Re: So Much Wasted Effort
- From: "Kippers" <robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 18 Oct 2005 06:15:48 -0700
Ex_OWM wrote:
> As a Christian trying to reconcile belief in God with modern >science, I have
> been looking closely at the conflict between Creationism and the >Theory of
> Evolution. From what I have seen, most of the arguments are a total >waste of
> time as they are focused entirely on the wrong issues.
Not if you believe in a literal interpretation of the bible which most
creationists do.
>
> I am not trained in the science of Evolution, but I do not need to be so
> trained to recognise the inherent truth in a lot of what it says. Hells
> bells, I do not need a degree in Biology to see that Apes and Man are
> closely related physically, I just have to go to my local zoo and watch the
> behaviour of the chimps! No disrespect to some ugly people I have met in my
> time, but some chimps even look more human than they do :)
>
> "So What?", I ask myself. My Christian beliefs have nothing whatsoever to do
> with my physical appearance or the chemicals that make up my body, or what
> particular mechanism God used to bring me into existence. What matters to me
> is the fact that God chose to give me particular powers that separate me
> completely from all other species.
How about the "powers" he gave each species to separate them from each
other? Is your intelligence more "powerful" than the breeding
abilities of bacteria?
>
> What really makes me different and raises me above all other >species is my
> ability to think, my ability to rationalise, my ability to explore >the world
> around me and figure out how it actually works, my power to >communicate and
> exchange my knowledge with other people so that we can all gain >from what
> each individual has learned, my power to recognise that there >is 'right' and
> 'wrong', my very ability to conclude that there is a greater >intelligence
> than my own and decide that greater intelligence deserves worship.
What about my ability to conclude exactly the opposite?
>
> Both sides of the debate seem to almost totally ignore this >essential
> difference.
>
> The Creationists choose to focus on a the form of words used in a >single
> part of the Bible - the Genesis account of creation - and ignore >the more
> valuable account of the Garden of Eden and man being given the >powers I am
> talking about; sadly, even when they do talk about that part, they >once
> again focus on the literal words instead of the truly wonderful >revelation
> that believers see within it.
>
> Evolutionary scientists concentrate on pinning down the physical >and
> chemical differences between man and other species but put little >effort
> into determining why man is truly so different from other species >in the
> ways I have described above. We have some limited work on things >like birds
> using basic tools and chimps having a basic sense of justice but >these only
> show a common starting point and there is no real attempt to >explore how
> this has evolved into the wonderful store of knowledge that man has
> accumulated and continues to add to at what seems a constantly >accelerating
> rate.
>
> It seems to me a great pity that we waste so much time and effort >arguing
> about the trivia instead of trying to explore the things that >really matter.
I think you rate our species too highly. Your choosing the attributes
we happen to be best at and comparing them with other animals. Not
surpirsingly you are comming to the conclusion that we are better than
them.
.
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