From: Brent Allsop (allsop@fc.hp.com)
Date: Mon Apr 09 2001 - 09:53:27 MDT
Jim Fehlinger <fehlinger@home.com> quoted Niles Eldredge:
> "There are... many people who believe literally that the notion of
> biological evolution is the work of the devil... I have spent over
> twenty years talking with, debating, and reading the literature of
> creationists... I remain convinced that their unrelenting hatred of
> the very idea of evolution stems from their concept of morality:
> where morals come from, and why people behave in a moral fashion
> (when they do). The argument is simple: the Bible says that
> 'mankind' was created in God's image. If that is not true, if
> instead we are descended from the apes, then there is no reason
> whatsoever to expect humans to behave in a godlike, moral fashion.
> We would, instead, be expected to behave like 'animals.' The
> conviction is deeply held.
I can't figure out how creationists can make this kind of an
argument. It is so completely twisted and backwards. The average
human is clearly not perfectly moral, not to mention some extremely
below average humans. If such immoral beings truly were created "in
the image of" som all powerful God, or by such a God, then we are all
truly screwed and there is no hope for us forever.
Yet, if we evolved from lower life forms, yet so many of us
are still able to achieve the high level of morality they do, that is
the most fantastic thing of all. In this case we really do have a
hope and prayer of growing and continuing to become more moral and
better people.
"J. R. Molloy" <jr@shasta.com> posted this quote:
> " ...is God unable to prevent suffering and thus not omnipotent? or
> is he able but not willing to prevent it and thus not merciful?"
> --Walter Kaufmann
This is the plain and simple truth which even a child can
grasp (until his mind is corrupted in Sunday School.) I hope that
long before there is anything close to an all powerful God, evils like
isolation, death, suffering... will have long since been overcome. As
long as there is evil, no such great God exists by definition. The
theists that claims to have "faith and hope" is a liar because to
accept that there is already such a God, yet still evil, is not faith
and hope, but the ultimate in giving up in despair. The atheist is
the only person that can honestly have true and faith and hope.
Brent Allsop
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