Ok let’s establish some facts. Number one, no one alive today was alive when the Earth was formed and saw exactly how that was accomplished.
Fortunately, physical events leave evidence that can tell us about them.
Evolution is a speculative idea
It's an observed phenomenon. I think you've confused the phenomenon with the theory that explains it, or some agency of evolution, like natural selection, or some consequence of evolution like common descent. But evolution is an observed fact. Do you remember what the scientific definition of biological evolution is?
If they were honest, the data would be presented for all to see, but we don’t get that.
YE creationist Kurt Wise, for example showed us a great deal of the evidence.
Would you like to see some in more detail?
The other thing that I read in “science” papers is that “evolution is the foundation of all biology”
Hmm... In the sense, I suppose that thermal energy is the foundation for all meteorology. But I never read that in a peer-reviewed paper. Do you have a link?
I believe that there is an alternate reason for the observed data. If you think that I am wrong
Almost all biologists think you are wrong, but it's not dishonest to prefer your religious beliefs to the evidence.
You say that I don’t appreciate how God made the Earth.
That has nothing whatever to do with evolution. If God had instead chosen to just poof the world into existence, evolution would work exactly the way we see it working now.
I suppose that if I were an academic professor seeking grant money, it may be easier to secure R01 grant money if I spewed the evolutionary line
I notice that anti-Darwinians like Michael Denton, Todd Wood, and others have no difficulty with getting grants. I took my first graduate course in immunology from a tenured professor who was a YE creationist.
He established a Church that still exists today, and when He spoke of the scriptures, He did not present them as story or allegory but fact.
Actually Jesus never said whether any particular part of scripture was allegory or fact. He never told us that He was telling parables. Do you see why?
There is much more profit for eternity in studying the virtues and how to obtain them, than spending one second thinking about evolution.
The discoverer of penicillin warned that natural selection would cause the evolution of resistant bacteria. He was correct. Antibiotic protocols are based on evolutionary theory, designed to minimize natural selection on pathogens.
Theistic evolution is a losing game also.
That is a religious belief that accepts God's creation as it is.
They don’t realize it but it tends to render God impotent and creation as all mighty.
Seems to me that a God who creates a few simple rules and thereby causes the universe to develop according to His will is far more powerful and wise than some little Middle Eastern godling who prances around, making a tree here, and a rabbit there. We have some evidence that this is a better way. Engineers have started copying evolutionary processes to solve problems too complicated to be solved by design. Genetic algorithms which mimic Darwinian evolution actually work better and more efficiently than design. Turns out, God knew best, after all.
What are the fruits of evolution?
The diversity of life we see around us.
First we had social Darwinism and the dog eat dog world mentality
Darwin, in
The Descent of Man denounced such thinking, declaring that to even let the weakest among us perish would be an "overwhelming evil." Scientists will tell you that nature is a very bad place to look for ethics and morality.
then we had the destruction of all sexual morality
I'm thinking that sexual immorality was widespread well before evolution was discovered. In fact, in many places it was worse than it is now.
Society has degenerated to Marxist mentality
Actually, Marxists in the Soviet Union banned Darwin's theory. Soviet biology is still recovering from that debacle. It's an interesting story, complete with agricultural disasters. Would you like to hear about it?
Does not look like I will convince you, but that is not my created function.
Neither of us will change the other. But there are lots of people here who have not decided, and these talks give them some evidence and reasoning to consider. So it's been a fruitful discussion.
That is between you and the Holy Spirt, but remember when God said, my Spirit will not always strive with man.
This is why the Church, while acknowledging the evidence for evolution and the origin of mankind, does not require one to believe any particular theory, so long as God is acknowledged as the Creator. We only slip into error when we insist that one or another of those positions is Christian orthodoxy.
We have one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one forgiveness of sins. May God bless you and call you to Himself.
We can agree on that. And may God also bless you.
