I respectfully disagree that compatiability requires a disinterested God.
Going back to the cake analogy, the study of how the cake solidifies is not incorrect because the baker takes the cake out and puts icing onto it --- you just have two forces at work.
It is like how scientist recently showed that the Red Sea can naturally part --- certain wind conditions, tides, and all that. "No miracle!" some cry. "Heresy!" cry others.
Well, the miracle was not the parting, the miracle was parting just as Moses showed up with Pharoah on his tail, and then closing back up.
I am quite sure God put the wind, tides, etc, in motion a million years ago to get that one just right.
Same with evolution. He created just the exactly right conditions for things to be as he wanted.
It's very similar to a baker putting the micrograms of whatnot to get a souffle to rise just so.
Yes, God could intervene and bypass His rules of nature. But why? He made the rules. He knows how they work. Why should he not follow His own rules?
So to answer your quandry: "we would never know which species evolved purely from evolutionary mechanisms, and which were given a helping hand by the Creator"
This assumes God made a mistake in putting the Universe in motion.
ALL were given the exact helping hand by God --- be it by a timely asteroid killing dinosaurs just as those mamals got going, or by parting the Red Sea at the right time.
I do not presume that God would make a mistake. I presume He did it right and it is exactly as He desinged it.
It is like how scientist recently showed that the Red Sea can naturally part --- certain wind conditions, tides, and all that. "No miracle!" some cry. "Heresy!" cry others. Well, the miracle was not the parting, the miracle was parting just as Moses showed up with Pharoah on his tail, and then closing back up. I am quite sure God put the wind, tides, etc, in motion a million years ago to get that one just right.
Same with evolution. He created just the exactly right conditions for things to be as he wanted.[...]
Yes, God could intervene and bypass His rules of nature. But why? He made the rules. He knows how they work. Why should he not follow His own rules? So to answer your quandry: "we would never know which species evolved purely from evolutionary mechanisms, and which were given a helping hand by the Creator" This assumes God made a mistake in putting the Universe in motion. ALL were given the exact helping hand by God --- be it by a timely asteroid killing dinosaurs just as those mamals got going, or by parting the Red Sea at the right time. I do not presume that God would make a mistake. I presume He did it right and it is exactly as He designed it.
Very well said. Or, in the words of the Talmud, kol hanissim b'derech hateva, "all miracles happen in a natural way."