A reconcilliation. They're both different

[GoodNewsJim]

Evolution has a large number of concepts though and it infers a Big Bang and a Spark of Life for it to work. While you won't get me biting on those two tickets, I know evolution is solid science. I think a lot of Creationists would bite on evolution if the spark of life wasn't part of the equation. I mean Creationism says how it all started, and evolution says how everything is changing since it began. Just looking at it that way it makes sense. While I can't tell you how old the world is, I can rest assuredly say that evolution works in this post fall of man world.

 

[gluadys]

Evolution has a large number of concepts though and it infers a Big Bang and a Spark of Life for it to work. While you won't get me biting on those two tickets, I know evolution is solid science. I think a lot of Creationists would bite on evolution if the spark of life wasn't part of the equation. I mean Creationism says how it all started, and evolution says how everything is changing since it began. Just looking at it that way it makes sense. While I can't tell you how old the world is, I can rest assuredly say that evolution works in this post fall of man world.

No, actually the big bang cannot be inferred from evolution. One can infer that the earth must have been around more than 6,000 years as evolution needs some time to account for all the changes documented in the fossil evidence.

However, historically, the discovery was the other way around. That the earth was very old was a discovery of geology. That opened the door to the possibility of evolution. In fact, one of the influences on Darwin was reading Charles Lyalls' Principles of Geology which he took with him on the Beagle. So historically it was evolution that was inferred from an old earth, not an old earth that was inferred from evolution.

Furthermore, at the time, the scientific possibilities included a universe that was infinite in time and space, not one that was finite and had a definite beginning. A universe with a beginning was a religious doctrine that had no scientific support until big bang was proposed.

Abiogenesis (spark of life) is not really "part of the equation" either though many creationists assume that it is. However, since there is active research into a natural origin of life, I expect this will remain a point of contention. If we do find a natural pathway for life to emerge from non-life we will have a smooth line of causation from the physics of big bang to galaxy and planet formation to the chemistry that gave us simple life and on through evolution to complex life.

The basic problem with creationism is that it cannot reconcile such a smooth line of continuous natural causation with belief in a creator. Creationism needs gaps into which to insert miracles not possible through natural causation. Without those gaps, those miracles, the creationist has no God.

 

[PaladinValer]

Evolution has a large number of concepts though and it infers a Big Bang and a Spark of Life for it to work.

Incorrect.

The Big Bang theory needn't be true for evolution to be equally true. One deals with cosmology whereas the other deals with biology.

While you won't get me biting on those two tickets, I know evolution is solid science. I think a lot of Creationists would bite on evolution if the spark of life wasn't part of the equation. I mean Creationism says how it all started, and evolution says how everything is changing since it began. Just looking at it that way it makes sense. While I can't tell you how old the world is, I can rest assuredly say that evolution works in this post fall of man world.

Admirable for the most part, except that evolution had been occurring for billions of years before the advent of the modern human species.

You are absolutely correct that there is Creation; not a single TE will disagree with you. God Created, and TEs can tell you how He did it. However, evolution itself isn't independent from God; it is directly influenced by God. God is behind all the laws of nature and discovered theories. He is their Creator and He never departs from His Creations. Evolution is therefore how God "speciated" the world in its wondrous rich and diverse selection of races of life.

You've risen a number of very good points, but you need to fine tune a few.

 

[chaoschristian]

What everyone else said.

Evolutionary biology and the origins of life and the origins of the cosmos are three distincy issues that stand and fall on their own merits. Even if they all can be discussed and thought about within a common framework (origins theology), the framework does not necessitate that they become mutually dependent.