Evolution and God

To continue, re my opponent's opening remarks in the 2nd round: "First, I noticed that you failed to respond to the scientific part of what I had said in the opening statements....Assuming that a supernatural being DID exist and DID create life on earth, as you might say, as a cell, there is nothing saying that this supernatural being would be unable to manipulate the way that cell and its descendants progress. He could, as I said, cause the biological processes to accelerate beyond what is normal without the harmful effects that would be caused if the acceleration were caused by a natural being or object." As I noted in my original response, I was unable to cover this particular section of my opponent's arguments due to space constraints, and will now take it up here. We need to keep in mind the question at hand - it is not whether we can find some means whereby the literal 6-day creation would be possible, but simply if belief in both "evolution" and "God" can be compatible. While it is certainly correct that, IF we assume a Supreme Being, said being COULD have arranged things to occur in a literal six days, it is also at least equally possible - and far more in keeping with the observed evidence - that this Supreme Being would simply have set up the natural laws of the universe such that the evolution of life would progress "naturally," as the evidence suggests, and in the full knowledge of what the ultimate outcome would be. Since again this is at least as plausible as my opponent's scenario, the possibility of belief in both the evolutionary model and God remains. And given the Christian model of God, and specifically the various qualities attributed to this being, my opponent's scenario appears far LESS likely. As noted, clinging to a belief of a literal six-day creation, occuring just a relatively few thousand years ago also requires that one believe that God, to use my opponent's terms,leaves "age-appropriate evidence of natural evolution, in the span of 6 days." This is the creationist notion of the Earth and the Universe being created "with age," with the apparent evidence of millions of years of the evolution of life, a planet billions of years old, and with light from distant stars and galaxies already on the way, so as to give the appearance of billions of light-years of distance. What it means, simply put, is that God is deceitful. He creates things which give very strong evidence of being one way, when supposedly "in fact" the story is quite different. Further, he gives the intelligent species of his creation the ability to observe and reason, knowing full well that these abilities will lead them to what in this scenario is an incorrect conclusion. This does not seem to be at all in keeping with the Christian notions of God. Why is this notion presented? Merely to preserve the idea of the Bible, and specifically the Book of Genesis, as being completely inerrant in a literal reading. But, unless one believes that the Bible or the Book of Genesis literally IS God, there is hardly a need for such a position in order for one to believe in God in the first place. Again, given the evidence, it is much more reasonable to believe that the Bible at the very least presents an allegorical view of the world, or at least one which was originally given to believers in terms appropriate for the time. Are we, for instance to believe that the ancient Hebrews would have received from God a text which began, "here is how DNA works..."? Not at all - even assuming that the Bible IS the literal word of God, it would be expected to be couched in terms understandable by the people at the time of its writing, even if this meant that it would be less than literally accurate as peoples' understanding of the world grew. A literal reading of Genesis is actually far more problematic than the creationist camp would have us believe, even for their own arguments. For instance, the story of Noah and the Flood presents serious problems for the creationist viewpoint. Not only is there a complete and utter lack of evidence for such a flood, but the story itself is in conflict with the creationist's own arguments. We are told that one serious flaw in the evolutionary model is the lack of the time which would be required for this model to work - and yet, if all life on Earth derives from those animals on Noah's Ark, and the Flood occured just a few thousand years ago, we are at the same time being asked to accept evolutionary change at a far more rapid rate than anything the "evolutionists" ever proposed, simply to explain the diversity we see in the living world today. This is particularly troublesome when we note the very large number of unique species which are found in certain geographical areas of the world and nowhere else. Without such rapid change, how does the Flood story, if taken literally, explain the presence of, say, the platypus or kangaroo in Australia? It cannot, UNLESS the creationists then propose yet another set of miracles - and miracles for which there is no Biblical support whatsoever. My opponent goes on to say: "As to the Christian standings on there, I hail from the Southern Baptist Convention, who's stand on evolution has been quite clearly against it" That's all well and good, but again we need to keep in mind the topic of this debate. The question is not whether one can be a good Southern Baptist and believe in evolution, but simply if one can believe in both the evolutionary model and God. These are hardly the same question, unless my opponent wishes to argue that only the Southern Baptists "really" believe in God. If not, then we certainly have ample evidence of a very large number of people and denominations who not only believe in both, but which have also presented quite clear rationales for reconciling these beliefs, many of which are along the lines of those I have presented here. If these rationales make sense, and if we are to take these people at their words regarding their personal beliefs, then not only is belief in both God and evolution POSSIBLE, but it happens all the time. Q.E.D..