Reconciling Genesis and Evolution

[_Drifting]

Aren't you the one who believes evolution is directed by a higher intelligence?

I believe God created the earth yes.

No you don't.
You believe Jehovah and Michael created the earth under the distant supervision of Elohim.

[_Buffalo]

But the evidence for either is zero.

So is the evidence for the nonexistence of God. There will be a few who give their opinions, but no scientist will say, in a scientific sense, that evolution precludes God.

Oh no. There is plenty of evidence for the non-existence of any specific god you care to mention.

But, as usual, you're engaging in strawman. I'm not saying that evolution precludes god, just that there is no evidence of any divine tinkering in evolution. There could well be billions of gods (whatever that might mean) out there, keeping quietly to themselves. But all the evidence says they're not tinkering with evolution.

[_bcspace]

While god may be unable to create a rock so heavy that he can't lift it, he is able to produce two western hemisphere Judeo-Christian cultures that no one, himself included, can find an evidence of

How do you know?

[_Brackite]

I do believe in both God and in Evolution. I Personally don't see a problem with God using Evolution to eventually develop human life.

[_Stormy Waters]

So your argument is that evolution is the best God can do?

Not necessarily. Although it stands to reason that whatever God does is the best He can do. But it IS a fatal flaw in your argument.

God appears very limited if he has to resign himself to a process that takes 4 billion years.

Why is this a problem?

Because the God of the Bible is omnipotent. Evolution is not the best he can do. It's not likely he would waste his time using evolution.

This seems an unlikely scenario for a God that can part the red sea, heal the sick, turn water into wine, and walk on water.

Perhaps those are reserved for the blessing of the faithful or warnings for the unfaithful. But it's not up to me to find answers for what is. Why does God have us going through an inefficient sexual process to reproduce and why don't we just appear on earth as adults and not have to go through the stage of childhood?

That's your question to answer. Not mine.

So evolution through supernatural selection.

With the right initial conditions, I don't think it would take more than a few nudges imho.

With God himself guiding this process it takes about 2.8 billion years from the first single celled organism to multi-celluar organisms. Nearly 3/4 of the total time is spent on single celled organisms. If God had his hand in the process you would imagine that things would have progressed much quicker.

Why would He not be satisfied with natural process? Perhaps He's bound to them and knowing them far better than we do, can use them.

Because he doesn't want to waste 3 billion years. Bound to them? Are you saying he can't interfere with the process?

It seems an odd coincidence that God opted to use a process where his influence is completely invisible.

Any way you go, Creationism or Evolution, it's invisible. But the effects are not.

If all life started 7,000 years ago out of the blue we wouldn't be able to come up with a natural explanation on how it happened. Currently we do have a natural explanation for creation.

[_bcspace]

Why is this a problem?

Because the God of the Bible is omnipotent. Evolution is not the best he can do. It's not likely he would waste his time using evolution.

The flaw here is that evolution can still be the best He can do (not a requirement by the way) and still be omnipotent.

Perhaps those are reserved for the blessing of the faithful or warnings for the unfaithful. But it's not up to me to find answers for what is. Why does God have us going through an inefficient sexual process to reproduce and why don't we just appear on earth as adults and not have to go through the stage of childhood?

That's your question to answer. Not mine.

Then your own question must be irrelevant. Actually, it's not must, it's is. Have merely been humoring you for conversational purposes.

Bound to them? Are you saying he can't interfere with the process?

We already know God is bound by laws, to act within them or cease to be God. Therefore He may be bound by natural or even spiritual laws as to what and how He can do things.

[_Stormy Waters]

The flaw here is that evolution can still be the best He can do (not a requirement by the way) and still be omnipotent.

How terribly convient for you. God is obligated to use a process that is completely possible without him. He also doesn't care that he is wasting billions of years.

[_huckelberry]

God is obligated to use a process that is completely possible without him. He also doesn't care that he is wasting billions of years.

Starting from the view that God has no shortage of time, I was not understanding this idea of wasting time in creation.

But I tried on different images of God and realized I was being narrow. If I imagine God as an executive in a suit it is possible he has many meeting some of which are a bore. If his whole purpose is bring to pass eternal life for a whole lot of difficult children then the demands of those meetings might be a real time strain. When would he ever find time to enjoy existence? Time could be a serious problem and expending a few billion years on bacteria building the biosphere would be an incomprehensble use of time.

From my view God being eternal has no shortage of time. He may well have vast areas of interest beyond people . I do not imagine God using evolution but instead creating its possiblity. There is no atomic structure to be the building blocks for molecules which are the building blocks for living beings which may evolve with out God first creating them. there are no processes possible without Gods creation. It is a very rich project in which the time of its unfolding is part of the beauty. But that is a different point of view.