So Phillip Island is a great place to visit. It's probably a great place to live too. We visited the Koala Conservation, Seal Lookout and, of course, the Fairy Penguins. They were amazing. They marched (waddled) out of the ocean onto shore and to their dwellings in the grass. Some of them live 2 Kilometers on shore. We understand that over 1,000 of them came out that night, starting at about 9 pm - sunset.
As we watched and observed, we were overwhelmed with the reality that these creatures are the handiwork of God. There's absolutely no way they evolved to this practise, and anyone who suggests the possibility hasn't seen them in action.
Look around and see the glory of God presenting Himself to us in undeniable ways. That's what we are supposed to do too. Are the penguins more telling?
2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV)
"For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
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4 comments:
its also a fantastic place to go surfing!!!
God is good
Creation and evolution need not be regarded as mutually exclusive processes. There are plenty of scientists and theologians who hold more subtle, nuanced views of nature than the false dichotomy that is often presented by those who are often either intellectually lazy or downright stupid.
Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett may be among the loudest, most visible and extreme secular humanist evolutionist shriekers, but they certainly don't speak for all who belive in evolution. Contrary to what these extremists want others to believe, there is no one prevailing "theory of evolution" that is held by all scientists. There are, in fact, competing evolutionary theories that continue to be tested, contested and refined or rejected in accordance with scientific procedures.
Similarly, theological literalists who insist that creation occurred in six 24-hour days do not speak for all, or even most, Christians. Many healthy theological debates continue to enhance human understanding of divine activity in nature and life.
I hold a theistic evolutionary view. By this I mean that evolutionary processes, most of which I don't begin to understand in any depth, were established by God. Such a view properly exalts God as Creator, Preserver and Governor of all things, yet respects and rejoices in scientific discoveries that continue to enhance human life and understanding. Every scientific breakthrough is a fresh revelation of God's design. I'm constantly amazed at how incredibly gracious God is to allow puny people like us to occasionally peek into His mind and heart. Make no mistake about it - God is great and God is love.
Even Darwin had reservations about his own theory. In the chapter "Difficulties on Theory," he wrote:
"Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?… But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?… Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory." Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, p. 172
But more simply, if evolution were absolutely correct and the only way of life coming to be then surely by now we would have thrown a mutation whereby a woman would grow an extra set of arms for each child she birthed?
Good quote from Origin. Stephen Jay Gould's answer to Darwin's question is "punctuated equilibrium," which continues to be a hotly contested idea.
As you know, Charles Darwin was not the first person to posit an evolutionary theory. Various evolutionary notions had been kicking around for centuries. Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus, was known for throwing some ideas into the pot too. Charles' great contribution to the debate was the concept of natural selection. He had a problem, however, because he could not explain how natural selection occurs.
Meanwhile, as Charles was wrestling with his ideas in England, a monk named Mendel was growing peas in Austria and recording their changes over successive generations. Several decades passed before others realized that heredity could be the mechanism by which natural selection occurs.
One of the problems with the current environment is that some evolutionists forget that, notwithstanding Darwin's incendiary title, evolution is primarily a theory about how species change and adapt over time, not about how they got here in the first place. Unfortunately, such a concession does not fit into their ideological and political agendas.
While the Big Bang theory of origins is plausible, it is not sufficient to disprove God as creator. It is a conclusion that has been inferred from available evidence, but it will never be conclusively "proven" because it was a singular event that cannot be replicated in a laboratory. Scientists, even those who agree that a Big Bang occurred, are still arguing over what caused it.
On the other hand, extreme creationists should realize that, as a theory of change and adaptation, evolution is very robust. It has repeatedly demonstrated both explanatory and predictive utility. That's why it's still around. All of the incredible advances in medicine, biological, neurology, etc., in the past century or so have been based on evolutionary principles.
Moreover, evolution is not a static theory. It continues to be tested and refined everyday. If, sometime down the road, it fails to bear fruit or a major tenet is falsified (disproven), the theory will be either modified or discarded. That's the way science works.
One step toward resolving the so-called conflict between evolution and creation is to distinguish between questions of "origin" and those of "change" or "evolution." I have no difficulty believing that God initiated the Big Bang by which evolutionists posit that the universe came into being. And I have no difficulty believing in evolution, which is still imperfectly understood, as a mechanism created by God so that living creatures could adapt to changing conditions. We do not, after all, live in a static universe. Adaptation is necessary for survival. The more I learn about how the world works, the more I am amazed at God's remarkable inventiveness. Like many others, I can't help seeing evidence of His handiwork in natural, social and spiritual realms. He truly is a great God.
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