Monday, June 21, 2010

Did God Create Evolution?

One thing that is interesting to me about God is why He
bothered to create the fantastic diversity of life on this
world. I believe that the plants and animals that exist
today are mainly for our benefit, not only for the pure
enjoyment they give to nature buffs like myself, but also
for us to use as tools, hides, food, work animals, and
by-products.

Let me also state that it is my own personal belief that
there is no logical reason to separate evolution from
religion...whether living plants and animals evolved from
one thing or another, or whether they were just 'zapped'
into existence as they were, it still all came from God.

This is not meant to be a dissertation on whether or not Man
descended from the apes, or who Adam and Eve were. Even
though I talk a lot about God and religion, I am not trying
debate creation versus evolution, or whether humans were
created instantaneously or through a slow evolution.

All I am saying here is that evolution appears to be a
beautiful and experimental thing, and for it to happen at
all, it would need the powerful hand of God to control it.

The fossil records that we find often indicate that a life
form has just 'popped' into existence. In fact, even the
verbiage they use in the scientific articles...such and such
animal 'appeared' late in the Jurassic age, and then
'suddenly disappeared'...is telling. The remains that are
found often imply sudden appearance and disappearance of life
forms, with no 'missing links'.

I think I believe more in the 'Macro Evolution' theory...
in which species generally appear to have been created
spontaneously...but undergo smaller changes in their
physiology over a period of time in response to external
environmental factors.

For example, many bark moths of North America have always
been a very light color, which matched the color of the
bark of the trees they land on. Many of these trees in the
Northeast have, unfortunately due to pollution, darkened in
color, causing the light-colored moths to stand out easily,
and making them vulnerable to predators.

Small mutations have occurred where they have darkened their
color, which enables them to blend in to the discolored
trees more easily.

Okay, so why the vast diversity of life on our planet that
has taken billions of years to evolve? Since most of the
living things that have ever existed are now extinct, what's
the purpose of it all?
Why did God create the dinosaurs?

Quite simply, because He can! Remember, we are created in
God's image, which means we are like Him. And what do we
do? We try to create beautiful things...art, movies, music,
inventions...
We do it because we can, and we are using the small bits of
intelligence and talent that we have inherited from God.

He creates beauty to please Himself...and others...just as
we do...and to give us an insight into what the Nature of
God is like.

Peace be with you.

15 comments:

  1. What an inspirational post!
    What a great start to the week!
    May God's Grace always protect you, dear friend, and your
    precious family!
    Hope you have a great week ahead!

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  2. Such a nice post! I don't know what inspired it, but it's good! The world is really beautiful and there are so many things that we don't know or understand..so many things left to discover!

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  3. Lots of beauty in the world, indeed! I am amazed every day.....

    Thanks for this post, Joe!

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  4. Not being so religious these days I do believe in God. I have wondered the same things as you and as a scientist of sorts I do have some conflicts about the origin of things. In any event, when I observe beautiful landscapes, or watch a series like "Life" on Discovery or gaze into my children's beautiful faces I know there are higher powers. I like your take on the whole thing being about creating beautiful things. I just have to wonder about all the ugliness out there...which is in most cases generated by humans and perpetuated by them. In that way we have lost sight of what God intended. What comes to mind is the horrific oil spill I must watch nightly on the news. What were we as humans thinking when we violated the very beauty you describe above?

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  5. I've always wondered why so many people couldn't let creationism and evolution co-exist. I don't believe they're mutually exclusive either.

    Nice post! I like the way you look at the world.

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  6. I definitely believe in creationism, but, I do think some life forms are evolving in certain ways and this is of course under the direction of God. As far as we came from a tadpole...NOT! That's where I draw the line. Have humans changed form in recorded history? NO not one iota!
    Nice post.

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  7. I think evolution is all about adaptation. Adapt and evolve, or become extinct. I believe God created it all, just not sure why he gave us free will. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

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  8. "All I am saying here is that evolution appears to be a beautiful and experimental thing, and for it to happen at all, it would need the powerful hand of God to control it."

    The mechanisms of evolution include natural selection, genetic drift, and sexual selection. A god fairy's magic wand is not a mechanism of evolution.

    You're right about evolution being a beautiful idea. Evolution has something else going for it that's extremely important: the basic facts of evolution (including our close evolutionary relationship with chimps) are the strongest facts of science. Evolution is true (and there's nothing theistic about it).

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  9. Great Post Joe,

    In a nutshell as you pointed out "it still all came from God" and that is just the way it is.

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  10. Human ape...Kristy's comment said it the best:

    I've always wondered why so many people couldn't let creationism and evolution co-exist. I don't believe they're mutually exclusive either.

    Evolution or Creationism...it still came from God.
    If you don't believe in God, I won't argue with you, I will never convince you, just as you will never convince me otherwise. But peace be with us all anyway!

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  11. The evolution theory is absolutely incompatible with Genesis. You, and about all others, have not been taught the correct rendition of Genesis chapter one, and therefore you end up compromising with the foolish theories of secular science in an effort to establish a belief in some form of creationism.

    Young Earth creationism is false, and fails to adhere to the correct literal interpretation of scripture. Also, all current “old Earth” creationism is false, and does not give the correct rendition of Genesis, which is the focal point of your conversation. Genesis is correct, and to learn what it is saying, you must refer to someone who is an expert in this area…, and at present, there is only one expert.

    So before making more false statements, find out the facts first. The truth of Genesis can be found by examining the “Observations of Moses”, of which the world of creationism is too stubborn to learn.

    Herman Cummings
    Ephraim7@aol.com

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  12. Whoa, hold on there, Jethro! If you read my post, you would have seen:

    "I think I believe more in the 'Macro Evolution' theory...in which species generally appear to have been created spontaneously...but undergo smaller changes in their physiology over a period of time in response to external environmental factors."

    Which means I tend to believe less in actual evolution, and lean toward creationism.

    And then YOU say:
    "Young Earth creationism is false, and fails to adhere to the correct literal interpretation of scripture. Also, all current “old Earth” creationism is false..."

    So which is it?
    I personally believe the earth is old, billions of years...but was created by God. But that is just my opinion...which is what blogging is.

    So I am not sure what your point was.

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  13. By the way, just for the record... I believe in the creationism, by God, and then things began evolving to adapt, afterward. Just came back to make that clear.

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  14. I remember learning about evolution in Catholic school and the nuns telling us it was science and that it was our right to know.

    FourthGradeNothing.com

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  15. Ms. A...you put it exactly the way I feel!
    I just was not able to say it as clearly as you, thank you!

    This was not meant to be a religious debate...just random musing about the wonders of creation.

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