Ok, so my best friend, who is a Christian, and I got into an argument about, go figure, creationism vs evolutionism. Anyone who has ever mentioned the word evolution to a Christian knows how Christians (or at least the greater majority of them) feel about evolution – it’s wrong, it’s against God, etc. So I proposed a perfectly logical middle ground. We were created to evolve. That was met with a head shake as though I just don’t get it. No, I get it.
You see, I get that Darwin could have been wrong – and that the scientific proof that has been discovered could be wrong. I also get that quite frankly, we *could* all be wrong in thinking that there *is* a higher power. Not saying that I believe there isn’t a higher power, but saying that the possibility is *there* that one does not exist. Therefore I believe it is prudent to say that we were created to evolve.
Believers cannot and will not deny that there is a higher power who created us, be it the Christian version of God, the Pagan/Wiccan Goddess, Allah, or whoever. Scientists cannot refute the proof that has been uncovered that evolution has occurred. So…. we were created to evolve. It’s simple, yet so hard for people to grasp.
They say the human mind is unable to grasp the idea that Deity has *always* been there. That Deity *is* and *always will be* there. Ok, so apparently the very idea that Deity might have just created everything, then sat back and said “let me/us see how they change, how they evolve…physically, mentally, and spiritually” is another idea that the human mind is unable to grasp. The very idea that we were created but created in such a way that we could and did evolve, is so large and so mind blowing that very few people are able to actually deal with the fact that it could be.
What is your stand on creation vs evolution? We were created? Did we evolve? Or was it a bit of both?
What you are trying to express is some form of directed evolution. And that goes agaisnt the central principles of evolutionary theory: that it is a blind, algorithmic process. Of course, we could be wrong about it, but it certainly does not appear to be so at this point. What all living (and some non-living) entities share is the feature of *evolvability*. It seems to be an underlying principle of this Universe, and I suppose one can make a theological defense of it.
As far as the “controversy”, there isn;t one. Your creationist friend should be made aware of the simple fact that creationism as expressed within world’s religious traditions, as well as ID, are utter claptrap. Our thinking about evolution may change in the future (see the resurgence of group-evolutionary thought recently, and levels of selection), but the fundamental idea is here to stay…
I do not believe that evolution is a blind, algorithmic process. It’s impossible to believe that – because evolution is too perfect. Only some species have evolved – most notably (with the exception of humans which to me are arguably the most dangerous of all creatures – after all we are the ones destroying the planet), the ones that are most dangerous (dinosaurs anyone?) are no longer around…they never had the chance to evolve and this is probably a good thing – at least for us.
However there IS a controversy over it and to believe otherwise is to be sadly out of touch with reality. There has been controversy over creationism and evolution since evolution was first introduced by Darwin. The fundamental ideas of both sides are here to stay and it is up to each individual to decide how they feel about it.
Um, there is nothing perfect about evolution. As someone (Dobzhansky? perhaps…) had said, “We could be engineered much better”. Once you start looking at specific imperfections (the bass-ackward design of the mammalian eye; the incredibly poor design of the spine, etc) you realize that evolution is a tinkerer: it makes do with what is available, and does not have any specific goal in mind.
Of course, all species evolved, and al species keep evolving, all the time. Dinosaurs persisted for about 100 million years and there were tremendous changes in their anatomy over that time. We still have birds, which is about the closest to dinosaurs one gets.
An no: there is no more controversy over evolution as there is over whether objects fall to the ground when let go from a height. The fact that species evolve is about as well-established as the fact that the acceleration due to gravitational field of the earth at the surface is 9.81 m/s^2. Whether people believe it is the case or not makes no difference; whatever the controversy is, it is an artifact of ignorance and has nothing to do with reality. I agree that it is up to each individual to decide what to believe, but the simple facts of reality are NOT up to each individual. Everybody is free to hold whatever beliefs they want to, correct or not, and I reserve the right to call some of those beliefs idiotic, because they ARE and laugh at them. Creationism is one such. There are plenty others…:)