Perhaps a little disclaimer is appropriate. I was born and raised in the middle of the Bible Belt, baptized at age 10, leader of my church youth groups in high school and college, have done some part time preaching and belong to a Southern Baptist Church. If you want to say my opinions toward the debate between evolution and creationism are somewhat slanted toward creationism, you would be correct. So it is with this disclaimer that I want to give my thoughts on the subject.
It is safe to say the scientific and "educated" communities firmly believe in the evolutionary development of the Earth and all creatures, plants, etc that make up our World. To suggest otherwise, is considered misinformed at best and ignorant at worst. But what is the opinion of those who question the majority opinion? Can we be evolutionary agnostics?
These are some of the questions I have for evolution.
1. When did the human species develop a conscience? If at some time during the evolutionary process, a conscience was developed in the human creature it must have been as the result of natural selection. That is, it's development had to offer a means of protecting the human otherwise the creature with conscience would not have survived, at least that is the position of evolution.
If conscience thought and the resulting ability to plan, communicate, remember, envision, have emotions and imagination, were helpful for the human creature to survive, why have none of the other creatures on Earth also developed a conscience to help in their survival?
You would think that over the several billion years of evolution, at least one other creature would have developed the ability to think, plan, remember, imagine, communicate and so on. Sadly, other creatures do not show the same level of development of conscience thought as humans.
Evolution is not selective, or is it?
2. Now this one is a bit far out, I admit. I went to the zoo the other day with my granddaughter. We happened to be observing the birds at the time when she asked an interesting question. She said, "Gramp, why are there so many different birds?" My simple answer was, "Because God wanted to have a lot of birds." That satisfied the five year old mind but it has hung around in this old man's head for a while.
When you think of the creatures of the Earth, there are a wide variety within most of the different species. Thousands of birds, multiple thousands of insects, numerous dogs, felines from lions to tabby cats, snakes and my personal favorites a lot of different fish.
Why so many different varieties within other creatures but only one variety of human? Yes, I am aware of Causians and Negro (No Virginia, this is not a dirty word, it is actually the correct word for those we call African-Americans) and Orientials. Within each there is a variety of skin colors, eye colors, heights and weights but not the wide difference found in other species.
With evolution causing the different turtles (Darwin first postulated his theory after observing different turtles on Easter Island.) and numerous birds, why haven't different human creatures been developed? You know what I mean, huge giants, tiny humans, ones who can reporduce without mating (That's another article.), ones with extrodinary hearing and vision, maybe even ones with an extra arm or extra eyes in the back of their head (as my mother also seemed to have.).
Is there something special about humans that has limited the number of extreme varieties to one?
3. I'm tired of thinking now. More later. My granddaughter and grandson want to go swimming. They swim like a fish, you know. I guess that is why I love them!
What do you think?
That's my View From the Fall.
Additional blog pages
"A person's life can be compared quite nicely to the four seasons of the year. This blog is from someone in the Winter of Life enjoying the fruits of his "Summer and Fall" and looking forward to assisting the growth and nourishment for the next generation.
My Father and Grandfather passed on their wisdom through their actions and their stories. This is probably be the most impactful way to pass on wisdom. But the written word can have an affect on lives that extends beyond the memories of a couple of generations. This blog is an attempt to reflection on my life experiences and pass these reflections to future generations of my own family as well as any others who might come across these pages.
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