Origins TheologyForum for the discussion of Creation Science (Young/Old) vs Theistic Evolution. Discussion of Atheistic Evolution should be taken to the Discussion and Debate forums.
As Evolutionists, do you consider yourselves, or future man more evolved than Jesus?
The title asks the question. No one disputes Jesus living some 2000 years ago. As Evolutionists, do you believe that man of our time is more evolved than Jesus, a man of his time? Do you believe that future man will be more evolved than Jesus?
I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. I'll try to answer your question in an absolute sense. Take an average human generation at 20 years (which is surely an underestimate), then there have been 100 generations from Christ to now. The average rate of human mutation is 10^-8 per base pair per generation. Within a hundred generations, that means that on average my genome is different from that of a contemporary of Jesus by about 10^-6, or one part in a million.
So nope, I don't consider myself more evolved than Jesus, not that I know what you mean by "more evolved" in the first place.
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And who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? - Origen, 215AD [De Principiis 4.1.16]
More evolved and less evolved doesn't make much sense. In evolution, there's extinct and extant. Extinct creatures aren't less evolved, per say, but rather was not able to survive in their current environment. Take an extinct creature from ago and put them into current times, and they may thrive.
So to answer your question, it makes no sense to talk about more evolved and less evolved. I'm sure if you take a baby in Jesus's time and raise the baby in a modern times, it'll do fine. Take a baby from now, and put him in the future 100 generations, and I'm pretty sure he'll also do fine (barring unforseen events like the Mutant X gene).
__________________ Entropy is driving the universe toward "heat death" --- Jesus is the force behind the Strong Nuclear Force that keeps the protons together - Colossians 1:17. - AV1611VET
I think there is a misunderstanding in the way you ask your question. Although in a way evolution will have acted upon future and current man more than it has acted on Jesus' contemporaries there are two problems with your question. Firstly the time is very small and secondly "more evolved" doesn't mean better or superior.
Maybe it means better adapted to the environment that each lives in but modern environmental changes are not old enough to have given current humans the chance to adapt.
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Today a young man [deleted] realized that all matter is merely energy condensed through a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, life is only a dream and we are the imaginations of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather.
- Bill Hicks
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Even if man does evolve further, nothing will change the fact that we are sinners who have fallen far short of God's glory. Personally, I think that is more important.
Peace,
Nick
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ॐ । असतो मा सद्गमय । तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ।।
And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority... sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah, the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and join yourself to this chariot." And so Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you indeed understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless some man should guide me?"
I think that would be a better question to ask of those creationists who believe in the sort of hyper-evolution from the original "kinds" that lead to our modern diversity, don't you? Surely their evidence must indicate we are more highly evolved than Jesus. After all, the supposed original dog-ancestor has diversified into all wolves, foxes, jackals, and household pets in less than 4,000 years. I would rather hear the answer from all our creation scientist friends out there.
__________________ We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
It occurs to me that the reason for the confusion is the mistaken view that evolution is about "progress." Human beings are not "better" now than they were in Jesus' time; but neither is the adaption of human beings to their current environment better than the adaption of, say, a velociraptor to its environment.
There is no teleology in science, and none whatsoever in evolutionary science. Evolution is not a ladder getting progressively better; it's just change to fit the environment. In 10,000 years time we will not be any less or more fit to our environment than we are now; and we won't be any morally better or worse.
__________________ "Call some place paradise/Kiss it goodbye"
The Eagles, the Last Resort
Liberal Christians do it in context
"Literalism is the first line of defense of a mind that wants to put itself to sleep." Walter A Davis
I'm pretty sure no one holds that viewpoint, Proselyte, especially since evolution doesn't pass judgment on what is "more evolved" or "more advanced" as long as the population remains extant. There has been no population split in humanity, so I don't think anyone can rightly claim that we're more advanced.
Under Evolution, wouldn't man be continually evolving passing on favorable heritable traits, ala natural selection? So fast forward however thousands or hundred thousands of years to when we see some marked difference between man then and now? At that point would we consider humans as a species more evolved than now, or in Jesus' time?
Under Evolution, wouldn't man be continually evolving passing on favorable heritable traits, ala natural selection? So fast forward however thousands or hundred thousands of years to when we see some marked difference between man then and now? At that point would we consider humans as a species more evolved than now, or in Jesus' time?
Mmm, not quite. You see, evolution favors traits that allow for improved survivability in the environment the organism inhabits. We are perhaps more adapted to the environment we live in, but we cannot say that we are better adapted to our environment than Jesus was adapted to his.
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