Hm I’m always a bit surprised about the opposition to evolution in religious circles. Evolution is fairly well documented, so it’s as a real phenomenon as anyone can think of. This means that the a literal interpretation of the Bible’s history of Creation can’t be true, so God’s chroniclers got some of the details wrong. Big deal. That sort of thing happens all the time.
However if one assumes the existence of evolution this also means that evolution was one of the tools available for God when implementing the actual mechanisms of Creation. So if one admits that the chroniclers got it wrong then one opens up the possibility that God was even more clever than previously thought. Why can’t the religious people accept this type of thinking, and many of them obviously can’t? I can’t understand why :-)
My own thoughts on the matter is that since science describes the world as best we know it, but that explanation is incomplete. If God exists, then He must exist within the frame we paint with science. One possible place where He could actually be hiding is within quantum fluctuations :-) The equations describing the universe is currently quite simple and seems to be getting simpler as we learn more. However, most of the variation we see in the universe seems to be originating from the randomness inherent in quantum mechanics. Not explicitly described by the equations, but following the equations nonetheless. If God could manipulate that randomness in quantum systems, that would give Him more than enough freedom to influence the universe as only a deity should be able to without breaking a single law of physics.
How to construct a religion that incorporates this, and also allows for what is known about science to change (as it will), and has universal appeal for people who wish to use religious explanations in all manners of situations, that still remains a challenge :)
Hm I’m always a bit surprised about the opposition to evolution in religious circles. Evolution is fairly well documented, so it’s as a real phenomenon as anyone can think of. This means that the a literal interpretation of the Bible’s history of Creation can’t be true, so God’s chroniclers got some of the details wrong. Big deal. That sort of thing happens all the time.
However if one assumes the existence of evolution this also means that evolution was one of the tools available for God when implementing the actual mechanisms of Creation. So if one admits that the chroniclers got it wrong then one opens up the possibility that God was even more clever than previously thought. Why can’t the religious people accept this type of thinking, and many of them obviously can’t? I can’t understand why :-)
My own thoughts on the matter is that since science describes the world as best we know it, but that explanation is incomplete. If God exists, then He must exist within the frame we paint with science. One possible place where He could actually be hiding is within quantum fluctuations :-) The equations describing the universe is currently quite simple and seems to be getting simpler as we learn more. However, most of the variation we see in the universe seems to be originating from the randomness inherent in quantum mechanics. Not explicitly described by the equations, but following the equations nonetheless. If God could manipulate that randomness in quantum systems, that would give Him more than enough freedom to influence the universe as only a deity should be able to without breaking a single law of physics.
How to construct a religion that incorporates this, and also allows for what is known about science to change (as it will), and has universal appeal for people who wish to use religious explanations in all manners of situations, that still remains a challenge :)