturally change and evolved over time. God is not stated one way or the other in any definition. Have you read Inherit the Wind? It's a excellent book that you should probably read before you jump into this.
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence! My next post "Owning the Microphone" is all about Inherit the Wind!
ReplyDeleteHow can you like that book? It's all about not being narrow minded and being accpeting of peoples beliefs which aparently don't understand. It's an excellent play, I just don't think you get it based on what you've said in your posts.
ReplyDelete