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First off, Alamo-Girl I must say you’ve done a fine job of gathering information and putting it all together. It’s going to take me some time to explore all the resources you listed and read up on some books I now want to read. I also must say that we share the same world views, and I agree with almost all of your conclusions, it’s great to see one’s views (mine in this case) backed up by another who has put a lot more effort into it then I ever have, and it’s great to see it arrived at from a different angle than I have ever thought about it. Thanks for taking the time and effort and compiling this.

As some of this stuff was new to me, and I can’t speak to a lot of the details or to a lot of the current cellular debate going on, hopefully I can provide you with some support. I like to look at things logically and to step back and view the bigger picture. Logically things become much simpler and clearer I believe. I also think my logic stands up even without the religious aspect I’ve mixed into it. Here is some of my random musings that I have long subscribed to and refined as needed, I’ll get them out of the way and then discuss some of your points.

1. Something can NOT come from Nothing
Everything pretty much boils down to this. Everything in our universe tells us this, yet here we are. It doesn’t matter if all charges in the universe add up to zero, or if all anti-matter would annihilate matter leaving nothing, the fact is that matter and antimatter exist violating this fundamental law. Something outside the laws of this universe not confined to the laws of this universe had to have created us. For me this is God. This also helps me to understand time, or the lack thereof for God. He created time for this universe, he is not constricted by time.

2. Big Bang
My religious beliefs do not conflict with the Big Bang. As a matter of fact, I find it the most likely scenario in which God set this universe into motion. In Hebrew the word “day” used in Genesis means a period of time. I don’t take it to mean a literal 24 hour period because how could there have been a day before God created it?

3. Life
Life is tremendously complex, and for life to just have happened does not make sense logically. Things in this universe (apart from the aftermath of the big bang) do not seek complexity, they seek simplicity. To say that life evolved from lightning or some other cosmic event interacting with primordial soup creating the first cell that later miraculously “evolved” into all life is ludicrous IMHO. That is akin to saying that the fleet of F-16’s over there were created by a tornado passing over a junkyard, actually the odds of that happening are vastly better than that in which the evolutionists surmise.

4. Evolution
Evolution doesn’t necessarily conflict with my religious beliefs per se. I just think it’s illogical and full of holes. I subscribe to certain parts of the theory, but the part of the theory that things started out very simple and “evolved” is illogical and not backed up by any science I’ve ever seen. I still leave room that everything started as a single cell and evolved – but that the single cell was pre-programmed for all of life and is how God initially created us (with the exception of consciousness/spirit of man), but there are still too many holes in that possibility for me to currently subscribe to it.

The example I once heard that has stuck with me, and the biggest problem with the theory of evolution IMHO is that of a common mousetrap. Now a common mousetrap is vastly simplistic compared to that of living organisms but to show the point logically let’s use this simplified example. For a mousetrap to serve its purpose all of its parts must be there. There is a tightly wound spring, a metal catcher, and a hook to hold the catcher down, the cheese holder and of course the wooden board. Now, evolutionists are basically saying that the wooden board slowly turns into this complex machine, and that this happens through billions of mutations, etc. which of course does not stand up to common sense and logic because none of the parts serve any purpose unless they are all there. Also see the junkyard example above. It’s mathematically implausible. And there are thousands – if not millions – of vastly complex mousetraps found in living organisms today. The only valid explanation for this is if it knew ahead of time the “master plan”, which of course points to a creator. BTW, I think there’s nothing sadder or more ignorant than an atheist scientist (I say this lovingly). Even an Islamic terrorist recognizes there is a God (even if I believe it’s the wrong God), whereas the atheist scientist is confronted everyday with the amazing beauty and function of God’s great design staring them in the face yet denies it.

Now to specifically address some of your points:

Time
I agree with your conclusions 100%. There was no time before our universe (well, unless God wanted it elsewhere). We are so constrained and consumed by time that we can’t even comprehend a place without it. It just doesn’t make sense logically to us, because all we know are the laws of this universe. And even then we don’t truly understand time. Einstein was probably the first to change our perception of time in how it exists in this universe. We’ve probably just scratched the surface in truly understanding time in our own universe, let alone understand something without time!

Consciousness
I agree that our comprehension is limited by space and time, and there are other dimensions either yet undiscovered or undiscoverable (outside our physical universe) in which the spirit realm operates. I always put the spirit realm outside the laws and physical universe, thus I cannot logically explore them since logic breaks down outside this universe thus the need for faith. I like how you stated that our brains are transmitter/receivers for the soul. I never thought of it like that but it makes a lot of sense.

Predestination v. Free Will
I believe I agree with your assertion (I think) that predestination is the outcome of free will independent of time. Like you said, God knows all – he is not constrained by time – so when he gave us free choice he knew (knows) what we will choose. But because he knows, does not mean we the choice isn’t up to us. It is, he just already knows what it is. (You know I kidded about being in a Matrix in my earlier message, but it’s interesting because a lot of these issues are explored in the Matrix movies).

Functional Complexity
I think you stated much more eloquently and elaborately what I was trying to say with the mousetrap example ;)

Great thought provoking post Alamo-Girl! It’s also good to see the evolutionists and others having a “civil” discussion of it.