While science vs. religion battles continue, can we agree to teach public school children certain obvious truths? Can we temporarily lay aside the theory of evolution and various religious views, and realize there are certain conclusions about our world that must be true?
There are six and a half billion people on this earth. Obviously people have been able to reproduce very well. People have lived on this earth for many, many years. We have all the things needed to preserve life — air, water, food, sunshine, etc. We have bodies that can enjoy this world. We see in color, hear sounds, smell many things, etc. And, as far as we know, we are the only living beings in a vast universe.
We each have a body that can easily heal itself when we are sick. Each of us has a complex DNA code, mind, digestive system, etc.
There certainly seems to be an evolutionary process at work in the world. Humans, animals and plants adapt to different conditions. This process seems to have been going on for a very long time, a period of time so long we can’t really understand it.
An obvious conclusion, considering everything that is on this earth, something superior had to produce it. How many times does something inferior produce something vastly superior?
Even if we were to go in for extreme speculation and claim life started when a one-cell animal in the sea was struck by lightning, who gave that one cell a DNA code? How did that one cell become smart enough to reproduce and pass on its DNA code? Why would it care about starting a DNA process that eventually produced very complex life?
This line of reasoning does not mention God or the Bible. Children would be able to draw their own conclusions.
If God does use an evolutionary process, how could he thousands of years ago, using human authors, have explained it to people who knew nothing about evolution? And back then it wasn’t important for people on earth to know anything about it. The creation stories in Genesis were as much as common people could understand. Anyway, the Bible is about salvation, not science.
Al Crabb, Charlottesville