On Evolution

First of all, I just watched some Boston Legal with my Dad. As far as legitimate dromedies (thats, dramatic comedy) go, it's THE best written I've ever seen. It's got legitimate legal practice mixed with humor and serious intelligence and hits hard on actual issues. But I noticed a few things about the lawyering portrayed on the show. Mainly that the lawyers exhibit strong skills reflecting deep psychological knowledge, acting skill, and philosophical backgrounds. They know how people function, know how to lie or speak in such a way that is convincing, and in their most compelling arguments don't cite complicated legal code, but ask deep, probing questions about humanity. In the last one, Alan Shore asked what it means to be a human. What kind of question is more philosophical than that? And tell me, what academic field involves the detailed study of morality, ethics, and logic? Philosophy!

So what would be the BEST preparatory undergraduate study for a rising lawyer? PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, AND THEATER! What Am I doing? haha. See, I have a plan. I've had a plan all along.

Onto the topic at hand.

I'm going to go into an involved discussion about evolution or creation. I am a Christian but I am also a firm believer in evolution. Thus, I believe in intelligent design. That is, an evolutionary process that was set in motion according to the will and omniscience of a creator with a plan. I believe that in my view, all of science is compatible with religion.

Again, that's not the point. I'm going to set aside my beliefs (sort of) and outline the mythology that both camps of the debate subscribe to.

First, creation. Now, I have to admit... Creation, to the non-believer, sounds far-fetched. If you have no concept of the power of a omnipotent being, then I can imagine how crazy it sounds. We start off with a vacuous abyss. Then, God molds the earth. It happens, as I assume, suddenly. Genesis simply says, "in the beginning." I assuming it is much like the ancient Egyptians say, that is, out of an infinite ocean came Atun and he created all that is (more or less). Specifically, Genesis says "the earth was without form and void" so I imagine this is the case. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." See the similarity?

In a talk I gave a while ago, I mentioned the word eschatology and said in passing that many religions hold the similar mythologies as Christianity. Maybe some will say, "No Dylan, that's absurd." But it's true. If you read ancient creation stories and ancient myths about the end of times, you'll see that they all sounds incredibly alike. I say that these were passed down by the will of someone much greater than I with a plan greater than I can imagine. I say that there is truth in all these stories because they were inspired by a divine entity.

Anyway, So God says let there be light and there is night and day and then he creates Heaven, land, plants, seasons (except in places like Florida and the arctic lololol), stars, birds, whales, animals, and man. He made Adam and Eve and the rest is history. We know that Adam and Eve were kicked out (for lack of a better phrase) from Paradise and then we have humans.

Now again, I believe this story for the most part. There are certainly parts I find hard to believe. Most importantly, I know that we are here through a plan greater than our own. I don't need to get into what I do/don't believe/understand and why because that's not the case. But it's easy to see how one might not believe this stuff. It's a lot to get around their heads. But as I know it, faith opens many doors, even unto knowledge.

So... the other side is EVOLUTION. Dun dun dunnnnnnn... Here's how the story goes.

One day there was a burning hot singularity sitting in the middle of a vacuous black abyss. Before that there was possibly another universe--who knows. Then, the thing just up and exploded. Maybe it got too hot or maybe spun too fast--who knows. It erupted and sent crap flying everywhere and because of what we know about matter and possibly dark matter (which as Mr. Gregorio puts it, "explains a lot of stuff we can't otherwise explain), things started clumping

Actually, let me go back to that for a second. For those who completely discount Creation because "evolution makes so much more empirical and scientific sense," can we talk about "dark matter?" An invisible undetectable thing that only exists because it satisfies a HUGE variable in the equation? Because its the only thing that explains how the universe can spin without flying apart? Hahaha... you guys...

Anyway, so stuff starts clumping together (and I sincerely apologize for any hardcore scientists who would hang me for paraphrasing this in such a cavalier way) and stars form from gas that collects which came out of the large, dense floating ball of everything. Around these burning balls of gas clump other matter which clumped from other matter. So we now, at this point, have burning balls of gas with matter spinning around them. One of these happens to be in the Milky Way galaxy in our very own solar system which doesnt have a name. One of these spinning balls of matter is EARTH! Ta-da! But wait, at this point, Earth is a giant ball of FIRE! Ahh! (sorry I'm being incredibly insensitive to this.) So it's burning and it's burning and then it stops burning and... well gosh I don't remember how we got from A to C on this one (Sorry Gregorio) but somehow the earth stops burning and the atmosphere settles and then we have WATER! Then somehow we have PLANTS! Ta-da!

Now comes the best part. So we have this semi-new semi-volatile earth and it's probably raining a lot and there are some trees (probably palm trees) and a ton of water...

oh wait I forgot! An asteroid or something hits the earth and breaks off some stuff and forms the MOON!

Anyway, so it's raining and crap and just like a sci-fi movie where an asteroid hits and is full of aliens, an asteroid hits the young earth and I guess it's full of CELLS! Not just any cells... but SINGLE CELLS. I mean, SINGLE-CELLED ORGANISMS... I guess. Anyway, somehow these single celled organisms ride this asteroid through the volatile atmosphere and land in the water. They stew for a hundred years or something or there's a lightning strike and they start multiplying and form fish. And the fish grow legs and form the TYRANNOSAURUS REX. But some grow legs and form other things like lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and likely monkeys. But not in that order. Anyways, the T-rex dies and then I guess Pangaea breaks apart at some point and then monkeys turn into humans somewhere in Africa and they migrate and there's an ice age blah blah blah and then they build New York City!

Sorry. Really, I'm sorry that wasn't fair. I shouldn't trivialize these well-thought out theories that may be based on a modicum of science. I mean it makes some sense to theorize based on old stuff we found but that's like saying it's going to rain today only based on the fact that it rained Saturday of last week (which it didn't). That's also the fundamental problem with the scientific theory, empiricism, and inductive reasoning in general... Making PREDICTIONS based on observations of things that happened in the past. Sure, you can be 99% certain sometimes and maybe even 100% but there's no rational reason to think that the world won't flip upside down the next time. Not the point.

I just think that the theory of evolution, while very plausible, has some holes in it. Additionally, you have to admit, that it sounds a little crazy (especially when I talk about it). Sure, an arbitrary creation is no less crazy sounding, but at least Creation covers all the plot holes.

I'm not telling anyone what to believe. I'm just saying that on their own, these stories have their faults. But an omniscient, omnipotent being who set these events in motion... now that's something I can sink my rational teeth in to.

And if I'm wrong, as always, I'm happy to talk about it. Convince me wrong, please. I'll happily admit it.