Well folks, as much as you may not like it. I'm back :D
And I've decided to make this monthly blog rather serious and heavy. I apologize but there won't be much of a personal update, but suffice to say I'm so busy that I'm close to breakdown, but not close enough. So here we go.
After more subconcious thought than I realized(I didn't even know that I was thinking about it) I have made my final decision in regards to evolution and Christianity. The decision is this on both theological and scientific grounds there can be NO peace between evolution and Christianity. And I can see you faces now. I can see you preparing to ignore the rest of this post. Shuffling me aside along with the hundreds of other mindless Christian sheep who work with beliefs built on blind faith and no source. Let me reassure you that I am not one of those people. I am a science and engineering major. My mindset is inherently set against the phrase "thats just the way it is" I cannot accept this as an explanation for why anything works much less something as important as whether I am a blob of chemical reactions for the purpose of procreating DNA or whether I am a special creation made in the image of a transcendent creator. I ahve spent the better part of my entire education studying research, reading books and listening to arguements on both sides of the issue from science and from theology. I will defend my decision in a very short form seperately in the rest of this blog.
Evolution from a scientific perspective reached its peak in the mid to late 1950's with the Miller/Urey experiment that showed that electricity witht eh right atmosphere could create amino acids which are referred to as "the building blocks of life". This experiment sent a shockwave through the scientific community as it was seen as proof that there was a way that life could arise from non-living manner. However even with the major jolt of energy that was put into the modern evolutionary movement at that point the science reached a plateau around that time and when the biochemical, structural and genetic components of the cell began to be examined the science began to decline. Instead of life getting simpler as scientists moved towards "simpler, older" organisms they found the opposite in fact many of the "Archaebacteria"(thought to be the oldest forms of life) were in fact much more complicated than other more "advanced" organisms. In fact as research came in increasingly that the chemical reactions at a cellular level required a level of sophistication that could not possibly have evolved via a Darwinian method, if became more and more obvious that instead of science (which is empirical testing and hypothesying from the gathered evidence) had been replaced with a philosophy known as "naturalism". Naturalism is a belief system, NOT science. It declares that everything has a natural explanation, it assumes this from the beginning of every experiment and every archeological dig. This means that instead of following where the evidence leads they instead make a hypothesis before they even look at the data and interpret the data to best fit their predefined idea of what the outcome should be. This is poor science at best and unethical hypocrisy at worst. The publishing of "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe who is not a creationist nor at the time associated with anything other than mainstream scientific culture used his studies in biochemistry and Darwin's own statements about the theory of evolution and the requirements for its ultimate failure, he proposed the idea of an "irreducibly complex" system. An irreducibly complex system is a system in which at a fundamental level cannot be simplified any further without loss of function. If any one part is missing the system is nonfunctional and useless. Since there is no way to develop an irreducibly complex system through a series of small changes to a different system or adding small parts to a new system, it proves that an irreducibly complex system CANNOT develop from darwinian methods. This may sound simplistic but in each and every cell in your bodies there are multiple trillions of examples of this at work. DNA base pair production is a multiprotein complex that has hundreds of neccessary proteins and chemicals to function properly. The production of ATP(which is the energy source for every cell in your body) requires a protein complex with over 40 proteins in jsut the main protein not counting the associated proteins or chemicals. These systems are everywhere and utterly inexplicable by any naturalistic means. There is a growing movement in mainstream science to split science and naturalism. To let the data speak for itself and accept whatever answer it points to....even if that is Design. As a student of Biochemistry and an avid reader I have analyzed the research, the theories, the hypothesis and the results for myself and I know that there is NO other explanation for life on this planet except Design by a Designer who is a far better scientist and far better engineer than I could ever hope to be. For any of you at TTU who read this and are irritated or agitated, contact me and I'll be more than willing to sit down and talk through your objections.
Now for the harder part. Theologically evolution is NOT a viable belief for a Christian. First off evolution does not regardless of what you have been told, "leave room for God" . Evolution in the scientific community is a naturalistic discipline. God is not only not an answer but any explanation that includes him is immeadiately thought to be wrong no matter how telling the data. Secondly, the "day-age" theory that God used evolution as the means for creation and therfore there is no arguement between Christians and evolution. There are multiple reasons why this is not viable. First the idea that the days in Genesis are in reality "ages" long periods of time in which evolution occured is simpleminded. The word used for "day" in thsoe verses is used ONLY for day meaning one sunrise to one sunset never for a period of time much less an epoch or two. Second problem with day age theory is that at some point in history God had to put his spirit into some hominids to create mankind, not only does this not show anywhere in Genesis, but is in direct opposition to the account of human creation in Genesis. Thirdly the day age theory leaves no room for sin. If evoltuion wa the means to creation it means that when God says "It is Good" He would be speaking of a world created upon the bodies of untold trillions of animals and millions of hominids to create man. The Bible says that death entered the world with Adam's sin not beforehand. This means that unless something very strange is going on then all those animals died when ti was not possible for them to die, maybe they jsut hung around for a few billion years until the hominid named adam ate an apple that he wasn't supposed to and then they all died at once. Sarcasm aside this whole arguement can be summed up in one simple way. Is God a liar or not? Is the Bible written by people who heard from God over 2000 years or is it jsut a complitation of stories from 2000 years allegory and tall tales? The question breaks down to either Genesis tells the story of creation like it happened or it doesn't. And since the Genesis account is completely at odds with modern evoltuionary theory it comes to you either believe that evolution is true and Genesis is a liar or evolution is a lie and Genesis is truth. Notwithstanding the fact that the Bible says "Let God be true and every man a liar", you can also tie in the fact that for a Christian their entire SALVATION rests on the idea that the Bible is in fact the unedited truth. Our salvation rests on Jesus being God jsut like the Bible says, it rests on him dying and rising again, just like the Bible says. So if the Bible is lying about Genesis and even though its a lie says "All scripture is God-breathed and suitable for everything." Then what can convince you that the stories of Jesus aren't lies as well? What reason is there to believe that Jesus wasn't jsut allegory that he really was just a rabbi from a nondescript town 2000 years ago. The whole issue of the Christians faith rests on the authenticity of the Bible, including everything from cover to cover. To throw away the beginning because a group of biased atheists tell you it can't be true is not only foolish but mistrusting of God. God is the Creator of everything. He did it the way he said he did. After Adam and Eve screwed up He made a plan to redeem his creation. He sent his son to die for us to save us. He is coming back for us one of these days (hopefully sooner rather than later) and He will fix all of the things that are wrong and set up a kingdom and creation that will be incorruptible and unending. Evolution is as incompatible with Christianity as oil and water. It shows one of two things in a Christian, lack of trust in God or ignorance. And for those of you who are now pissed enough at me to want to injure me I ask that you first go and do the research, talk to a theology profesor over at Wayland ask him about Biblical authenticity. Talk to someone in the classics department about text authentication, learn that the Bible is more verifiable than any text written before 1700 AD. Being a Christian has NEVER meant giving up your mind. In fact Christians everywhere should be called to a higher development of critical thought and analysis. "Love the Lord your GOD with all your Heart, Soul, MIND and Strength."
Coming from a "finally got that off my chest" - Ferris :D
P.S. for those of you TTU students who want to talk feel free to call or IM or come over. For those of you on Tblog reading this give me a comment and I'll start a private conversation.
