A Christian blog (yes I occasionally look at those too) recently touted a list of stumpers to ask the evolutionist in your life. These gotcha questions are supposed to shut down any lingering doubts on the invalidity of evolution. I decided to take the creationtoday.org test myself to see if my non-belief would come falling down around me. From: 10 Questions to Ask Evolutionists http://creationtoday.org/ten-questions-for-evolutionists/ 1. Where did the space for the universe come from? Space is a vast emptiness with the occasional bits of matter (relatively speaking) interrupting its enormous reach. It is in essence nothingness. So you are saying God created the nothingness? Maybe He created a lack of something? 2. Where did matter come from? We don’t know exactly. We have theories based on some pretty solid observations, the Big Bang for example. Then this unsatisfied blogger would then ask,“who created the Big Bang?”. You might as well ask who created God too. 3. Where did the laws of the universe come from (gravity, inertia, etc.)? Confusion of cause and effect. Calling them the “Laws of the Universe” is an archaic flashback to a time when science attempted to explain religion and the Bible was an acceptable scientific source. It’s not. The earth is not flat. Germs, not demons, cause pathological disease. “Laws of the Universe” presupposes a design or a plan. They should be rightly called “Properties of the Universe” because they just happen to be how things work. It’s like asking why an orange is…well…orange. I guess because God decided not to make it purple. 4. How did matter get so perfectly organized? Matter is not so perfectly organized. A lot of what’s observed does not have purpose or make sense. It just is. The question implies that Intelligent Design nonsense that the Dover School Board tried selling the gullible public a few years back. That didn’t hold up in the court of reason either. For that matter, life is not perfectly organized as well. You can point to a throng of examples, junk DNA, the backward engineering of our eyes, disease mutations, etc. 5. Where did the energy come from to do all the organizing? This presumes that energy is here to organize. Yes, it does take energy to organize matter. But I refer to my last answer – it just is. There’s no evidence for an organizer or an energy maker. To try to assign intention to every flicker and fart is just the hopeful nonsense of some people’s need for purpose. Somewhere between now and Einstein’s time, a theologian came up with the idea that God was the energy in E=MC~2 equation. God created matter and somehow the speed of light was involved. Einstein’s equation evolved (excuse the word) into scientific “proof” of the creator’s existence. 6. When, where, why, and how did life come from non-living matter? Once again, we are not sure. There are three major theories that have laboratory support, but nothing concrete. We don’t know. We think the first cell (the protocell) developed about 3.6 billion years ago. But being soft ephemeral single-celled organisms, they didn’t leave a lot of evidence behind. Creationists have but one answer, God did it. It’s simple, it’s convenient, and there’s no way to prove it. When asked to defend the nonsense in their Bibles or the cruel apathy of God, creationists can cop out by saying we don’t know God’s plan and we are not supposed to. 7. When, where, why, and how did life learn to reproduce itself? This is a repeat of number 6. 8. With what did the first cell capable of sexual reproduction reproduce? What? Are we looking for genitalia here? You naughty creationists! Sexual reproduction begins with the exchange of genetic information between two separate organisms of the same species. It developed in the early oceans with advancements in eukaryotic cells. This was an evolutionary leap as the exchange of DNA gave offspring an assortment of genes to deal with their changing environment. As strategies to transfer genes to others in the species developed, some animals eventually sported more advanced delivery systems (e.g. the penis and vagina). Even some bacteria “do it” via hair-like pilli in what is called conjugation. Single-celled organisms reproduce by copying their genetic information, building up materials and then splitting in two. This process is advanced or hindered by the available resources. How the very first cell reproduced is a matter for conjecture fed by loads of laboratory evidence to suggest different means. 9. Why would any plant or animal want to reproduce more of its kind since this would only make more mouths to feed and decrease the chances of survival? (Does the individual have a drive to survive, or the species? How do you explain the origin of reproduction?) Plants and animals don’t want (anthropomorphic bastardization) to reproduce and can’t see the big picture. Evolution tweaks (again with the anthropomorphic language) DNA not for the survival of the individual, but for the survival of the species. Genes are passed on which make successive generations better able to adapt to the challenges of competition, changes in their environment, predation, etc. Natural selection weeds out the less genetically fit and unlucky. As far as the origin of reproduction, again, see number 6. 10. How can mutations (recombining of the genetic code) create any new, improved varieties? (Recombining English letters will never produce Chinese books.) This is intellectually insulting as it’s an apples and oranges argument – it makes no sense. First of all genetic code runs on the same four nucleotides (A’s, G’s, C’s and T’s). A mutation is a change in the arrangement of those same letters. Of course recombining English letters will never produce Chinese books. You can recombine English letters to create Spanish or French books – all three languages use the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Chinese books use a completely different set of characters. And once and for all, evolution is not a theory. It’s an observable fact, reproducible in the lab. Some of its tenets are theories only because we haven’t discovered the answers yet. Science is a dynamic, self-policing and self-correcting process through which we become more knowledgeable, unlike religion. |
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In the Beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth over an unfathomably long period of time; and the Earth was round and not the center of the Universe.
And the Lord said, “Let there be light!” and gases gathered in one place and under immense weight and pressure created light. God made small invisible creatures which cause disease. Marrying your cousin is not a good thing. Bad stuff is going to happen sometimes – I’m not always paying attention. If something good happens, you can assume it was me. Go ahead and give thanks. You can ask for things, but you’re not always got to get them. This is called Tough Love. I don’t care about sports. You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. This is an allegory. You don’t need flies. Some people are going to look and act differently. It’s okay. God so loved the world He gave his only begotten son and nobody got killed in His name. Slavery is wrong. Period. No exceptions. No excuses. (You won’t find that in the original Bible). The 10 commandments #1 Be good to others who are good to you. #2 Don’t be stupid. #3 Don’t be a jerk, a jackass, a prick, a bastard or a tool. #4 Take it easy at least one day a week. #5 Thou shalt not be a sycophant. I don’t need my ass kissed. I know my limitations and feel good about myself. #6 Honor thy son and daughter. Let them think for themselves. Give them enough love and respect to make them good people. #7 Keep the planet clean because I created it so. #8 Don’t eat anything that smells bad. #9 Don’t lie unless you have to. Think white lies and that Anne Frank thing. Refer to #3. #10 You don’t have to tithe. God doesn’t need money. Religion should not be an open-ended jobs program. I’d end it with some tips about good hygiene and eating right. |