Doc Dilly said:
Okay, so you believe God used evolution in some way shape or form to start everything. How do you personally think He did it? In other words, would you decribe your belief as...
1. Basic Darwinism. God just built the Earth and the universe and then let random chance take control.
2. God jump-started the process and built the original multitude of cellular organisms during the "Cambrian Explosion" and let random chance take control.
3. Neo-Darwinism, of a sort. We know that mutations of DNA (it's like a programmer scrambling his code completely randomly) do not produce any new information based upon the physical laws, but what if God temporarily changes the natural laws at certain times in history to be more... uh, "open" (can't think of the word I was looking for). (Punctuated equillibrium?)
4. God didn't let random chance come in but built DNA so that it was an intelligent, self-modifying program. Scientists have made great strides recently but large portions of DNA are still a vast unknown (I liken geneticists to the "script-kiddies" of software engineering). Scientists DO know that DNA has built-in adaptability functions (along with multitudes of backups and error correction functions) but it's "possible" that it can self-modify on a macro scale.
Or is there some other method you personally feel is correct. I only categorized these four because they are the ones I hear most often. However, I'm sure there are others. (And of course, if you agree with one of the above, please let me know. I'm very curious as to peoples thinking on this subject.)
The big problem with all these categories is that they make assumptions about evolution which are not true. The big one is that evolution is a "random chance" process, and that eliminates 1, 2, and 3. But its not an intelligent process either, so that eliminates 4.
Now, with some rewording, we might get something closer to reality we can deal with.
1. Basic Darwinism. God just built the Earth and the universe and then let random chance take control.
Reworded as:
God began the universe and then let the natural forces operate.
I say "began" not "built" because the universe did not begin as "built". Reference to universe only, and not to earth since the earth did not appear until nearly 10 billion years after the universe began. And "natural forces" (gravity, electro-magnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces) are the forces which regulate the interactions of physical matter in a non-random way.
2. God jump-started the process and built the original multitude of cellular organisms during the "Cambrian Explosion" and let random chance take control.
Reworded as:
God jump-started the process of life on earth by supernaturally creating the first form(s) of cellular life about 3.8 billion years ago and allowing it to evolve according to the processes of mutation and natural selection.
Note that #1 is about the origin of the universe close to 14 billion years ago while this is about the origin of life on earth. Theoretically, a person could subscribe to the reworded versions of both 1 & 2. Or of 1 only, with 2 being a natural consequence of 1.
The reworded version specifies super-natural creation (eliminating natural abiogenesis) but not necessarily of a "multitude" of cellular forms of life. Could be just a few or even just one. The super-natural creation of even a single life-form would qualify as "jump-starting" the process in contrast to the origin of life via natural processes of abiogenesis.
The time has been corrected from the Cambrian period, which began a little more than 1/2 billion years ago, to the date of the oldest fossils nearly 3.8 billion years ago. Life was around for a long, long time before the Cambrian.
"random chance" is replaced by the orderly non-random process of evolution by mutation + natural selection.
3. Neo-Darwinism, of a sort. We know that mutations of DNA (it's like a programmer scrambling his code completely randomly) do not produce any new information based upon the physical laws, but what if God temporarily changes the natural laws at certain times in history to be more... uh, "open" (can't think of the word I was looking for). (Punctuated equillibrium?)
Reworded as:
God occasionally guides the process of evolution through direct intervention.
A much simpler statement that gets to the core idea and eliminates a lot of incorrect material.
Note that again the focus has shifted. This is not about origin of life, but about the process of evolutionary change. Theoretically a person could subscribe to the reworded versions of 1, 2 & 3, to just 1 & 2 or to just 1.
Incorrect ideas eliminated:
a)mutations "scramble" program. Not always they don't. Sometimes they have no effect, sometimes they improve the program.
b) no new information produced. Simply false.
c) punctuated equilibrium=divine intervention or sudden jump in evolution. No, PE is ordinary evolution occurring in a restricted geographical area over a relatively short (geologically speaking) time.
4. God didn't let random chance come in but built DNA so that it was an intelligent, self-modifying program. Scientists have made great strides recently but large portions of DNA are still a vast unknown (I liken geneticists to the "script-kiddies" of software engineering). Scientists DO know that DNA has built-in adaptability functions (along with multitudes of backups and error correction functions) but it's "possible" that it can self-modify on a macro scale.
Reworded as:
God planned for DNA to function as the basis of "descent with modification" (aka evolution).
Theologically this says that God chose to design species through evolution. It does not require that the design process itself be intelligent, any more than a computer program is intelligent. The intelligence is in the designer of the program, not in the program itself.
Theoretically, one could subscribe to all of 1,2, 3, and 4. Or to 1, 2, and 4 only. Or to 1 & 4 only. Or to 1 only (which would mean DNA itself evolved & was naturally selected for as the carrier of genetic information).
incorrect ideas eliminated from re-worded version.
a) DNA has built-in "adaptability functions". This is just an alternate way of saying that DNA evolves. It is an admission that evolution occurs without using the fearsome e-word.
b) DNA can self-modify on a "macro" level. DNA does not self-modify on a macro-level. All preserved DNA changes are micro-changes. Macro-change is the accumulation of many micro-changes.
