by nicolaou 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The creation / evolution debate has raged for 150 years with almost everyone coming down on one side or another (although creation has never offered an explanation for the origin of life). My question is; 'Is there another way of explaining the existence of life in the Universe'?
It's tangential and difficult to imagine but can we drag our perceptions away from the well established religious and evolutionary grooves to arrive at something . . . . . . else?
If not God, if not Darwin, what?
The Flying Spaghetti Monster!
To date no other alternative has been produced by anyone as far as I know, so we are stuck with those two competing points of view.
Well, spaghetti monsters aside, what options existed before Darwin? Were there no alternatives to God other than 'alternative gods'?
Well, if you go to ancient Greek philosophy, you will find various other ideas, such as the idea that the universe has always existed from eternity and thus did not have a creator. This is based on the assumption of symmetry between the past and future, and if there is a future eternity, there was an eternal past.
I don't think the situation is quite that simple. The situation is something of a false dichotomy. There are actually many different possibilities on both sides. There are, as you said, "alternative" Gods to the Christian monotheistic deity. On the other hand, there are many different scientific theories to describe the origin of life. The scientific theories which are still relevent today are those which are possible given what we know about how the world works, but which of these (if any) is the best theory has yet to be determined.
So my point is really that we don't need an alternative. There are already so many different ideas which have yet to be tested or confirmed in any conclusive manner, that there is plenty of room for discussion and experimentation on these alone that it doesn't seem necessary to speculate about esoteric "third" possibilities.
I believe in a Creator because I pray to him. But I think it is not logical for Christians to say there is no such thing as evolution when science has proven there is. You can believe in both I say. For instance, adaptation of a species IS a form of evolution. And I read in a Time article that Darwin did believe in an intelligence behind creation. Although he stopped short of saying God. Why can we not meet somewhere in between and say yes there is a God who gave all living things life, but evolution took over. If the earth was created billions of years ago, you don't think any trees, plants or animals from back then have not evolved into something different? I am not talking about changing species altogether. But with earth changes in climate, migration and other factors, things change. We humans have changed over time too. We live longer, we are fatter than our ancestors, even our bone structure is different because our diets have changed. Is not this a form of us evolving?
There is the new intelligent design teaching in our kids school now. Our family happens to believe in a personal God. But if people want to say they don't but do admit there is an intelligence behind life, what is wrong with that? It is their personal opinion. In a way, it is a next step towards admitting there is a God anyway.
Maybe the big arguement is over how many years man has been on the earth? I have heard people say we can tell its only be a few thousand years instead of millions because of the Bible. I don't believe this to necessarily be true. I read some research when I was in college that said the early bible writers did not record every generation in the bible because they did not keep records early on. They only recorded every few generations and only those that they felt were necessary in showing the lineage of Christ. Has anyone heard this? If this is true, man is probably a lot older that we think. The fossil records seem to back this up. I will see if I can find something on this issue and post it.
Why do you have to choose?
What if we are evolution becoming aware of itself, and of developing a civilisation which has characteristics celebrated by the world's great religions. Make worrying about the origin silly with something as wonderful happening around your ears.
Alternately we are Lisa Simpson's Science Project...
Elsewhere - you are not going to friggin believe this... I saw the thread title and thought "Flying Spaghetti Monster"! seriously.
Alternately we are Lisa Simpson's Science Project...
All hail Lisa, all hail Lisa...
Lisa is great
Lisa is good
Let us thank Lisa
For our food.
Amen
