Posted on 12/30/2005 1:16:16 PM PST by mlc9852
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush says he believes in evolution, but that God created man and all life on earth.
He thinks science standards in the state need to be improved, but that teaching evolution shouldn't actually be part of the curriculum. And he's open to a ``vigorous discussion of varying viewpoints in our classrooms,`` which in politico-speak means he's not necessarily against a teacher talking about intelligent design.
Got that?
Bush's press office has issued two updates to the comments he first made to the Miami Herald about evolution and intelligent design. Taken as a whole, they have philosophers and scientists scratching their heads, but to political pundits it's clearer: Bush is trying to leave his future political options open.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.tbo.com ...
So he takes the unreconcilable postion that both are true. Oh well. He's entitled to that view. At least he's not a Darwin Fundie.
Bush vs Hitlerly '08
He has repeatedly said he doesn't intend to run and I don't think he will. Why would anyone in their right mind want to be president anyway?
"So he takes the unreconcilable postion that both are true. Oh well. He's entitled to that view."
So, are you saying that God couldn't create the world using processes that laid down the fossil record and look like evolution from this end of the telescope?
I think he might be saying that from the other end of the telescope it looks like a grand design.
Me, I prefer not to lecture God on what He can or can't do. That's just me, though ;)
In 2000 and 2004, the dems attempt at character assasination were mostly lies while the republicans usually had some truth to them which is why we won both times.
"So he takes the unreconcilable postion that both are true. Oh well. He's entitled to that view. At least he's not a Darwin Fundie."
Actually, his position is the position of the Catholic Church, and if I am correct, the man is now a Catholic, encouraged into it by his wife (a good woman, no doubt)
It's also what I believe. I don't see what is so contrary about the idea that God created the universe through the process of evolution. Who are we to say how it was that God created the universe. I don't believe that the two are contrary, my children were taught in Catholic schools that the two aren't contrary (and these are not liberal schools, we're probably the most conservative archdiocese in the country), so I don't see where the big issue is.
Does it matter what the Bible says?
Sounds like Jeb had better check his underwear for splinters.
It depends on who is listening.
"So he takes the unreconcilable postion that both are true. "
It is certainly not irreconcilable.
Or are you saying that your God is not omnipotent???? That your God is incapable of designing anything that makes use of evolutionary mechanisms? If so, that is a god with a little 'd';
The Bible does not say, the seven days that God created the universe in were 24 hour long days, now does it?
No, all it says is that God created the universe in seven days, it doesn't explain exactly what seven days means, that is left up to the interpretation of the reader. Who are we to put our specifications on what a "day" is, because a day to God and a day to man are two different things. God is omnipotent and he is not constrained within the bounds of time, and if we try to understand him within the bounds of time, we will fail.
This is a line of reasoning already accepted by even fundamentalists, for example, the part of Revelation where it says 7 days. That is usually understood to mean 7 years. So there, you are already applying an interpretation to days, who's to say you can't apply an interpretation to days in Genesis.
"If so, that is a god with a little 'd';"
ooooops! That is a god with a little 'g'. I must have gone lysdexic there for a moment.
Gov. Bush is stating what I have always believed. Makes perfect sense to me. I don't see where the confusion is. It is a fact that living things evolve. That does not explain where living things originated.
So Jeb, where did God start? In Genesis or before Genesis?
I believe God created evolution.
No. God could but He didn't.
Yes, yes it does and the bible gives a remarkable accounting of the big bang and the creation of our world that's astonishingly consistant with the theory of evolution given how little was known back then.
I think where people get tripped up is they think man was wrapped up in the evolutionary package but the bible is quite firm that God created us Himself -- outside the process of evolution. And the fosil record confirms this, there has never been a link between man and ape found (although there have been a few near misses).
Another place people get tripped up is over the "God created the world in six days" bit however time is a very relative concept. Time is different for you than a person on a jet plane above you, and even moreso for the astronauts on the space station. It's a tiny difference because the speed and distances are relatively minor but none-the-less if time is fluid for us meer mortals how much more so for God? A day for God could be thousands of millions of years for us simply because God created Time as a relative system instead of an absolute.
Evolution guided by a Divine Hand is infinately more amazing than that Hand simply snapping everything into existance. Denying the evidence of His work is to deny His power.
The people denying divine evolution today are the same people who clung to the belief that the sun and heavens revolved around the earth back in Galeleos day. It was only when those blinders were ripped off that the sheer, near-inifnate scope of god's creation could be seen in all its splendor and wonder. No longer was God's handiwork limited to one small tiny plant and a few satalites but now God's creation encompased billions of galaxies each filled with hundreds of billions of stars and trillions of planets.
So yes, it does matter what the bible says, but the bible is a work of man and is subject to man's failings (Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live is a misquote from the original latin texts for instance, the salem witch trials occurred because a clerk mistranslated poisoner with witch). The universe itself is the direct, unmolested work of God Himself and no book can -- or should -- trump that.
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