[GCFL-discuss] Designing Intelligence

[gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net]

You are correct. Teaching that "Accidental Evolution" is science is quite
as dogmatic as prohibiting a science teacher from teaching evolution at
all. I don't believe it is true that any science is dominated by the view
that evolution is an accident -- but there are plenty of individuals who
say that. Although, there are plenty of non-scientists willing to grab a
few words they find convenient, and SAY that is is "science."

Any competent science class should teach, for instance, that if the
strong or weak nuclear forces were any stronger or weaker than they are,
hydrogen fusion would be impossible, and there would be no stars, let
along life. Also, if there were not a certain very specific resonance
between certain elements, and not between certain other elements, stars
either wouldn't make oxygen, would make too much deuterium, or would turn
all the carbon into oxygen, all of which would make life impossible. It
should stop right there. Then, let the pastors and rabbis and priests
teach that it seems there was some conscious being at work setting it all
to work just right.

When I started trying to put science into a scriptural context, instead
of using science to "prove" or "disprove" the authority of scripture, it
is amazing how accurately Genesis anticipates what science has identified
in the last few decades. Do you know any other origin story that begins
with a big burst of light? How did Moses know that, when it happened 13
billion years ago? Most creation stories begin with mud being brought up
from the depths of the ocean. But how did the ocean get there? Moses said
 "the earth was without form and void" which is certainly what cosmology
tells us in some detail. Genesis doesn't actually say when the earth was
formed -- a minor detail to the original relator of the story no doubt.

Even evolution -- I can't remember if I posted this earlier in our
discussion: Genesis says "let the waters bring forth the living thing
that hath life." If doesn't say "then Elohim made sharks and barracudas
and kelp." It starts with the basic creation of the cell -- another
unlikely coincidence unless someone was setting the molecules in place to
work in long coded strands. Genesis does specifically mention "then
Elohim made great whales" -- but whales were MADE long AFTER life began
in the seas, in fact, evolving from land mammals (no mammals began in the
seas) and returning TO the seas -- and that Elohim MADE "all the things
that the waters brought forth." How did Moses get the general outlines of
evolution 3500 years before Darwin?

Well, that's enough length to run on at. But its all there. Just don't
ask a scientist to prove it. There is no proof. Take what science can
deduce, and go pray about what it all means in the larger scheme of
things.

Siarlys