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How do you (and other religious posters) deal with things like evolution? I honestly harbor no ill will towards religious people, but the one thing I've never been able to figure out is how obviously smart, educated people can reconcile the two.
By that, I mean having faith in God means his word is absolute, right? So Genesis must be the end all be all of creation. But science has so much evidence when it comes to evolution that it's pretty much concrete.
So, if you believe in evolution but not Genesis, you're picking and choosing. It's the same the other way around too. Either way it's hypocritical.
So how do you reconcile the two?End Quote?
Where did the Lord say Solar Days? He's a pretty good engineer, so where did he say he didn't experiment a bit? So he sent a Tunguska event along when he got tired of bird brains in dinosaurs. Ok, I'm being satirical.
Seriously,
With work, parts of this get resolved. It takes years of study.
I have no issues with parts of Evolution. Natural Selection works! Animals and plants morph, adapt, and become extinct. Kind of hard to deny the Peppered Moth's selective breeding in response to the industrial revolution. Or the selective breeding of the Russian Fox studies. Or adaptation in Dogs so they can adopt us humans as social members of the pack. I can't turn a border collie back into a wolf with selective breeding.
There are 22 books not in the common English bible that are used by other Christian Sects that were not translated into English except until recently. One of them deals with extinction and Noah's flood. There are 7 others that are pretty much no longer accepted by anyone. The Book of Enoch takes care of a lot of Evolution's mysteries for me. I just learned of them and have not yet have had time to read them. I cant store all the data of a ~1100 page book in my head.
If the evolutionary biologist across from my lunch table goes on and on with his latest Evo research, I set there and listen. Heck sometimes I might even help him with his work. Do I, as a mere technician, stand up in the faculty lounge and challenge him, No! I may just hold him to a bit higher standard of proof. After all, it is just one of the many mainstream, theories of how life evolved.. Its a theory. If he uses that to change my local laws, and it affects my view of how society should be, I might just stand up at Town Hall and say something!
Nearly every religion has at least one deity, a creation story, laws and customs, and a set of commandments...
I long ago learned my Book, when interpreted literally, causes issues if not carefully studied. I in fact do not like very much the folks who attempt to force a certain view on all others. I try to lead people to faith by living as an example. I do expect people to obey a moral code and live in a way to benefit others. I'm not a front line warrior on the mysteries of evolution. After all, I've found a few tiny fossils in my driveway. The book is a serious set of rules, but it is a guideline, not an absolute.
Others of my faith do not like Theistic Evolution, where Creation happened then Evolution happened, but it sort of works for me.
I have to accept that some things are a mystery, that I will not understand until the end of my existence. What fun would it be if I knew all the secrets of the universe?
two things you have to think about when dealing with this from a faith viewpoint:
In my faith He gave us free will which lead to original Sin. Without free will we would just be robots, and this would not be pleasing to Him. While he's not happy with all that has happened since Free Will, he thinks its better for us to have it then the alternative. So I will make mistakes.
In my belief set I am forgiven for those mistakes, and if I sometimes have to use evolution vs my faith, it is unavoidable, often not my fault. On the scale of things that happen in life, having to accept some evolution to get along with others is far less of a sin, then say going out getting drunk, and cursing at my neighbor. He takes that into account, as I am NOT perfect. I'm forgiven for all but the worst of Sin. Yet actions have consequences. It took a lot of years of studying to understand that.
The second is that:
On the surface, most people think the Book is just a huge pile of stories and strict rules. The least educated in this use a few chapters to go out and force their beliefs on others. This happens in nearly all faiths, leading to strife. If your doing it right, you more or less over time get sort of a "Yoda" viewpoint and skill set, and know how to dodge the slings and arrows. Its a balancing act. A few years ago I learned that literal interpretation is often very wrong. I also do not accept infallibility in the translation. Especially after I had a few people read some Torah to me and heard the differences from what I use and the original source.
I see the planet and life as a well engineered, self correcting, stable system with a very high loop gain. I'm quoting Jurassic park here: "A Butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get Rain". Whom am I to understand why it all works?
There is just a minor difference in DNA encoding between most mammals . Hummingbird wing bones are obviously modified hands, not adapted arms like most bird wings. I see beauty and planning in that. I see a reuse of common structures and materials that shows obvious thought. So I try to learn how to accept what I cannot understand. It has a name, the "Mystery of Faith". Its un-resolvable by my puny brain.
You cannot resolve it, so you accept what you cannot resolve and try to just find beauty in life. Once in a while you have to act based on your beliefs.
Evolution says it does no good to jump on a grenade to save your fellow soldiers. Yet men will willingly do just that... Its a mystery.
This will be my last post on this subject, as we're drifting off course. But if you wonder why this thread is here, its a introductory lesson in Engineering Ethics. If you work with technology, you have SOME ethical duty of care to your fellow man. It is expected of you as a technologist to work in societies' best interest. Many of those ethics can be argued to have Judeo-Christian origins, at least in the Western World.
Baseline: "I will not tolerate those who lie, cheat, or steal. Nor associate with those who do"
Steve
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