If It Hasn't Got A Tail It's Not A Monkey*


Two interesting essays on the conundrum that is Evolutionary Theory.

First, from Lee Harris at TCS Daily, Why We Are Still Arguing About Darwin

And from New Wineskins, The Myth of Time + Chance = Mankind


Both pose interesting observations about the Theory of Evolution. Excellent quotes, "Thou shalt not act like a monkey—this is the essence of all the higher religions, and the summation of all ethical systems." from the first essay.

And What’s glossed over in that budding scientific understanding of complex and self-organizing systems, fractals, chaos theory and the like is whether all types of ordered complexity can be created this way. from the second.


Personally, the issue is a non-starter for me. If you really believe in a Sovereign God, then that God is sovereign over all things, and questioning his methods is an exercise in hubris. You weren't there, so claiming one method over another as correct is silly. I am not smart enough to tell God what to do, especially in retrospect.

Besides, if you really are tied to a literal reading of the first two chapters of Genesis, then the "lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night,... [that] serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years..." were made on the fourth day. If the Sun was not made till the fourth day, then a literal reading of Genesis precludes the creation happening in seven 24 hour periods, because there was no 24 hour day before the "fourth day".

To stake all faith on the ability to precisely understand one small passage is counter-productive. If you perfectly understood everything, you wouldn't need faith.


* with apologies to VeggieTales (click the middle title, "Monkey")