| [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Thread Index] | [Date Prev] | [Date Next] | [Date Index] |
Dear Paleonetters,
I am an uneducated nobody who likes to think. I like to understand how
everything works and how it came about. I was brought up on creationism and
virtually all my acquaintance are still creationists. I have always taken
religion seriously. I became interested in fossils and ancient life when I
was quite small through my
first ABC book having X for E-X-tinct animal with a picture of a Dinosaur.
Life for me has been full of stress because doing and saying things I don't
understand has always made me feel uncomfortable. For much of my life I had
worries about the existence of God and over the creation-evolution
problem. It is only in the latter part of my life that these matters seem
to be coming clear. It seems to me that when we clearly understand things
they tend to become simple and obvious. I think if we want to understand the
first thing is to make sure we know what we are talking about.
I think I now need people who are prepared to take a square look at things
and see if they can find any serious flaws in my thinking. Since you have
been on about the creation-evolution problem for a while now I thought I
might contribute my solution to the problem. I hope I'm not cluttering up
Paleonet with something nobody is interested in. If I am would you please
delete it. At least I think my ideas might be a little different to the
usual.
Those of you who have trouble with creationist students might like to
challenge them to prove me wrong
Peter Hosier from down under.
The Creation Evolution Problem
It seems to me that words accumulate extraneous meanings over the years
because people fail to check that they correctly understand. As I have come
to see it the whole creation/evolution problem is based on the confusion
this results in. If we get back to the fundamental meanings of the words
'create' and 'evolve' there is no contradiction in fact it is not possible
to have creation without evolution. The word 'create' means 'to cause to
exist'. The word 'evolve' means 'to change gradually'. I think people also
have a very vague and confused idea of the God of the Bible. The word 'god'
means 'object of worship'. Worship means 'to attribute supreme value'.
Therefore 'god' is a title referring to the value we place on the object we
worship. The object of worship of the Bible as I understand it is as the
Bible says - truth. Not historic facts but eternal truth things that go on
from generation to generation without change. The only things that I know of
that apparently do that are abstract things - space, time and the laws of
nature. It seems to me that if we have these three things creation is
inevitable. If this is so then the God of the Bible is the creator and if He
never changes as the Bible says Malachi 3: 6 creation must be going on all
the time. Since creating produces change evolution must be a continuing
process as a result of creation.
I think Darwin would have agreed that evolution is not our creator all on
its own. There has to be something already in existence before evolution can
take place. As I see it Darwin need not have given up the idea of God. In
fact he devoted his whole life to searching out truth. To me that is real
worship what religious people do is play with empty words. Read the parable
of the two sons Matthew 21: 28-32 in the light of this. Darwin was obviously
confused about God I suppose because his teachers were confused just as our
religious teachers still are today. It seems to me that unless we take the
trouble to clearly understand these things the creation-evolution argument
will go on forever and ever.
It seems to me that people who call themselves Christians are so cock sure
of themselves that it is impossible for them to take a square look at the
matter. This to me amounts to pride. Pride, as I understand it is the
opposite of humility. The word 'Christian' means 'follower of Christ'. He
taught that we should be very humble and that anyone who is not very humble,
Matthew 18: 1-4 will not see the kingdom of heaven so are they really
following Christ? Will they end up being the goats in the parable of the
sheep and goats Matthew 25: 31-46? Perhaps the Darwinians will be the sheep!
How do we reconcile these ideas with the story of creation in the Bible?
That is the problem that bothered me for years. It was in the early 70s that
I got to understand evolution and realized it was a reality and therefore
had to somehow fit with the creation story in the Bible. It was when I was
reading a book about languages quite a few years later the idea came to me
that the story of Babel in the Bible might be a preacher's story
illustrating the danger of confusing the meanings of words. It didn't take
long then to realize that the story of Noah's flood might illustrate the
danger of God's judgment, which if He never changes is always the same, and
since it covers the mountains we can't get away from it. Then I thought what
if I read the creation story the same way? If creation is also a continuing
process then trying to put a date on it as Bishop Ussher did is nonsense!
According to 2 Timothy 3: 16 all scripture is lessons. How can we get
lessons from anything if we don't see it as illustrating or demonstrating
the laws of nature? As I see it now reading the Bible as history is getting
side tracked from the Bible's real purpose and therefore is bound to lead to
misunderstanding. I suspect that the writers of the Bible didn't care two
hoots about history. That may be one reason why there are discrepancies in
the Bible another may be that they deliberately modified history to suit the
lesson they had in mind, as I believe preachers still do today. I don't
doubt that there is history in the Bible but recording history is not the
purpose of the Bible.
In the light of these conclusions I don't doubt that we did evolve as Darwin
suggested and that this evolution is the result of God's continuing work as
creator. Its really just a matter of knowing what God is and what the words
create and evolve mean.
Does this fit reality better than religious tradition?
Can anyone prove me wrong anywhere?
Peter C. Hosier
January 10, 2005
----- Original Message -----
From: JAMES STJOHN <stjohn.2@osu.edu>
To: <paleonet@nhm.ac.uk>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 3:37 AM
Subject: paleonet Genesis
> Dear Paleonetters,
>
> It's not necessary for everyone in the world to understand evolution, but
I do think that it's necessary for everyone in the world to be taught how to
engage in critical thinking. This would likely clear up many problems.
>
> Best,
>
> JSJ
>
> ________________________________
>
> James St. John
> Founders Hall 156A
> 1179 University Drive
> Ohio State University at Newark
> Newark, Ohio 43055 USA
> _________________________________
>
>
>
>
Partial index: