tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086911779531294899.post2439552335648383220..comments2023-06-03T10:16:51.556+02:00Comments on Nature's Way in a Modern World: The Problem of Purpose (part 1)Juleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15177864294778546164noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086911779531294899.post-81376672911095407872008-07-30T05:05:00.000+02:002008-07-30T05:05:00.000+02:00so. I believe in God, and I like to believe there'...so. I believe in God, and I like to believe there's a bit of truth in Creationism, beyond the obvious "it's not science," because it isn't. Personally, I like to take it as a spiritual, and not a factual, origin of man. <BR/><BR/>I don't think Creationists are a bunch of fluffies out there trying to justify existence - Hobbes : "life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" - and no matter how much I love Palahniuk, I don't look at life in a nihilistic way. To say we only exist because our parents didn't die, which might be factually true, is ignoring the bigger, better story. We exist because we are the product of generations of progress. We exist because we stand on the shoulders of those who have died. We exist because we are the next step - or the next millimeter of the next step. We <I>have</I> to exist, to better ourselves, and not just sit around waiting to have babies and die. And the fact that human beings can <I>know</I> this, and <I>want</I> this, and assign value to non-physical things, and imagine, alone out of all the species on earth? and all the species that have gone extinct? that, to me, is something sacred, even if it came about by millions of years of a scientific progress.<BR/><BR/>Natural selection is a very nasty, imperfect process. However far it goes, it can never change its template. But natural selection is a perfect mechanism for breeding organisms to their purpose, however important or pointless that may be. It goes back to why God seems random, and cruel, and pointless, but at the end of the road is perfection, and beauty. A strange moth for every strange orchid. <BR/><BR/>So no, I don't think Creationism and evolution necessarily have to refute each other. If natural selection was God's creation, then turmoil exists because there is always another step to take.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com