From: bsmart@bsmart.TTI.COM (Bob Smart)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Evol & God : CANNOT Co-exist!
Date: 2 Sep 92 07:19:03 GMT
Reply-To: bsmart@bsmart.TTI.COM (Bob Smart)
Organization: Citicorp+TTI

In <1992Aug28.003330.4541@ccu.umanitoba.ca> vnelson@ccu.umanitoba.ca
(Gerald Vernon Nelson) writes:
> God playing evolution, is CREATION.

So what?  You seem to be arguing that evolutionary theory is somehow
primarily an attack on God.  In fact, evolution is simply a concept that
people can use to help them organize and predict natural phenomena (like
any other theory, in fact).  To the extent that "evolution" is a useful
tool for prediction or explanation of observations, it's a worthwhile
theory.  NONE of this has anything to do with attacking or refuting God;
that simply isn't the business of science. Also, NONE of this requires
that the THEORY of evolution has to be "right."  The only requirement is
that PREDICTIONS based on evolutionary theory match with observation. 
As long as the end result is correct, the theoretical model used to get
there is beside the point.

Scientists like evolutionary theory because it works (its predictions
correspond closely with observations), not because it's "right."  When
somebody comes up with another theory that either makes more accurate
predictions, or does just as well but is simpler, evolutionary theory
will get dumped...not because it was "wrong," but because a better (more
accurate/simpler) tool has become available.
 
If we postulate a system where God sets up laws of nature and sets the
wheels in motion, you've said you'd call that "Creation."  I say, call
it whatever makes you happy--but "Creation" doesn't help understand how
the world works.  Theories about evolutionary biology don't REQUIRE the
involvement of God, but neither do they forbid it (at least in the
limited sense of God as a starting impulse to get the whole system
rolling).  Whether organisms develop and change as they do because of
mechanistic evolutionary mechanisms, or because God makes them do it
just that way, is irrelevant; as long as I get good predictions, that's enough.

What predictions about biological diversity does Creationist "theory"
make, and how are these predictions better than those of evolotionary
biology?  Evolution isn't about God; it's about biology.  When I want to
know what happens after you die, I'll ask a religious authority; when I
want to understand what might produce (or prevent) the appearance of
drug-resistant microbes, I'll ask a biologist.  It DOESN'T MATTER
whether the biologist understands the fundamental nature of God, or even
whether the biologist's theory of the way living things work is "really"
correct; all that matters is that I get the right answer about the
behavior of living organisms.  Even if I get the right answer for the
wrong reason, I'm still in possession of the right answer.  As a
practical matter, science is about observable, verifiable conclusions,
and theories are merely a means to an end.

Science doesn't tell us, "this is how the world works."  Science tells
us, "the world appears to behave AS IF it worked something like this." 
How is that incompatible with religious faith?

---------

A fanatic is someone who does what he knows that God would do if God knew the
facts of the case.

Some mailers apparently munge my address; you might have to use
bsmart@bsmart.tti.com -- or if that fails, fall back to
72027.3210@compuserve.com.  Ain't UNIX grand?