Why would he do otherwise?



Science and Religion are not the opposing juggernauts that many believe

them to be.  For some obscure reason (to me anyway) some Christians

seem threatened by the word/idea/theory  of Evolution.  Charles Darwin,

in fact, in his book "The Origin of Species",  did not even use the word

evolution.  He was however quite aware of the s*&%storm he was about

to unleash when he published it.


 Evolution has meant many things to many people, sometimes with unfortunate results.  Eugenics,

adopted in earnest by the Nazis, as well as by some western doctors and capitalists in the early 20th

century,  are fine examples of science gone horribly wrong, being used for evil purposes.           

 Science is the study of natural laws, how things work.  Science is a way of looking at the

the universe, an attempt to understand the  'here and now' physical world,  to break things down into

 measurable units-facts-laws-working theories-repeatable experiments.

 Religion is the practice of belief.  It attempts of explain why  we are here, and how we should

behave and where we go after we leave the 'here and now'.

 The two should not overlap!   Nor are they incompatible.  Even the Catholic church, in it's

present day enlightenment, has stated that science's realm is after the big bang, and Gods realm

is before, and, we presume, after the rapture...or whatever....which is a far cry from ordering Galileo

imprisoned in the17th century,  sentence commuted to house arrest, for the rest of his life,  

for proposing that the earth circles the sun ;  clearly a heretical point of view!


  What  Is Evolution ?

Simply put,  Evolution is Descent with Modification.  What results, if useful, may give an organism an edge over previous versions.  Natural selection, over vast periods of time, allows for change in a species.

Descent with Modification:  What  is amazing about Darwin's theory is he didn't know  the mechanics 0f how it actually worked.  He did keep pigeons, in fact the first chapter of "The Origin of Species" is mainly about pigeons.    He observed that there are slight variations each time we reproduce.  It wasn't until 1953 that the actual double helix model of DNA  we know today was suggested.

 DNA is the blueprint of life.    It is the basis of all known living organisms.  It is a code, made of the chemicals of life.  It is a nucleic acid composed of nucleotides, sugars, esters, phosphates and bases.  When we reproduce, the DNA  chromosomes are mixed from male and female to create a unique baby. 

There are variations and occasionally mistakes made in this and  subsequent copies made from this initial mix of genes.  This is the basis of descent, and modification.  This is science as we know it.

Natural Selection:  Man has long been familiar with artificial selection.  we breed our animals for the traits we consider to be useful.  All the various breeds of dogs come from one species of wolf.    (This is a husky)

Apples  all descend from a single species still growing  in the  Tien Shan mountains of China.

   Our bread and bacon are a direct result of crop selection and animal husbandry over the last 1,000 years or less.  Corn as we know it today,  was different 1,000 years ago...

         and is barely recognizable from it's ancestor, teosintes,  12,000 yrs ago, when American Indians began to cultivate this grass seed...

     Thus, we see that the forms of life are mutable.  Form can change, evolve so to speak, in specific directions when under direct influence of man's  intent (even unconscious intent).  Thus we have descent with modification, directed by artificial selection.

Natural Selection  is what occurs without our intervention.  If a modification, however slight, over a great period of time, offers better survival rate, better reproduction rate, etc. it will become dominant and change will occur.  Organisms will evolve....

Speciation is defined generally by inability to sexually reproduce.  For instance,  if a geologic division occurs separating a population, the two separate groups will evolve according to a different set of environmental stimuli.  Given a long enough separation,  they may lose the ability to cross breed, and are now considered two distinct species with a common ancestor.

The key here is "...a long enough separation...."


                                         *                                           *                                            *




         GEOLOGIC  TIME:  Our minds are capable of remembering, but not for very long

                 periods of time.  Most of us do not remember much from when we were, say, 3 years

                 old.   We rarely live past 100 years.  Written language dates to  4,000 years BCE, 

                 with proto-writing dating to the 7th millennium BCE.  We are really not able to

                  understand a million years.  Man is of the Quaternary epoch in geologic time.


                          The earth is roughly four and a half billion years  old !!!


                         Man as a species, barely registers on the geologic clock !!! How can we begin

                    to grasp this concept.  It takes a great leap of imagination...




                          CAN  LEAD  TO  MAJOR  CHANGES ,  


                                           EVEN   DIFFERENT  SPECIES:


                 This does not exclude belief in God, as some may have you believe.  And they are

                      quite set on having you believe it!  The earth is not 6,000 years old.  We  may

                      not  find relics of our past that precede 9,000 years, but this doesn't mean nothing

                      else existed before.   Would not God create a fully integrated system of matter

                       that could grow into what it is now?  After all, the only evidence we have is the

                       natural laws that exist,  (as we know them).  These laws exist, can be tested and

                       used,  in fact are a function of reality and life.  The universe was created in a  big

                       bang, expanded and cooled into what exists now!  Life is a naturally occurring

                       expression of creation.  This is not heresy!   This is the way God created it!

           LACK OF HUMILITY:  In a sense, man has created God, rather than the other

                       way around.   By this I mean, man has created  his own projection of who God is.

                       There is no shortage of people who will be glad to tell you all the details;  what

                        God is saying,  his plan for your life,  how you should behave,  how to think,  what  

                         not  to think,  who to wage war against, and on and on....all crap on a cosmic scale!

                         What arrogance on our part.  God is unknowable by our small minds.  We can

                          however  discover His works.  Science is a method of doing this, not a denial

                          of all that is holy...

          Richard Dawkins suggests that, due to our great success as creative designers

                           we believe that God has created us in the same way:  "We are entirely accustomed

                                   to the idea that complex elegance is an indicator of premeditated, crafted design."   So we imbue

                            our God with this human ability  (limitation?).  Once again, could not God

                           'create' a blast of energy that would cool into matter,  coalesce  into  suns

                            and planets, and explode with life where physically possible?    Why would he

                            do  otherwise?

                           Evolution is not  the nemesis  of Spirituality  and   Reverence,  but    

                           Ignorance  and   Arrogance  surely are....    


Thus, in conclusion,

              I  propose,   that :

                       God  Created  Evolution    



        This many people have visited this site since 1-20-08

                                                                       Hit Counter

         Some good books to read:

Voyages of the Beagle,  Janet Browne

Charles Darwin, vol 1 and 2,  Janet Browne

Darwin's Ghost,  Steve Jones

Y  The Descent of Man,  Steve Jones

The Blind Watchmaker,  Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene,  Richard Dawkins

A Briefer History of Time,  Stephen Hawking

Pale Blue Dot,  Carl Sagan

Synchronicity,  C G Jung

Einstein, His Life and Universe,   Walter Isaacson

The Origin of  Species,  Charles Darwin

Pagans and Christians,  Robin Lane Fox

McClane's Standard Fishing Encyclopedia,  Holt Rinehart Winston


 I sell bumper stickers.  Go to this link to ETSY to order...     http://www.spinnerdude.etsy.com





                                                            Click the button for Frequently Asked Questions  


                                                F A Q's        


10 questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution - click here.


           Hey!  Since you got to this point, why not check out my site for hand spinning?