It started a lot of good conversation. What do YOU think about these questions?
- Is science good or bad?
- What is the role of science?
- Should we trust in science?
- Is belief in God a weakness?
- What are the problems with Stanley Miller's 1953 experiment?
- What are the problems with Darwin's "Tree of Life"?
You guys had some great answers! There were two topics that came up that I think were a surprise to many of you.
#1 - The Big Bang isn't in itself incompatible with God's creation
Scientists have observed that planets and stars appear to be moving away from us in all directions. I think this is cool! This implies that at some point, everything that exists was in one place. And when it was in that place is when it came to be. So, when we say "God spoke it into being", is it possible that it was a big deal? Could it have made some noise and caused some disruption? I think so! I think the thing that scientists call "The Big Bang" is simply proof that God made a whole lot of stuff happen in an instant, and it completely changed history.
#2 - God uses evolution
I'm not talking about the evolution you read about in your science textbooks. I'm not talking about chickens turning into monkeys and fish turning into people. That is something called macro-evolution. This is a silly idea for a lot of reasons! Here are just a few we learned about today:
- In all of the experiments that have been done trying to create life, people used ingredients. Where did those ingredients come from?!
- In all of the experiments, a scientist is conducting the experiment. If life started up all by itself, why is the scientist needed?!
- In the fossil record, we see all kinds of creatures that all enter the scene in what they call "The Cambrian Explosion". They are all the animals we are familiar with now! Where did they come from? Why don't we see a few animals that gradually turn into lots of other kinds of animals?
So how does God use evolution? Have you ever watched a dog show? Have you seen how many breeds there are?! And they are breeding new ones still today. They are all related, and all came from the same source, and this happened over time. Sometimes people breed things, and sometimes it happens naturally. People combine plants to come up with new fruit trees. Fish get trapped in a ship's ballast and get transplanted to a new habitat where they learn to survive differently. All these are called micro-evolution. Don't confuse this with macro evolution. God made one pair of humans, and from them we have the many races of people we see today. Similarly, he probably made one pair of wolves that turned into all the types of dogs we see today. One pair of birds, one pair of butterflies, etc... So - God created like he said. Creatures can change over time to respond to their environment (micro-evolution). But creatures don't turn into different types of creatures (macro-evolution)!
