"And on the 6th day, God created man" - an unlikely story

It actually frightens me how creationism is making a comeback, so much that many science teachers are being forced to teach creationism as a real alternative instead of natural selection in school. For me, anti-evolutionaries, on the whole, are people who either do not know what evolution is, or who have very limited knowledge and cannot deal with the overwhelming amount of knowledge in support of evolution and natural selection.

Evolution is the accumulated change of a species until we arrive at a result that is different from the original being. Those who do not believe in evolution therefore do not believe in change. Look around you. Living things change - we can do it by breeding bacteria on a petri dish in the space of a week. Just because a singly human does not live long enough to see it with large animals does not mean it isn't there. Through years of selective breeding, scientists have developed new species of crops, e.g. Brussel sprouts from the bog standard cabbage. If you still think evolution doesn't exist, open your eyes!

However, simply realising that evolution is correct does not immediately refute creationism. Is it possible that God created the first life form and then left life to its own devices? Doubtful. People who do not understand science use the argument that the chance of life as we know it today spontaneously errupting from nothing is about the same as a hurricane passing through a scapyard and leaving behind a fully functional plane. By these odds, they argue that God must have put life on Earth because it is too improbable that life just evolved.

Let's actually apply some logical reasoning to the situation. Life, according to natural selection and evolution, did not just spontaneously appear in all its full glory as we know it today. Life's progression took many smaller steps, each of which, though still unlikely, makes the whole thing far more probable than life just appearing from nothing (as it suggests in Genesis). Furthermore, if life is so complex and improbable, doesn't that make an omniscient, omnipotent god far more improbable? In which case, who or what created God? And who or what created the creator of God? Then, who or what created the creator of the creator of God? To me, that doesn't make any sense. The only way out of it is to say that God is outside of time - and that he is a power that we cannot comprehend. If this is true, what makes ardent creationists so sure that God created life if they cannot understand him? How can they follow or belive in somehting they do not understand? At least those of us who are more logical actually understand the concept that we believe is correct.

Ah, but the answer is, of course, faith. Or rather, irrational belief in something for which you know there is little evidence to support. Don't get me wrong, faith is sometimes a good thing, but when the alternative is logical and comprehensive, but rely on pure faith. Because God says so? But remember that you don't understand him, so how do you know he wants you to have faith? Ah, i see, the answer, yet again, is faith. How silly.

Once again, I might appear to be "anti-Christian" but i do respect the views of other people if they have been thought through. What I do not respect is blind faith - belief in something without even thinking about it. If you can think logically and arrive at a different, but still valid conclusion, then ok, I'm waiting to hear your side of the argument. If you cannot think for yourself and need to rely on faith, then at least trust those with brains. After all, God gave us brains, if that's what you believe.

xx