There are many excellent resources available on the interest which address controversial issues in the creation/evolution dialogue. One I just ran across is the “Science Meets Religion” site, which is the creation of David H. Bailey of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (recently retired) and the University of California, Davis. The site is very well-organized and accessible. Bailey sees no grounds for disagreement between science and religion.
The Science Meets Religion home page has links to an active blog, lists of essays and further resources, and also to “Q&A” pages that deal with questions in specific areas, such as “Theology”, “Physics and Cosmology”, and “Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent “.
The Q&A: Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design page lists 26 questions that are germane to current discussions in this area. I will show a snapshot of the first 18 of these questions, to give their flavor:
Each question has a link to the short essay answering that question. Bailey is familiar with young earth creationist literature, and provides clear, relevant responses. Because Bailey has worked in probability and computational biology, he is able to expertly treat issues of information and evolution.
In his answer to the question, “ Can evolution generate truly novel biological features?” he lists 13 clear examples of new features or capabilities which evolved within a few thousand years (e.g. human adaptations), a few decades, or in just a few years (e.g. Trinidad guppies), showing that the pace of evolution is not impossibly slow.
The reference seems well-written and well-organized. Thanks for the link.
Hi Jim, good to hear from you. I hope this link is useful. Best regards…
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This is interesting because I have recently been exposed to Perry Marshall’s new book Evolution 2.0. Perry is an expert in information science, and he believes that DNA is a code. Not in a metaphorical sense, but in a real sense.
I haven’t read the book, but I’ve been following him for a few years now and he had a video series on it a few years back on YouTube where he fleshed out some of these ideas.
Sounded compelling at the time, and a part of.me would like it to be true. To have some solid tangible evidence of a wholly spiritual and invisible Creator of all. But I’m pretty much convinced this is impossible and that belief in a Creator requires exactly what the Bible says it does: faith.
Not many Christians like only having faith to go on.
Dave,
re: ” belief in a Creator requires exactly what the Bible says it does: faith.” I think you nailed it.
I think that if God wanted to arrange things so that faith was unnecessary, He could have, but has chosen not to. As Jesus put it, “No sign shall be given them except the sign of Jonah”. If you are interested, I tried to noodle through what we can reasonably conclude about God from what is observable in nature here: https://letterstocreationists.wordpress.com/2014/06/28/a-survey-of-biblical-natural-theology/
The Bible of course speaks of faith as necessary to receive the word of God through his son Jesus, but it also affirms that by conremplating his works of creation human reason alone can bring us to belief in God. The best examples are:
But even so, they have no excuse: if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world, how have they been so slow to find its Master? (Wisdom 13:8-9)
For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them, since God made it plain to them: ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting word have been clearly seen by the mind’s understanding of created things. And so these people have no excuse. (Romans 1:19-20)
The Bible of course speaks of faith as necessary to receive the word of God through his son Jesus, but it also affirms that by contemplating his works of creation human reason alone can bring us to belief in God. The best examples are:
But even so, they have no excuse: if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world, how have they been so slow to find its Master? (Wisdom 13:8-9)
For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them, since God made it plain to them: ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting word have been clearly seen by the mind’s understanding of created things. And so these people have no excuse. (Romans 1:19-20)