Modulous writes:
I understand that if all of natural history as presently known was shown false, this would cause serious problems for the natural origin of life - but I do not understand how a non-natural origin for life has an impact on the natural history that follow it.
I find that hard to believe.
What a non natural origin for life would prove is that life was created.
this would imply a supernatural first cause. It would also put an end to the silly notion that all living beings decended from a primordial soup.
Peg, stop and think for a second.
Let's pretend that there was a supernatural first cause. A life spark. NOT a magic Jew Wizard creating creatures out of clay.
HOW does that change what happened AFTER that? Whether or not life arose chemically or magically, what arose has subsequently gone through a series of changes for which we have a record.
Further, no one has been claiming primordial soup in a long time - but EVEN IF WE WERE, who are you to say that the divine spark didn't cause primordial soup?
I would say that it would have to be recognized that all living things were created individually and therefore trying to find linkages to ancestors would be a thing of the embarrasing past.
WHY?! You've absolutely gone from 0 to lightspeed without passing through ANY of the other speeds.
NO ONE is talking about a Magical Jew Wizard and his magic playdough in this scenario. You can not leap from "what if there were a non-natural source of first life" to "every single thing which ever existed or ever will exist is individually created by a single Jew".
It's a ridiculous leap.
Scientists could focus more on genetics and work at important things such as disease control and how to feed the starving millions...
Without evolution sciences could not work in these fields AT ALL.
Without evolution there is no explanation for disease aside from "God hates you". The seasonal flu virus would have to have been specifically made by God with the intention of killing people. Trying to cure it would be BLASPHEME.
Further, trying to feed people would likewise require changing God's plan. If people were to starve it would be because God didn't want them to have food. We could plant any seed anywhere and have a rational expectation that if God wanted them to live, he'd make a plant grow which could survive the desert/permafrost/flooding and give them food. If he didn't, he wants them to die.
how to treat and dispose of sewage safely.
If there is bacteria and sickness in sewage it's because God INDIVIDUALLY created EACH AND EVERY ONE of those things and PUT it there with the intention of making people sick. TRying to FIX God's mistake is blaspheme.
They could spend their time working out how to extend the life of telomeres and slow the aging process, they could find a cure for the common cold or more serious ailments like Aids which is said to kill 60million people over the next 20 years.
Again. In your world God created not just AIDS but ALL of the hundreds of thousands of sub-varients of AIDS. Trying to cure it would be an afront to his "plan".
But i guess to many scientists, proving evolution is just as important as any of the above.
NOTHING you've cited is fixable EXCEPT through a biology with an understanding of evolution.
It's YOU, the Creationist, who is arguing that these things are DELIBERATELY created by God with cruel intentions. Without evolution there is LITERALLY no other explanation for things like H1N1. If children die from this "swine flu" it's because God deliberately wanted to kill them.