On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:40:56 -0000 "Paul Flewers" <[email protected]> writes: >
> > > I can't see why religious people, and I'm writing as an atheist of > several > decades standing, can't accept evolution, as there doesn't seem to > be any > contradiction between believing in a universal creator and > accepting > evolving life-forms. After all, if a universal-creating god is all > that he's > supposed to be, I can't see why he couldn't bring into being > evolving > life-forms. I think that there are at least of couple of reasons. One is that evolutionary theory takes away some of the theists' favorite arguments, namely, the arguments from design. Traditionally, theists have often liked to argue for the existence of a God on the grounds that since it is apparent that the world, especially living organisms, seem to be designed, that there must be a designer. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selections takes away, or at the very least seriously weakens that argument, since it shows how the apparently designed character of organic nature can be explained mechanistically in terms of unintelligent natural processes. Secondly, evolutionary theory would seem to reinforce the atheists's argument against the existence of God on account of the imperfect nature of the universe. Natural selection works to produce highly adapted living organisms at the costs of much waste and suffering. Lots of species after all go extinct. We are told that mutations are the source of the new variations upon which natural selection works, but most mutations are to the detriment of the organisms in which they appear. Only occasionally, do mutations turn out to be adaptive. Natural selections, but it is a very wasteful and often inefficient process. Presumably, an intelligent designer, with unlimited powers, could do much better. Jim F, > > Speaking of the Islamic world, the reporter on the Boston Globe > could have > looked next-door. Some time back, when the Jurassic Park film and > dinosaurs > were all the rage, the late South African Marxist Baruch Hirson > visited his > in-laws in Israel, and he told me that the frummer rabbis there were > up in > arms because a chocolate bar was being advertised with a dinosaur > illustration on the wrapper. Apparently, such beasts could not have > existed > as their claimed age put them living prior to the creation, and on > that > logic the chocolate bars were therefore not kosher. 'Are we really > living in > the twentieth century?', Baruch asked me, shaking his head sadly. > > Well, the US Christian right can look fondly at the Middle East. > It's > interesting, this ecumenical concordance on evolution. Muslim, > Jewish and > Christian hardliners can all stand united: when it's an agreement > about > something reactionary and stupid. > > Paul F > > > > > > ________________________________________________ > YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > Send list submissions to: [email protected] > Set your options at: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/farmelantj%40juno.com > > ____________________________________________________________ House Rescue Bill Passed $133,000 mortgage under $679/mo. Compare rates and save! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=9ayMDH4DdCavaU4bdtG98gAAJ1BRugI4sJACAWmXIev8NAFPAAQAAAAFAAAAAItwUD8AAAMlAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaTcQAAAAA= ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
