by Richard Sprigg

Created on: December 16, 2008

Much as I hate to cavil at the obvious, the title of the debate is clearly atheistic in nature. If a God exists, then to even consider that his nature can be curbed in any way, particularly by a theory derived by a mortal man is pure hubris taken to the point of farce.

Would anyone take seriously the question "Can bread recipes coexist with Wheat?" yet in essence the question is identical in nature.

To query whether the creator can coexist with the products of creation is, it must be admitted, pointless unless one assumes that the creator does not exist.
In that case all argument is just an exercise in intellectual Onanism.

Reading the other articles posted, the question answered would seem to be "Can religion and evolution coexist?" With by far the majority of the answers referring to the Christian POV, with the responses being supported by the book of Genesis.

This is a different question, and can be responded to simply: If the text in question directly contradicts evolutionary theory, whether it be 'Origin of Species' or even 'The Blind Watchmaker', then one of them must be in error.

Thanks to Thomas of Occam, we may apply the classic test and see which is more likely. Did the species specialize and evolve as supported by the fossil record, or did a benevolent creator create a whole bunch of fossil evidence just to confuse his creation?

The answer is simply that evolution does not argue for the existence or absence of a creator, merely for the inaccuracy of the description of the process, as written down by a fallible man four or five thousand years ago and since rewritten into several different languages.

It is axiomatic that an individual cannot describe a phenomenon that is outside his experience with anything approaching coherency. To expect an individual in the second or third millenium BC to fully explicate the theory of evolution is asking a lot. (no pun intended.)

If such an individual were inspired by the creator to the point where he was capable of such a feat, the language required just did not exist.

The fascinating thing about Genesis is that it gets the order of appearance of the various orders in the correct sequence, even though the timelines are rather shorter than evidence suggests.
This argues for the existence of an inspired individual doing his best with a language that was, simply put, not up to the job.

Thus it seems obvious to me that Religion and Evolutionary theory can coexist if the true believers in both can suspend their cherished shibboleths long enough to actually think in an unbiased manner.

As to the Creator: well, as the Sufi say, "There is no God if he be not THE God". He sees the truth and waits, infinitely amused by the intellectual flailings of his creation.

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