Monday, July 27, 2009

Thank God For Evolution

"Thank God for Evolution" is the name of a wonderful web site run by Michael Dowd, who has been an occasional commenter here.

Until we appreciate what God has revealed in the last 200 years about how everything was actually created and why death at all levels is necessary—until we GET that—we can't help but belittle God and trivialize the core concepts of our faith.

For example, you can't possibly know how God created the heavens and Earth if you don't understand supernovas. You can't know how God created soil, lakes, oceans, and mountains if you don't understand glaciers and plate tectonics. And only by understanding extinctions and why they're essential for the emergence of complex life could we learn how God created us.

Rev. Dowd suggests that science reveals more about God than the Bible writers did. He says, "Darwin didn't kill off God. He gave us the first glimpse of the real Creator behind and beyond all the world's mythic portrayals of the divine."

Claiming that evolution is of the devil and that all the evils of the world can be attributed to Darwin, as many creationists do, is blasphemous. It is labeling as evil that which is actually divine.


What's your opinion? Are the concepts of creation and evolution mutually exclusive or can they be reconciled as Rev. Michael Dowd attempts to do?

I don't suppose hard core atheists would be open to these ideas any more than strict fundamental Christians, but to me they make sense. How about you.

Please leave a comment.

7 comments:

  1. I think it's only divine if we affix divinity to it, but intrinsically it's all just a random, blind, mechanistic, non-teleological process. It's a wonder nonetheless, but it's not divine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Intelligent design. Considering that at one time Homo-sapians any numbered around 2000 something helped us out. We didn't always bred like jack rabbits.

    ReplyDelete
  3. God created the universe and all that is in it. Pure and simple, no argument. How he did it is his business. If he chooses to reveal some of his methods through our comprehension of science than so be it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @FatWhiteMan - If God created the soil, lakes, oceans, and mountains then who created God?


    Side note - Why is God always depicted as a bearded old white guy?

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Side note - Why is God always depicted as a bearded old white guy?"

    Not always phuck dude.

    God is 1.6180339887-

    If you do not recogize this number, then you have no business debating the nature of prime intervention.

    You're way out of your league MikeB if you you post this.

    But, it's par for the course for ya, isn't it???

    ReplyDelete
  6. kaveman, I'm sure you're right, but what "league" are you referring to?

    "You're way out of your league MikeB if you you post this."

    ReplyDelete
  7. A human trying to figure out the nature of God is like an amoeba on a microscope slide trying to figure out the nature of the scientist looking at him through the eye piece.

    We study the world to understand creation as best we can and read the Bible to understand God.

    No problem with studying evolution here. Though our understanding is still full of holes and requires a lot more faith than believing in God, it's the only scientific theory (at least that's given any credence) for the creation of life.

    ReplyDelete