Inge writes:
Indeed, I am Dutch
Now how did I guess that?
Thank you for all your reactions! It really helped me!
And I'm sure I will visit this forum more often, I am really interested in those things. (I noticed this during the last few weeks, when I was working on my assignment
Good, this is a very good place to learn about these things, and more.
I already had one "argument" which is maybe more or less related
to Rahvin's reply:
"It is argued that evolution would require some kind of guidance to guarantee that random variation combined with undirected selection would produce any particular creature. There are simply too many accidents involved without guidance." (I have this from another site)
Ok, you could say that. However, I see a bit of an error in it
.
You say "Too many accidents without guidance". The thing is, evolution IS guided, kinda. Natural selection ensures that all traits that are beneficial will be spread, while anything that is detrimental will die off fairly quickly. So, only the good traits survive making all the "accidents" irrelevant.
Another argument I have (maybe not directly related to guidance by god, but to faith/belief), is a question James and Clifford ever proposed:
Must ALL your beliefs be dictated by the evidence you have and by nothing else?
I've got a counter question to that one: "If one only accepts evidence, does one even have a belief?".
Further I also talk about some "gaps" in the Big Bang theory,
Would you mind telling of some, yes it will be off-topic, but a few posts won't matter, I guess. And I wouldn't want you to put false information in your report. I'm guessing it's for your school? Better have accurate information in it then.
the first organisms and the origin of DNA (to support creation by God).
While the arguments might still be valid as of yet, it is essentially playing the god of the gaps argument, and that hasn't worked very well in the past.
The evidence for the evolution theory (to support that evolution is true), but after that I want to convince people that
evolution should be guided by god (The only thing I still need to work on).
The problem you run into here (the most obvious one to me at least) is that you can NEVER show it has to be YOUR god that is doing the guiding. It could just as easily be another one.
The presentation and essay don't have to prove that the story of God is true, but it has to be persuasive, So I hope I am!
Well, unless the people you are holding it for are already convinced god exists, it might be a bit hard to persuade them it is indeed your god that is doing it all. An example. Do you think that if you told Muslims that it was indeed the Christian god (I'm assuming you are a Christian) that was guiding evolution, do you think they would accept it? Or try it the other way around, if a Muslim told you it was Allah guiding it, would you accept it?
My point here? That one needs a predisposition of already believing in the particular god that the case is being made for to accept it is indeed that god that is guiding it all.
By the way ... I will go to a lecture from Cees Dekker (see wikipedia for information about him ), and if he has some interesting things to say (I'm sure about that) I will definitely
let you know! (if I get his permission)
Sounds interesting, from what I've seen of him, he knows a lot about all this stuff. However, I don't think he can give you any tips on how to convince people that god is behind evolution (I could be wrong though, I don't know him personally) since, from what I've seen, his position is something like: "I simply believe god is behind it, because I don't see any other way it could be". Which is fine, but I don't think you're going to convince anyone that doesn't already believe in your god that that is indeed what is happening.
Long story short: If one doesn't believe in a particular god, one is not easily convinced it is that god that is behind anything at all.
Oh, and Fosdick, I think Inge is a she, not a him. (going by the name here, correct me if I'm wrong)
I hunt for the truth