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To: TonyRo76; Dumb_Ox
If we were just animals that arose randomly from watery blobs => fish => toads => screaming smelly simians, then the clear-cut lesson is that life itself is random, meaningless and without purpose

That does not follow at all. First of all, the TOE does not say we arose randomly. Random mutation plus natural selection operating according to the laws of nature explain our origin as a species. Notice that random mutation is only one part of the process.

Second of all, the TOE leaves room for belief in a Creator who set up the laws of nature so that an intelligent being who could know Him and love Him would eventually evolve, and then breathed an immortal soul into him once the process was complete. Perhaps God even "tweaked" the process by causing an occaisonal mutuation here and there. If he did this very rarely, the whole process would still appear random to the scientist.

It has been argued, quite convincingly, that randomness in nature is necessary for the existence of free will. If the universe were completely deterministic, then everything would be pre-determined. Thus it would be impossible for any creature to be free to choose anything. How fitting, therefore, that God chose to create us using a process that includes randomness, the very thing that allows us to have free will.

324 posted on 08/02/2005 9:02:45 AM PDT by curiosity
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To: curiosity
How fitting, therefore, that God chose to create us using a process that includes randomness, the very thing that allows us to have free will.

Determisim or randomness? Whats the difference? If either is causal then free will doesn't exist.

338 posted on 08/02/2005 9:12:30 AM PDT by jwalsh07
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