Why I do not believe evolution diminishes God

[Guest theElect777]

3 hours ago, one.opinion said:

No, that isn't what I claim at all. You have made assumptions about what I claim that are just flat wrong. I believe that God, in his surpassing wisdom and sovereignty, designed the exact outcomes He wanted to unfold over a vast period of time. Dr. Michael Behe (of the Discovery Institute) has a similar concept that God set all existence into motion at the Big Bang, like an elaborate billiards shot.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/us/in-explaining-lifes-complexity-darwinists-and-doubters-clash.html?auth=login-facebook

God carrying out His creation process over billions of years does NOT require that God let everything happen "by chance". What may look like chance to you and I could certainly be the workings of His direct intent. When we consider the true impact of omnipotence and omniscience, God could certainly have set up that "perfect billiards shot" to bring about exactly what we see today.

And yet, Biologists have proven that evolution has too many missing links and literally millions of unanswered questions to conclude we arrived from this method.   Only those who believe Darwin have refused to concede to the fact they are wrong.  And make no mistake about it, DNA has proven them wrong.   

[one.opinion]

1 minute ago, theElect777 said:

And yet, Biologists have proven that evolution has too many missing links and literally millions of unanswered questions to conclude we arrived from this method.   Only those who believe Darwin have refused to concede to the fact they are wrong.  And make no mistake about it, DNA has proven them wrong.   

This is completely false. Biologists (I am one) have “proven” nothing of the sort. DNA sequencing information has only confirmed and strengthened the evidence supporting evolution.

[one.opinion]

6 minutes ago, theElect777 said:

literally millions of unanswered questions

In the interest of complete honesty - yes there are still many questions. That’s why people still do research.

[Guest theElect777]

3 minutes ago, one.opinion said:

This is completely false. Biologists (I am one) have “proven” nothing of the sort. DNA sequencing information has only confirmed and strengthened the evidence supporting evolution.

DNA has proven a programmer/Creator.   You are claiming that evolution was by Design.   But you have missing links you still have not answered.   How is the process of "Natural Selection" a Design?   Yes, Inherited Traits/Genetics can be, but how does "Randomness" play within a Design code?

[one.opinion]

32 minutes ago, theElect777 said:

DNA has proven a programmer/Creator.   You are claiming that evolution was by Design.   But you have missing links you still have not answered.   How is the process of "Natural Selection" a Design?   Yes, Inherited Traits/Genetics can be, but how does "Randomness" play within a Design code?

How do you reconcile the theology of both predestination and free will? I believe with certainty that God could set up physical reality in a way that His design would come eventually to fruition through natural selection. Remember that God is not constrained by the limits of time and can lay out His creation from beginning to end (or no end!) in the blink of an eye.

[Marathoner]

8 minutes ago, one.opinion said:

How do you reconcile the theology of both predestination and free will? I believe with certainty that God could set up physical reality in a way that His design would come eventually to fruition through natural selection. Remember that God is not constrained by the limits of time and can lay out His creation from beginning to end (or no end!) in the blink of an eye.

Indeed. Nothing is hidden from the sight of Almighty God: not the secrets of our hearts nor the vastness of time. All things in creation have already come to fruition in our Father's sight and I commend you for this insight, @one.opinion, as well as the strength of your conviction. The Lord is incomprehensible and yet it pleases God to reveal Himself through His Son who created all things, the same Jesus Christ who chose us before the foundation of the world. Nothing is impossible to God no matter how mind-boggling it may seem nor is anything left to chance or "randomness" in His creation!

 

[Guest theElect777]

3 hours ago, one.opinion said:

How do you reconcile the theology of both predestination and free will? I believe with certainty that God could set up physical reality in a way that His design would come eventually to fruition through natural selection. Remember that God is not constrained by the limits of time and can lay out His creation from beginning to end (or no end!) in the blink of an eye.

First of all, "Free Will" is not even a term within the Tanakh or New Testament.  We assume because Eve chose to eat the fruit that is "Free Will."   It's not, it's 100% Disobedience!   We don't even have Faith to believe until God gives us the Faith.   We cannot choose to follow God until He first comes to us and offers Himself.

 

By your post, then you refute "Randomness and Chance."  You are saying there is a Design mechanism that selects this will be chimp, this will be amphibian, this will be fish, this will be hominids, and so forth.   Your explanation sadly reads as uneducated as Evolution from the perspective of Darwin!

[Guest theElect777]

2 hours ago, Marathoner said:

Indeed. Nothing is hidden from the sight of Almighty God: not the secrets of our hearts nor the vastness of time. All things in creation have already come to fruition in our Father's sight and I commend you for this insight, @one.opinion, as well as the strength of your conviction. The Lord is incomprehensible and yet it pleases God to reveal Himself through His Son who created all things, the same Jesus Christ who chose us before the foundation of the world. Nothing is impossible to God no matter how mind-boggling it may seem nor is anything left to chance or "randomness" in His creation!

 

How can you applaud the convictions of a False Doctrine, when the Holy Spirit (GOD) revealed unto Moses that God Himself took dirt and spat into it forming a clay model and then basically did CPR blowing BREATHE into this creation giving it life?

 

Nowhere in the description God gave to Moses is it even remotely possible to conclude this was evolution.    

 

Grant it, how the Universe came to be can be acceptable in Scientific terms, since, even in the Creation version of Genesis 1 the Heavens and Earth were created and Earth itself was void and formless.   But as far as evolution is concerned, it will never match dialogue to God's version.

[one.opinion]

3 minutes ago, theElect777 said:

We cannot choose to follow God until He first comes to us and offers Himself.

Jesus Christ did that over 2,000 years ago, but that is probably best left for a different conversation.

5 minutes ago, theElect777 said:

You are saying there is a Design mechanism that selects this will be chimp, this will be amphibian, this will be fish, this will be hominids, and so forth.

I am saying that everything in the realm of physical reality is because God made it so. Do you disagree?

Evolution in its simplest form is heritable change in a population over time. Mutations that lead to these heritable changes may look random to you or I, but I suspect they are not random from God’s perspective. Do you disagree?

Do you believe that God is somehow unaware of the constant and abundant flux in the chemical composition of your DNA?

13 minutes ago, theElect777 said:

Your explanation sadly reads as uneducated as Evolution from the perspective of Darwin!

Evolution from the perspective of Darwin has been outdated for decades. There is nothing revolutionary in thinking that Darwin’s hypotheses have not been found to be completely adequate. You might be aware that Darwin did not have the benefit of even Mendel’s work at the time of his publications.

[one.opinion]

6 minutes ago, theElect777 said:

How can you applaud the convictions of a False Doctrine, when the Holy Spirit (GOD) revealed unto Moses that God Himself took dirt and spat into it forming a clay model and then basically did CPR blowing BREATHE into this creation giving it life?

I never claimed that Adam and Eve were not specially created by God. This is absolutely plausible. There is no scientific evidence against it.

Now, a special creation of Adam and Eve would most likely require the presence of other humans outside the Garden of Eden, but there is no reason that a special creation (or two, in this case!) could not have taken place exactly as described in literal terms.