by Charles Peterson

Created on: June 14, 2009

Sunday 14 June 2009

First of all there is no reason why evolution theory should be at odds with either Creationism or Intelligent Design. As humans live longer we find out more facts about the universe. We have discovered ways to date the ages in the history of earth, as well as the age of the universe. The starting point goes well back over six thousand years. Why should these facts contradict the Bibles? That's the way God did it. We are merely filling in gaps in the original story. We are painting a picture that God made. One can tell from the language used that Genesis is meant to sketch in a broad picture about a little known event; mythology uses such broad strokes in the same way. It is a literary device.

The thrust of Intelligent Design is not meant to replace evolution theory. When we discover a fossil which resembles an animal whose population is still living today we don't argue much about it. We say that they are the same animal. They have been around for a million years.

The touchy part comes when one tries to fill in the blanks in the fossil record. How did the evolution of nature, which was set in motion by God's hand, get from this footprint a million years ago up to the present moment? In particular for humans, whose trace picks up about 500,000 years ago, what was the generation to generation story of mutations which took us from the trunk of the primitive tree insectivores up to the branch of modern humans today? We don't know it. We know few of the links.

It bothers us to feel that both apes and humans could have a common ancestor. This is even so as the DNA of both apes and humans is 99% identical. We don't have a record of this missing link. While the history is still open it hurts our pride to think that the relationship could be true.

The furor about the missing link is just smoke and mirrors about what is going on in people's minds, though. The controversy is really about what evolution theory says about life today for humans. Are we bound to merely plugging along a route mapped out by laws of nature? Can we use our minds to create a future we want instead of plodding along a path we seem stuck on? Does God play a role in the present about how human life should evolve? Are there people in power who use evolution theory to further their own ends under the banner of survival of the fittest?

If we were to live forever

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