2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, best known for his version of the theory of evolution. Polls have been done in various countries to discover how many people actually believe in evolution. Americans are much less likely to agree with the theory than in other developed nations. Only 39% accept evolution while 59% of Canadians do. In both countries over 20% flat-out don't believe in evolution, and I would imagine lots of them are conservative Christians.
People have left congregations I served because I accept evolution. Strangely, I have to admit that I am a "small C" creationist in that I believe in a Creator God. I just think that God has brought diversity to this planet through the process of evolving species, as random as that process would appear.
Which bring me to the photo above and the story that goes with it. While you may assume that it is of a baby elephant it is actually of a one-month old mammoth that lived 40,000 thousand years ago and was kept almost perfectly intact in the cold of Siberia. There were traces of its mother's milk in its stomach.
Mammoths are a species that became extinct relatively recently in the scheme of Earth's geological history. How do Creationists deal with these extinctions if God brought all species into being in one moment? Why allow certain creatures to disappear? There is plenty of evidence of other extinctions, of adaptations over the course of only a few generations, and -yes-- of evolution.
Any thoughts? Is this puzzling for you or have you "made your peace?"
2 comments:
I think the following may offer a scientific and reasonable explanation to this age old question:
A little girl asked her father: "How did the human race appear?" The father answered, "God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so was all mankind made."
Two days later, the girl asked her mother the same question. The mother answered, "Many years ago, there were monkeys from which the human race evolved."
The confused girl returned to her father, and said "Dad, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and mommy said it was developed by monkeys?"
The father answered, "Well, dear, it's very simple. I told you about my side of the family, and mommy told you about hers."
Cute.
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