Of course, if there is no continuum then half of the dispute with Young Earth Creationists goes away. So that part would be a good result.
Baraminology?
Posted on 09/18/2006 1:51:27 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
According to a 2005 Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent of evangelical Christians believe that living beings have always existed in their present form, compared with 32 percent of Protestants and 31 percent of Catholics. Politically, 60 percent of Republicans are creationists, whereas only 11 percent accept evolution, compared with 29 percent of Democrats who are creationists and 44 percent who accept evolution. A 2005 Harris Poll found that 63 percent of liberals but only 37 percent of conservatives believe that humans and apes have a common ancestry. What these figures confirm for us is that there are religious and political reasons for rejecting evolution. Can one be a conservative Christian and a Darwinian? Yes. Here's how.
1. Evolution fits well with good theology. Christians believe in an omniscient and omnipotent God. What difference does it make when God created the universe--10,000 years ago or 10,000,000,000 years ago? The glory of the creation commands reverence regardless of how many zeroes in the date. And what difference does it make how God created life--spoken word or natural forces? The grandeur of life's complexity elicits awe regardless of what creative processes were employed. Christians (indeed, all faiths) should embrace modern science for what it has done to reveal the magnificence of the divine in a depth and detail unmatched by ancient texts.
2. Creationism is bad theology. The watchmaker God of intelligent-design creationism is delimited to being a garage tinkerer piecing together life out of available parts. This God is just a genetic engineer slightly more advanced than we are. An omniscient and omnipotent God must be above such humanlike constraints. As Protestant theologian Langdon Gilkey wrote, "The Christian idea, far from merely representing a primitive anthropomorphic projection of human art upon the cosmos, systematically repudiates all direct analogy from human art." Calling God a watchmaker is belittling.
3. Evolution explains original sin and the Christian model of human nature. As a social primate, we evolved within-group amity and between-group enmity. By nature, then, we are cooperative and competitive, altruistic and selfish, greedy and generous, peaceful and bellicose; in short, good and evil. Moral codes and a society based on the rule of law are necessary to accentuate the positive and attenuate the negative sides of our evolved nature.
4. Evolution explains family values. The following characteristics are the foundation of families and societies and are shared by humans and other social mammals: attachment and bonding, cooperation and reciprocity, sympathy and empathy, conflict resolution, community concern and reputation anxiety, and response to group social norms. As a social primate species, we evolved morality to enhance the survival of both family and community. Subsequently, religions designed moral codes based on our evolved moral natures.
5. Evolution accounts for specific Christian moral precepts. Much of Christian morality has to do with human relationships, most notably truth telling and marital fidelity, because the violation of these principles causes a severe breakdown in trust, which is the foundation of family and community. Evolution describes how we developed into pair-bonded primates and how adultery violates trust. Likewise, truth telling is vital for trust in our society, so lying is a sin.
6. Evolution explains conservative free-market economics. Charles Darwin's "natural selection" is precisely parallel to Adam Smith's "invisible hand." Darwin showed how complex design and ecological balance were unintended consequences of competition among individual organisms. Smith showed how national wealth and social harmony were unintended consequences of competition among individual people. Nature's economy mirrors society's economy. Both are designed from the bottom up, not the top down.
Because the theory of evolution provides a scientific foundation for the core values shared by most Christians and conservatives, it should be embraced. The senseless conflict between science and religion must end now, or else, as the Book of Proverbs (11:29) warned: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind."
If it's true, I want my deleted posts back.
Who said that the Religion Mod is a True Christian?
Not all christians are christians.. not all women are women and not all men are men.. but all people are sinners..
"What makes it an irony is the unexpected fact that the issue he chose not to tackle (abiogenesis v biogenesis) - is itself raised by his own presupposition, that life begets life. The irony does not change the fact that Darwin did not posit a theory to address abiogenesis v. biogenesis."
(see also msgs #1562 & #1553) Not only an irony, Milady, but a delicious irony in that The Masters of the Universe, after declaring both the ancient philosophers and their musings to be useless, even contemptible, now find themselves contending with the same fundamental issues of the First Cause.{ 8^)
Likewise, we won't stop asking questions about origins just because we know that science alone cannot answer the question on principle. It requires both faith and reason to investigate origins.
I should have been more specific when I said:
Somewhere along the way, the Christian arrives at the point where mortals can no longer offend him (Col 3:1-3, I Cor 13:7) Then he realizes the Truth that God will never leave him nor forsake him - that whatever happens to him is also happening to Christ. He can let go and let God, stay in His Love and Light, quit worrying and start living, truly love his neighbor unconditionally, even his enemies (Matt 5). Thus he cannot be offended by another mortal.
My apologies for the lack of clarity...
What exactly is evolution by "kind"? How do a discussion of the dynamics of evolution give comfort to people who deny common descent? Common descent describes the history of life on earth.
I'm trying my best not to be personal, but nothing in your post makes any sense. How does inflationary theory affect the age of the earth?
It really appears that you are just tossing out scientific sounding jargon at random, or at the very least, stochastically.
That life is a continuum was the theory of evolution. The previous thinking was that it was not a continuum. No omne vivum ex vivo, no continuum.
That everything seems to be related doesn’t satisfy because nothing precludes the abiogenetic or biogenetic episodes from being the same or similar.
Of course, if there is no continuum then half of the dispute with Young Earth Creationists goes away. So that part would be a good result.
Of course, if there is no continuum then half of the dispute with Young Earth Creationists goes away. So that part would be a good result.
Baraminology?
On the other point, time is geometric. That is a major point of both special relativity and general relativity. In the vicinity of a black hole, while a week passes, 40 years may pass on earth. While a space ship travels at 1 earth’s gravity velocity for 25.3 years – 5x1010 years elapse on earth. And due to the inflationary model, at the inception space/time coordinates of this universe, while 6 equivalent earth days pass – approximately 15 billion years elapse on earth. That is due to the inflationary model:
But truly, this assertion of multiple episodes of abiogenesis or biogenesis opens the door to exactly such a thing simply because it makes the evolutionary tree of life not a continuum after all.
Jeepers...
But truly, this assertion of multiple episodes of abiogenesis or biogenesis opens the door to exactly such a thing simply because it makes the evolutionary tree of life not a continuum after all.
Jeepers...
Bizarre isn't the word.
But the multiple episodes of abiogenesis or biogenesis are not yet documented by science. Where we see this hypothesis is from the creation "science" websites, under the heading of baraminology.
To repeat and expand this somewhat further, the Darwinian macroevolution model is represented by a single tree of relationships, every form of life being related to every other form of life... In the baraminic model there is a forest of trees without connecting roots... One of these rootless trees would have branches representing only human diversification, another for canids, another for felids, etc. Source.Creationists routinely trash the theory of evolution because it does not include an origin theory, such as the biological theory of abogenesis. It seems like you are willing to accept multiple origins, as does baraminology?
That's why I call it bizarre.
That's why I call it bizarre.
I have read their posts, but I missed that. Perhaps its just the late hour.
Please explain and I will check for your post in the morning.
You missed it, bescause, like the Darwin quote, it isn't there. It's been a long time since I've seen such a sustained episode of insanity.
We seem to be in bizarro world.
A person is a Christian from the moment his new life has begun in Christ (John 1 and 3). But the struggle of will continues (Romans 7) as he works out his salvation (Phl 2:12) in his walk with the Lord. It is through all of this that he becomes sanctified, learning to follow the Spirit (Romans 8, I Cor 2) trusting God no matter what (Phl 4:6-7).Somewhere along the way, the Christian arrives at the point where mortals can no longer offend him (Col 3:1-3, I Cor 13:7) Then he realizes the Truth that God will never leave him nor forsake him - that whatever happens to him is also happening to Christ. He can let go and let God, stay in His Love and Light, quit worrying and start living, truly love his neighbor unconditionally, even his enemies (Matt 5). Thus he cannot be offended by another mortal.
With tears I tell you, dear Alamo-Girl, that I have thanked God often and fervently for the good gift of your mentorship to me.
Your declaration is causing grins and I bump it for the truth of it!
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