So, my question to you is have you worked this out for yourself that Evolution is 100% compatible with the Christian faith? If you have worked this out, please let me know how you were able to do so.

Thanks,

Jason

Jason

By only accepting information from the scientific community you have already determined your final belief. For the most part, scientists work to determine how we came to be without any intelligent being. They will connect dots that support this position, they will disregard any information or idea that goes against it. There is no room in their research for the notion of a higher power. Which I understand to a large extent since you cannot study what is not part of our physical reality. However, this makes it useless for determining if God exists or not.

Look at what Jason said above…

“this guy has gravitated towards the fundamentalist dark-side”

Because my thought process was outside the realm of the science, I’m considered a crack-pot automatically. Yet he offers no flaw in my logic. I’m not saying this isn’t one, but that isn’t where the argument is made. One thing I’ve learned from my research in religion, science, politics, and elsewhere is that there is constantly a complete lack of critical thinking. I personally don’t trust anybody. Churches, pastors, scientists, teachers, doctors, ect. I trust what I find to make logical sense. I usually find the most important part of an argument is what isn’t said. People like to leave out the parts of an argument that do not absolutely support their positions.

So I recommend you do not close off your mind to any side. Look at the facts yourself. Use strong critical thinking and logical analysis to sort through all the nonsense.

Let me give an example of poor critical thinking from two different beliefs.

1) Any easy one from the real “fundamentalists” who believe the earth is only thousands of years old. Where they get this logic from I have no clue.

2) I was given a link awhile back to a video where Ken Miller sought out to show a crowd how Intelligent Design was easy to debunk. He showed the commonly referenced flagellum and told them that because you could remove the tail of the flagellum and the head would still serve it’s purpose even without the tail for it’s movement. Too an applauding crowed he declares ID debunked. Not only does this barely scratch the surface of ID, it explains nothing. The point of the flagellum from Behe was in fact much more complex. But the crowd cheers him on even though he had said almost nothing of substance. Most people will believe and accept anything that supports their view.

I am not here to argue evolution. Why? Because in the discussion of Christianity and God I feel it does not matter. I’ve known many Christians who believe in evolution. That’s fine, I see nothing wrong with that. I believe an intelligent Christian has a better possibility of finding the truth of such subjects. Why? Because they don’t discount information simply because it points to the possibility that God exists. An atheist scientists must only focus on ways to explain God out of the equation. The Christian can believe in God and evolution at the same time.

So I guess you just have to decide if your going to follow a group that is dedicated to explaining God out of the equation. Or decide to use your brain and not factor things out simply because they don’t fit the narrative of the scientific community.

And to all…. if the logic of my example has flaws, please point them out. I am always willing to accept and eager to find the flaws of my own logic. Even if we want to or don’t want to believe in God, we should be willing to admit when we don’t have the answers. Neither side seems to want to do that.

Ken Miller’s book was fascinating in that he is a professed Catholic and still believes that life could have started 100% naturalistically here on earth. I find this fascinating as all-get-out….. I remember as I read his book that I felt an almost overwhelming sense of “awe” at a God that could have done this, but after the buzz wore off, it leaves me seriously questioning again.

It does almost feel like the more we think we learn about physical reality, the less blatantly obvious God becomes. In Ken’s book, he said that one of his priests (when he was a kid) use to pick up a flower and make a statement like “but on one can ever explain the mystery behind a creation such as this”. In his mind (as a boy), I think he was in awe at remarks like this, but as he grew up and became a biologist, he discovered that there were naturalistic explanations to these “mysteries” of life.

But, in my own “layman’s mind”, this still baffles the living poop out of me. I just can’t even picture or truly appreciate a several hundred million year time period. But (once again) from my own “layman’s mind”, I see really simple life forms in the deep geologic layers and as we come up closer and closer to our time, the life forms seem to get increasingly more complex. So, this suggests to us (and to me) that life “evolved” from smaller/simpler forms to the more complex forms that we see today. But even then, I would expect to see literally millions of weird transitional forms. In fact, I would almost expect just about every fossil found to be some weird transitional form that ultimately would lead to the forms that we see today. Now, with that said, I really haven’t the slightest clue if that’s what scientists honestly see in the fossil record or not. The Christian propaganda engine would lead us to believe “not”……. But………

I know that Gould is the one that suggested punctuated equilibrium (at least I think he was the one) because they mostly see stasis in the fossil record, punctuated by blips of speciation. This (once again) is a 100% naturalistic explanation for the evolution of life and I’m good with that. So, why am I blabbing? Well, I don’t really know…. I just find this whole historical evolution thing as a simple response to how all of this crazy life came to be, still lacking in some way, but I just can’t articulate it……

Perhaps you can help fill in some of the blanks for me……. For example, are there any really good books for understanding the true realities of the fossil record, so that I don’t get these crazy/weird creationist/christianeese slants? Perhaps a good layman’s explanations for the true realities of the fossil record so that I can perhaps look at the evidence myself so that things will become clear (once and for all)?

Jason