>1) Do you believe in God? >2) Do subscribe to the theory of evolution? >3) Is it possible to answer yes to both question #1 and #2? >4) Can a true believer in God accept the theory of evolution? I think to answer some of those questions one might have to determine if you are referring to evolution alone or evolution as the origin of the species. JB
And is Einstein a mystic also because he is "convinced" by the existence of a "vivid consciousness" of "moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life" because he has some scientific knowledge about what the existence of Order in Universe implies ?
I'm glad you're on here, Harry. Because few of the big names seem to be the extreme materialism promulgated on these threads. Einstein, who you brought up, is a classic example: he would only align himself with the pantheistic Spinoza. Few of them were hard-liner materialists that would flippantly dismiss all agnosticism, deism, pantheism or other hybrids as idioitic and irrational...
Your example is satisfactory if you are interested in playing with semantics and have a limited understanding of what cell replication implies. When I stated that a living cell cannot be shown to create itself out of nothing, I mean specifically in the sense of a living cell constructing itself from prebiological material--not a cell replicating. Further, a cell that has replicated has not "built itself". The daughter cell that you claim has built itself is a constructed copy of the original cell. The daughter cell did not build itself. The two cells are not the same entity. Therefore the original cell cannot be said to have created itself. Did the egg create the chicken, or did the chicken create the egg? Which was there first? We are discussing evolution, are we not? At the heart of evolution is the belief that living organisms came into existence from non-living precursors. For cell replication to occur, a cell needs to exist. A fifth grader understands that a cell has instructions within its DNA that control its own replication. How did the first living cells come to arrange themselves without a prior cell to use as a template? If your demonstration of a living cell "building itself", were adequate, you would have solved the enigma of evolution. All living things by reproducing/replicating, are constantly coming into existence out of nothing, and could presumably have been around forever...
Quote from dgabriel: KFF, Lets' move on. I have a short questionnaire I hope you have the courage to answer. 1) Do you believe in God? yes 2) Do subscribe to the theory of evolution? no 3) Is it possible to answer yes to both question #1 and #2? yes 4) Can a true believer in God accept the theory of evolution? depends on which god they are a true believer of 5) Can the idea of intelligent design be reasonably incorporated into Darwinian evolution? there are many disciplines of darwinian evolution, but all seem to hold natural selection as the sole the driving force that gives rise to all new species. so, no. i think darwin would turn over in his grave if anyone tried to incorporate intelligent design into his theory. 6) Can one believe in intelligent design and not in God? of course
I am afraid that you do not understand evolution as biologists do. Evolution is a change in the gene pool of a population over time. Evolution is a fact. The implications are subject to interpretation. Best wishes, DG
If a change in the gene pool were by design of a Creator, would it still be evolution? Or would it just be a biological change according to plan?
so, evolution is interspecies not intraspecies. is this what you are trying to say ? devolution surfer