Current description of the “Biological Evolution” Forum:
“Are today's species the products of descent with modification? Or are they the divine creation of God?”
The description for this topic may have been written innocently enough, however, it has some major flaws which indicate an evolutionist’s bias. Despite the fact that many aspects of this forum are biased in favor of evolutionists, I do perceive from what I have read that there is a sincere desire to present all sides fairly. Therefore, I’d like to ask that the description of this topic be modified.
The implication of the current description is that the Evolutionist’s position is that today’s species are the products of descent with modification, and that the creationist’s position is that they are the divine creation of God in their current form. Also, that either one or the other occurred. All of these assumptions are FALSE. In addition, it is falsely comparing completely different parts of the creation and evolutionary theories in that statement.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these issues. First, creationists DO NOT object to descent with modification, natural selection, mutations and so forth. In fact, these are essential to the creation model and are scientific facts and observations. The disagreement lies in interpreting these changes or modifications as being responsible for all of the diversity of life we see today evolving from a common ancestor over billions of years. Creationists believe that the ability of creatures to adapt to their environment is a design feature built into the original created kinds which have diversified within their kinds over the last 4500 to 6000 years. Therefore, it is not change, but the type of change which is in dispute and both statements in the current explanation of the Biological Evolution forum are true from the creationist’s perspective.
Second, you are implying that all life we see today was created by God in an immutable form. This is setting up a false straw man for the creationist position which can then be easily disproved. Creationist believe nothing of the sort, rather that God created the initial kinds of animals which have subsequently speciated and adapted to their environment (being initially rich in genetic information), but only within their kinds. Therefore, the life we see today may be very different from the initial created kinds. For example, there was an original “bear” kind, but now we have grizzlies and polar bears, just as we have different kinds of elephants (some extinct like the mammoth). A prolific evolutionary debater on this forum has said “I don't think you will find many evolutionists debating on this forum that subscribe to this straw man caricature of creationism. We've all moved past that naive view [immutable forms]”. If that is the case, I would expect that this forum description reflect that understanding.
Third and most important, the current description is falsely comparing “descent with modification” with “divine creation”. Both Creation and Evolutionary theory are explanations for how all of life that we see today came about and each has distinct chronological sequences. Evolutionary theory states that life evolved from an inorganic form in a primordial slime (abiogeneis) billions of years ago. The complimentary portion of Creation theory states that God created the initial kinds during creation week approximately 6000 years ago. These are equivalent viewpoints in each theory which can be debated on equal footing (and I believe are being debated in the “origins” forum).
The subsequent sequences in evolutionary theory state that all the diversity in life we see today arose from these initial prototype(s). Creation theory states that the diversity in life we see today arose from the initial created kinds (and only within their kinds). Therefore, if you exclude the creation of the initial prototype(s) (for which evolutionists have no explanation), you must also exclude the creation of the initial kinds (by God).
If you wish to exclude abiogenesis (which is part of evolutionary theory, but is relegated to it’s own forum), then the true debate in “Biological Evolution” should be the following:
“Did all the diversity of life we see today arise from a common ancestor(s) over billions of years (requiring the development of completely new features and kinds of life) or is it the result of the original created kinds adapting to their environment over approximately 4500 to 6000 years (requiring only variation within their kinds)”.
Sincerely . mw
™ Version 4.2