Friday, June 08, 2012

Creation v evolution

Whether you are a creationist or evolutionists it is self evident that evolution is a necessity for the expansion of life. No doubt science can explain much of the process but certainly not all. How for example did life organise itself into an interconnected, interdependent, self balancing chain? How did cells decide that they should evolve into specific organs, skeletons and species and so on? Unproven assumptions are made by both evolutionists and creationists based on the observable world i.e. we started as single cells which over a period of time developed organs, skeletons, legs, arms, wings ad infinitum. No one however has ever convincingly explained how.

I've watched a lot of David Attenbrough programs on the natural world and we are asked simply to "accept" that these steps occurred without any proof or explanation as to how! This however does not lend more or less support to either the creationist or evolutionists camps. It simply leaves a gap in our understanding.

It is because science cannot answer all the questions that philosophers come into their own. They go into realms that science by it's very nature cannot. Science studies the world through microscopes rather like a mechanic trying to work out how a machine functions or not as the case may be. He is not concerned with who made the rocks from which the metals were made or the fossils from which the plastics and fuel were derived. He is concerned only about how the engine functions. He is in fact analysing a creation that has evolved from brimstone and fire so to speak.

That is what scientists do. They analyse a creation that exists. One cannot study the inexistent. If that creation is the manifestation of an intelligent consciousness and they cannot prove that it is not, then they are studying the work of it's creator.

If on the other hand the creation is a freak random accident with no purpose or logic doomed to extinction, then life is a pointless exercise in futility, as is evolution and all the suffering and rare joy that it entails. It is all for nothing and that includes the science behind it. Why bother to evolve? Why bother to understand? Why suffer? None of it has any purpose. That is an intolerable and senseless state in which there are no consequences for right or wrong. What does it matter whether we destroy ourselves and the world, whether we rape, pillage or murder? The end result would be the same whether we make peace, love and build or make war, hate and destroy! Is that believable? Is that more believable than the opposite state where right and wrong matter and everything has purpose and consequence? The answer is there for all to see.

We now know thanks to quantum physics that because everything including ourselves is made of exactly the same matter, the entire universe and ourselves are part of a unified entity. Could the universe function in an orderly and balanced way, if everything was separate and disconnected from everything else. The answer has to be absolutely impossible. Thus there IS purpose in the design without which it could not function. That purpose is reflected in everything we see including and especially evolution.

The purpose of evolution is to attain perfection. Compare the first automobile with today's design or the first flying machine with Concorde. Compare the first organisms with the complex life forms we now see. Compare the ignorance of stone age humanity with the growing enlightenment of modern beings. In the face of the overwhelming evidence that surrounds us one cannot but conclude that life is filled with purpose and that there is a right way and a wrong way, the consequences of which are clearly visible.

The only possible conclusion is that the universe is a conscious entity. This is becoming clearer with experiments showing consciousness in plants and even water. Everything is conscious at some level. As already stated it is impossible to see how the universe could function without being self conscious. Indeed this universal consciousness must be an evolving entity because everything is a reflection of its own nature. What we see around us is the evidence of it's own truth. To pretend that that which we witness all around us is other than it is, is the greatest deception of all.

I therefore see no conflict between evolution and creationism. They are one and the same thing. Evolution is the result of struggle without which universal life would inevitably stagnate and wither. Through struggle life adapts and becomes stronger. Thus there is purpose in struggle and thus there is purpose in life. Our universe is flourishing and expanding as it must in order to survive. This is not a freak random phenomenon that came from nothing (scientifically impossible) that will end in nothing. There never was nothing and there will never be nothing. Out of nothing, nothing can come.

4 comments:

@PaulSteinbrueck said...

I appreciate that you're willing to dive into such a significant discussion. I'm afraid I can't agree that "the only possible conclusion is that the universe is a conscious entity."

The atheist would argue that evolution has no purpose or intention. Evolution is a natural, unconscious process that happens because the best adaptations survive while the weakest die off.

The creationist would argue that the creator is a conscious entity who created things and systems to function according to His purpose. To put this in human terms, if you create a watch, we would not consider the watch conscious but rather functioning according to the purpose you designed it to fulfill.

I think you're on to something though when it comes to our perception of purpose. If there was no purpose to the universe, why would we human beings be constantly looking for meaning and purpose? I think that's a pretty good indication that we were created by a Creator for a purpose. :)

Thanks for the post.

Speakeezie said...

Perhaps I have not explained clearly enough what I mean by the universe being a conscious entity. I mean that the sub-atomic particles/molecules that make up everything are imbued with a form of intelligence. Electrons know they cannot share the same space for example. When they are energised they move, meaning that every electron in the universe must also move. Thus the universe is a heaving mass of activity reacting to shifts of energy and frequency.

As Einstein said, if there are laws (Physics) it is logical to assume there is a law maker. He did not believe in a God who was occupied with the minutae of our personal lives. He believed rather in Spinoza's interpretation of a grand designer.

Either way the evolutionary process is essential to the sustenance and progression of life in it's many forms whether created consciously or not.

Without life there would be nothing. Thus the existence of life is the something which makes the difference between the one state and the other. Thus the purpose of life is the extistence of a state of being as opposed to nothingness.

The process by which this state of something exists is written into the laws of physics which means that every molecules, photon, electron, etc., is coded with instructions as to it's role in the creation and sustenance of this state of something which is not
nothing - which we know as life.

The purpose therefore of life is it's own existence. Because life has purpose then everything connected to it by definition must also be imbued with the same purpose.

This means that everything you see and don't see is designed to ensure the existence of a state of something (life) and it is designed to evolve. We are the living proof of that fact.

As I said in as many words in the article, perfection can only be attained through a process of evolution. The ultimate goal is a state of perfect existence.

Amber Benson said...

Berdyaev would argue that God is still creating. Perhaps evolution is only our perception of a continuing act of creation through the lens of human knowledge. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God stopped creating after the 7th day, in fact, as far as in Revelation he is said to be making "all things new."

Speakeezie said...

Thanks Amber for your comment. I think you are probably right. In a way evolution is part of the creative process, expanding, improving and perfecting. Human evolution is a journey towards enlightenment and the perfection of love.