Robin writes:
Man came late in the evolutionary process. For billions of years before that, life forms battled each other on a killing field in the pre-Fall world. This was so because life was set up in such way that the only way creatures could survive was by feeding off other life forms.
What manner of God would produce such a system? A cruel God, not the God of Christianity.
...
Hence, evolution and Christianity (of the traditional sort) do not mix.
Hi, Robin. We discussed this privately, but I hope you won't mind me sharing some of it publicly, because I think something of your essence is in it.
You'll recall that I asked you, what difference does it make if we arose by evolution or by a creator's fiat?
The world is "red in tooth and claw" now, however it arose. Whether this struggle for survival has contradicted the notion of a loving God for merely six millennia or for billions of years makes only a difference of degree. The contradiction, Sir (I said, knowing you would appreciate the Victorian rhetoric and commas), is absolute--only the length of its existence is in question.
You sent me a rare smilie for that, and as you know, I treasure smilies because we are often too grim a folk.
You were a beautiful boy, Robin, and in the pictures of your later years I see the same poet's eyes, shadowed a bit by the largeness of the light and dark a boy could not suspect but a man must necessarily discover.
You once impatiently told jar that beauty was no longer a sufficient reply to suffering, but I have seen you now with your loved ones, and I know that beauty, and its handmaidens, love and truth, were enough. They are always enough.
That's all, Rob. You were wrong. You were right. See you soon.
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