A what if

[Nooj]

Cross-posted from the Crevo forums.

Lets say that via an odd twist of fate, homo sapiens never exists but we are instead replaced by sentient cockroaches. God delivers the Old Testament to an insect Moses, God creates insect Adam and insect Eve, God sends his Son in the form of a cockroach.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this scenario, right? We could still be saved if we weren't human? We could be Christian molluscs instead of Christian humans? If so, then you can reconcile a truly random (as in God started it off and sat back, not caring if hairless apes reigned supreme or invertebrates) evolution with a Creator God. Humans weren't the ultimate creation, or the ultimate purpose of God. A sentient organism capable of receiving God's image was the ultimate purpose and homo sapiens just happened to end up on the top.

In Christian theology, 'we' are only special because of imago dei. Take that away and we are just another organism in the vast diversity of life. Were 'we' as hairless bipedal apes designed from the getgo, or were 'we' as in God's spiritual children, regardless of who we descended from or what we look like, designed from the getgo?

 

[Deamiter]

That's certainly one dominant view among Christians who accept evolution. You will, however, occasionally find YECs who claim that our physical appearance is in the 'image of God' and even TEs who believe that homo sapiens were the objective of creation and would reject the idea of evolution being left to produce sentience on its own.

I agree with your post though, and I'd love to see a detailed discussion of why this might not be possible given the God of the Bible.

 

[philadiddle]

You should read "Finding Darwin's God" by Kenneth Miller, prof of cell biology at Brown University. It kinda goes over this issue. With statistics, the chances in a universe this size that life will eventually form, is good. With the laws of natural selection at play, the chances are that there will eventually be an organism that can recognize and worship God. It didn't have to be homosapien, it could have been anything. You should really read the book if you are interested, as this short description doesn't do the book justice. (that's also just a part of the book, there's a lot of really interesting stuff in there.)

 

[Fed]

You should read "Finding Darwin's God" by Kenneth Miller, prof of cell biology at Brown University. It kinda goes over this issue. With statistics, the chances in a universe this size that life will eventually form, is good. With the laws of natural selection at play, the chances are that there will eventually be an organism that can recognize and worship God. It didn't have to be homosapien, it could have been anything. You should really read the book if you are interested, as this short description doesn't do the book justice. (that's also just a part of the book, there's a lot of really interesting stuff in there.)

If the chances for a sentient organism are good, you'd think it probable there would be more...pretty amazing if you think about it.

 

[Deamiter]

If the chances for a sentient organism are good, you'd think it probable there would be more...pretty amazing if you think about it.

Some think that there ARE more sentient organisms. Apes show remarkable communication abilities. Even more amazing is the intelligence shown by dolphins and whales. They haven't developed any sort of written language or use tools due to the simple lack of opposable thumbs, but there's no reason to think that our egocentric and technology-centered ways should be the only possible manifestation of sentience or even advanced intelligence.

 

[Assyrian]

Unless of course the universe has this bias built in toward producing sentient bipedal humanoid lifeforms that Jame Tiberius Kirk can try to seduce.

 

[Nooj]

Unless of course the universe has this bias built in toward producing sentient bipedal humanoid lifeforms that Jame Tiberius Kirk can try to seduce.

The Universe just has the hots for ripped shirts.

 

[crawfish]

This thread took an unexpected turn.

I always wanted to make out with a green chick, though.

 

[Nooj]

It's not much of a debate if everyone is agreeing! Once we start thinking of ourselves as fundamentally physically different from animals, it becomes easier to look at common descent with incredulity or even disgust e.g. "Me descending from a hairy ape? Ridiculous!" To paraphrase a little.

 

[KokoTheGorilla2]

God creates insect Adam and insect Eve

What on tree that God say cockroach don't touching?
It poo?

Apes show remarkable communication abilities.

 

[Nooj]

Apes show remarkable communication abilities.

I think Koko still needs to work on her grammatical skills before communicating with the human species.