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To: teawithmisswilliams
Catholics and Protestants do believe, though, that God created the universe. Does Darwinism require that you reject that premise?

Huh? Biological evolution is independent of the history of the Universe, and also is independent of the origin of life. It's a consequence of imperfect replication and limited resources.

The ToE was totally unaffected by the steady-state v. big bang dispute in cosmology. "God created the Universe" is also compatable with standard biology (which includes evolution).

This should not be confused with "God created the Universe in six days a few thousand years ago". That has testable consequences, and was known to be false many years before Darwin.

It is also independent of the origin of life. Whether abiogenesis took place on a pyrite surface, in drops, in a "soup"; whether some deity created life; or whether panspermia is true, once life was present on Earth, it had no choice but to evolve.

Imagine putting bacteria or lichens or somesuch on Mars. Once it's reproducing, if fewer than 100% of offspring survive, it is evolving.

414 posted on 11/30/2005 12:45:24 PM PST by Virginia-American
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To: Virginia-American
...whether some deity created life; or whether panspermia is true, once life was present on Earth, it had no choice but to evolve.

Except that no "choice" was involved, right? Only completely random chance, since no intelligence was involved.

418 posted on 11/30/2005 12:54:59 PM PST by teawithmisswilliams (Question Diversity)
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