This is not exactly on topic, and excuse me if you alreay know this, but I wanted to point out something:
The Big Bang has nothing to do with evolution. The former occurred billions of years (presumably) before the latter began. In addition, evolution had been observed well before Darwin’s time. Darwin suggested a mechanism (natural selection) whereby evolution could occur.
Sorry about the diversion.
-Apoptosis
I rarely refer to myself at all…
Well thusfar I haven’t seen any description to match your beliefs, even though I think there are a lot of people out there who agree with you. Basically though I think it’s more than fair to not title a specific category for the middle ground of this debate. There are many variations that could be presented, such as the OEC to your views, and there’s really no benefit IMO to labelling everyone’s views into specific categories. For me, I’d like to just call myself a believer in creation via evolution.
There is a great short story by Asimov that goes along this lines, although he was wrong, probably intentionally, about the authorship of Genesis.
It sounds as if you may actually be an agnostic evolutionist… rather than a deist of a sort.
massively simplistic but you are a “believer.”
if you believe in god you are simply a believer…
if you don’t you will burn in hell, like me, a non believer.
i call myself a “born again atheist.”
What’s a ‘day’ to God anyway? Maybe one of his days is the same as 1 billion earth years.
I figure it this way: the creation story of genesis is, for lack of a better term, a way for God to ‘dumb-down’ the concept of the formation of life, the universe, and everything so that the primitive human could understand it. After all, how would YOU explain something as complex as the formation of the universe to a primative mind without any frame of reference?
I imagine it going something like this:
Adam/Eve: How did all of this get started?
God: Well, for a long time there was nothing. Then a huge explosion, and over billions of years the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets.
Adam/Eve: Planets? Stars? Galaxies? Years?
God: Ok, I’ll rephrase. in the first eon, I created light. In the second eon I created Earth. In the third eon…
Adam/Eve: Sorry to interrupt, God, but what’s an eon?
God (becoming somewhat frustrated): How about this: Day 1, I created light. Day 2, water and sky. Day 3, land and plants…
Adam/Eve: Ok, I think I see what you’re getting at here. Thanks, God!
“Directed evolution” or “guided evolution” sum up my beliefs pretty well: that God has guided/is guiding evolution towards a specific end.
JWEB: LMAO!! What a clever way of putting it!
I actually heard that the original word in the bible used was “yom” – as in, “On the first [yom], God created light” and that the word “yom” means either a “day” or “a period of time”. Later, of course, literalists blah blah blah…
Otherwise – has anyone thought it odd that, after years of research, science figured out the order the earth was created – and it corresponds with the order in Genesis?
And what difference would it make whether it took God one literal day or billions of years – was He in a rush?
Unfortunately, for those who wish to align Genesis and evolution, this statement is not true.
The Genesis order is:
[ol][li]Light[/li][li]Firmament (We’ll call this the heavens, although there are other ways to view it)[/li][li]Earth, (separation of Earth from waters), plants[/li][li]Sun, moon, stars[/li][li]Fish and Birds[/li]li Animals, Humans[/ol][/li]However, even ignoring for a moment that we need the stars to generate light and granting the poetic license of calling the Big Bang “Light,” there is no way that plants preceded the creation of the sun, moon, and stars, so days 2 and 3 are clearly reversed.
Things swimming in the sea (loosely identified as “fish”) most likely preceded terrestial plants (the ones mentioned in Genesis), so that pair is in the wrong sequence.
Similarly, Birds (whether or not they arose from dinosaurs, as they likely did), did not arise before terrestial animals: they clearly sprang from terrestial beasts of some sort. Therefore birds on day 5 are an error.
The details are so much more convoluted than can ever be laid out in the six creation points scenario, that it is simply wishful thinking to try to match them.
Minor point of correction to the title. The word “Darwinism” is generally not used outside of YEC (or perhaps certain OEC) circles.
“Darwinist” carries the connonation of being a cult dedicated to one man’s teachings.
Whether you use it or not is up to you (this is not the Pit or GD after all); just thought you’d like to know that “Darwinist” and “Darwinism” are two terms that were invented by YECs. You probably won’t find either term in any scientific literature.
Correction: any mainstream scientific literature. [/hijack]