Harsanyi: Don't fear evolution debate

Denver Post ^ | 04/01/2009 | David Harsanyi

[seanindenver]

Some time ago, a highly charged argument was set in motion. It pitted evolution against creationism. One side of this debate relies on scientific inquiry and the other relies on ancient mythological texts.

That's my view. That's what I intend to teach my children.

Yet, I have no interest in foisting this curriculum on your kids. Nor am I particularly distressed that a creationist theory may one day collide with the tiny eardrums of my precocious offspring.

Which brings me to the Texas Board of Education's recent landmark compromise between evolutionary science and related religious concerns in public school textbooks.

The board cautiously crafted an arrangement that requires teachers to allow students to scrutinize "all sides" of the issue. This decision is widely seen as a win for pro-creationists — or are they called "anti-evolutionists"?

[betty boop]

A miracle is proved by tasting it.. To look around and see no miracles around you is proof of brain washing..

So beautifully said, dear brother in Christ!

I wholly agree with both your statements.

[metmom]

the whole of creation is a supernatural event and a miracle. It is a miracle that atoms exist. It is a miracle that they are held together. It is a miracle that they can be combined to make all the things that exist in the universe. It is a miracle that they can be combined to form living organisms. It is a miracle that these living organisms not only live, but that they recreate themselves. It is a miracle that plants exist, that we can see, that we can hear, that we can touch, that we can feel, that birds can fly, that fish can swim, that roses can smell and that the sky can be blue.

What's interesting is that those same chemicals which make up the world around us can come together in certain ways and result in such ethereal characteristics.

The fact that chemicals can see, smell, hear, feel, choose, think, reason, have morals, values, etc. really puts holes in the naturalism philosophy. It just cannot explain any of that.

[betty boop]

The fact that chemicals can see, smell, hear, feel, choose, think, reason, have morals, values, etc. really puts holes in the naturalism philosophy.

Well I think it's isn't the chemicals themselves that are doing all these things, but I take your point, dear metmom!

Some biologists do speculate that even unicellular organisms have a sort-of form of primitive consciousness and are capable of learning and choosing. Some physicists attribute a certain degree of "freedom" to atoms....

But what you're talking about is the miracle of inert matter boot-strapping itself into Life. There is simply no naturalistic explanation of any "mechanism" that causes inert matter to boot-strap itself into Life. Because you want to find something, doesn't necessarily mean that it's there to be found in the first place.

Anyhoot, to the naturalists who resist any idea of extra-mundane, non-phenomenal, non-physical influences on the course of events in the world are, to me, observers of the superficial appearance only of the world. They never look at anything deeper than the "image of reality" that they can capture with their five senses (as technically aided), as perceived according to the criteria of man's habituated experiences/notions of (classical, or non-relativistic) space and time.

It's as if their motto is: "If you can't see it, not only is it not there, but it does not exist in the first place."

And that's the kind of thinking that's supposed to give us a "theory of Everything?"

I strongly doubt it. Looks more to me like some men trying to "cut the world down to their size."

Thanks ever so much, dear sister in Christ, for your excellent essay/post!

[metmom]

Well I think it's isn't the chemicals themselves that are doing all these things, but I take your point, dear metmom!

Well, some people do and obviously THEY don't get the point.

[betty boop]

Well, some people do and obviously THEY don't get the point.

I take your point! LOL! Some people are amazing credulous.

[gondramB]

>>“We often find the principle of stories in the bible to be true when the details do not match the evidence.”

---

Indeed. This is because a parable or allegorical story is a way of conveying an essential truth.<<

That is my feeling. How could God have explained that there are elements in our bodies we can live without except for super novas or that people who thought in terms of generations needed to think in terms of millions of generations? The bible really did the best it could.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

My point is that anyone (scientist or layman) who looks at Nature and concludes that it was nothing but a product of "Nature" and denies the hand of God, is in effect calling God a liar and stealing from God the credit which he deserves for bringing it all into existence.

Indeed. There is a huge penalty in the here and now for knowingly worshiping the creature instead of God :

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.– Romans 1:20-32

And of course I strongly agree with you that everything we see - and the fact that we see it - is a miracle.

God's Name is I AM.

[Alamo-Girl]

I don't believe in miracles I rely on them..

Amen.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

"Naturalism" is blinded by its own method from seeing deeper levels of reality. Usually, this is a willful blindness: "There are none so blind as those who refuse to see."

So very true.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!