by JimmyPage 8 Replies latest jw friends
I still see evidence of intelligent design around me, but I don't believe everything a book tells me just because it claims to be inspired.
So I ask, as I look around at creations, both animal and human, that are all flawed: is it possible that our creator was imperfect?
Is it possible there was more than one creator? Like a creative team?
Since all creation appears to be mortal, is it possible that our creator(s) died a long time ago?
What you actually see is proof of survival of the fittest.
You don't see mutated three-legged squirrels running around because they are unfit to survive and die out (if their mother squirrel doesn't kill and eat them as soon as they are born).
Explain please, if you will, the "intelligent design" behind parasites.
I still see evidence of intelligent design around me
If you will please provide us with a specific example, we can likely provide you with a satisfactory response.
This is an understandable dilemma. I read Michael Behe's book Darwin's Black Box many years ago. At the time it seemed to confirm my belief in an intelligent designer. However, I have since read more in-depth information about common descent and the processes involved in biological evolution. I have also read the rebuttals to many of Behe's arguments.
Unintelligent or bad or evil design? An imperfect god using evolution leading to dead ends where there's no way back for better construction?
One of my favorite examples is the human eye. Compare it with a camera and imagine some engineer designed the camera in such a way that the wires taking the information to the memory card were drawn on the front side of the image recording element (ccd) thus creating a blind spot in the image... What would be an acceptable excuse for such design? Designed by a comittee, perhaps?
"Creationists often cite the human eye as a model of perfection... And the human eye is far from a model of perfection. In all vertebrate eyes the wire from each of three million light-sensitive retinal cells passes in front of the retina, and the collection is bundled into the optic nerve, creating a blind spot. This set-up is just the reverse of what any designer would construct: wires leading away from the backside, not light side, of the light-sensitive cells."
This and more: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/neither_intelligent_nor_designed/
You may enjoy some of the points being made in this short video.
Creationists, if they borrow their theology from the Bible, ought to respond to your original question with a statement like:
The imperfections you see today are a direct result of the curse. When humans sinned, God cursed them and the planet. What we see as "nature" is a pale comparison to the perfection that was genuinely natural before the curse.
When man and the planet was cursed certain defects were intentionally introduced into the creation to ensure that man and nature would sicken, age, and die. Even the planet is wearing out like old clothing.
"Lift up your eyes to the sky, Then look to the earth beneath; For the sky will vanish like smoke, And the earth will wear out like a garment And its inhabitants will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not wane." (Isaiah 51:6)
The imperfections you see today are a direct result of the curse. When humans sinned, God cursed them and the planet. What we see as "nature" is a pale comparison to the perfection that was genuinely natural before the curse.
When man and the planet was cursedcertain defects were intentionally introduced into the creation to ensure that man and nature would sicken, age, and die. Even the planet is wearing out like old clothing.
This is a topic on which I am very ignorant. Please allow me to ask a question or two.
Is the view highlighted above commonly held within mainstream Christianity?
Many mainstream evangelicals, yes. Mainstream liberal Christianity would assume the curse, like creation, is a myth. Mainstream Catholicism would generally not bother to address the question.
fyi...I classify myself as an evangelical Christian.
