“Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local community. The list serve is called Vision 20/20, and hence the name “visionaries.”
Dear visionaries,
Henry replied with seven groupings of answers, and I would like to reply in kind, albeit briefly.
1. His first point amounts to saying that there is no conspiracy of “Darwinists.” As evidence for this, he points to all the conferences they have and the vast amount of work they do together.
2. Allow me to repeat my initial question again in another form. All life is related. I am blood cousin to the moose, the canary, the dog, the postman, the condor, and the elk. I am allowed to shoot the elk at particular times of the year, but not the postman. How come? What is the line of demarcation and why? Who drew it, and who left him in charge?
3. If evolution is going on as we speak, at the speed of generations, then what happens if the process slows down in one branch and speeds up in another? And suppose the difference between cul de sac man and the Overman becomes greater than the evolutionary difference currently existing between us and our dogs. At that point is it legitimate for Overman to make us all wear mankind collars and get neutered or spayed? Why or why not?
4. You mistake the point of my posts entirely. I do not want the doctrine of Creation to be taught in the government schools. I would rather be dead in a ditch than have Creation taught in the government schools. I heartily wish you all would continue to teach evolution in the schools just as you are currently doing. I headed for the tall grass twenty years ago.
5. I agree that there was a scientist in the 1850s who had very little data to go on and extrapolated too much from his data. Where we differ is that I believe that very little has changed in this respect.
6. My use of “your liberal sensibilities” was confusing. I was using the second person plural, speaking of all “you vision2020 types,” not “you Henry.” My apologies.
7. Okay, you’re on. I believe that God had the power to create by means of evolution had He chosen to do so. In fact, this is the only way to possibly account for such a miraculous series of “against all odds events.” I do not believe He did do so, but He certainly had the power, and blind chance acting on inchoate matter does not have this power. But because He is good, He would not have chosen the meat grinder of natural selection as His means of creation. At Creation, God looked at all that He had made, and behold it was very good. Death came later, as the result of human pride and (unsuccessful) attempts at autonomy — the kind of unsuccessful autonomy that undergirds all current forms of government education.
All forms of death and suffering therefore post-date mankind’s rebellion against God.