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Ex 2:10
And the lad groweth, and she bringeth him in to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he is to her for a son, and she calleth his name Moses, and saith, `Because -- from the water I have drawn him.'
the account in genesis does seem to use the word 'God' in a double sense.
in one sense an actual being that created the universe
and in the other sense a force of life drawing living things away from death and toward itself
in this sense it can be thought of as the logic endpoint of evolution.
It still works, by golly! Brings 'em in to the big tent! Quick! Pass the plate!
Sadly and demonstrably, the Genesis account is fraught with contradictions, impossibilities and irrational conclusions. All those problems have since been hastily and falsely addressed in modern times by fantasy Christian versions and "corrections" to, variously, the chronological model, the geological model and virtually every other problem issue that the biblical account failed to explain, or in which it produced factual anomalies. A few quick examples?
If God adjusted the time line for Genesis, why did He still get several parts of it logically backwards? And why never again? Why did He, of all entities, need to do it this way?
And why is there literally no mention of the requisite massive herds of tame () carnivorous or macro-herbivorous dinosaurs, or the other 3000+ known species (there were probably at least 10,000 species in total over the course of their time here on earth, before the catastrophic termination event, also not mentioned in the bible...).
Or, how does He explain the total implausibility & impossibility of a Global Fludd inundation event, with it's impossible rescue of "all the types and kinds" of beast on the planet. Q: what about all the plants, not to mention all the fresh-water aquatic life, or the marine life, totally eliminated by being flooded for 18 mo at least by salt water or by marine water contaminated by fresh??
What about the subsequent post-fludd source of any fresh water, all contaminated by mixing it with the saline marine environment? Or of any available plant food for all the plant eaters? Q: shall I go on with this one? No? OK.
Or, the total mindless dismissal of the obvious geological record of annual sediment depositions over literally (measured) millions of years?
Well, as usual, it all Proves, categorically, that the bible is a sham, a transient olde-tyme fairie tale designed to invoke fear-induced power over the peon masses. That's all it is or ever was, and it apparently still works on so many folks!!
That "theistic evolution", as I understand it being an acknolegement of an evolution system that does exist, but is driven by Godly design, is nothing more than a version, an offshoot, of the larger Genesis/Creation story.
Which I've here tried to pointed out is itself a demonstrable sham. And so, when the topic is a sub-set of a larger SHAMâ„¢, then it is, ergo and by association, also a sham.
Did I misunderstand your OP, that "theistic evolution" is your claim and conclusion? If so, my sincere apologies. But if not, my point stands.
"in one sense an actual being that created the universe
and in the other sense a force of life drawing living things away from death and toward itself
in this sense it can be thought of as the logic endpoint of evolution."
No actual "being" created the universe, at least not in any plausible way. Now, if we're just going to conveniently default to Giant Acts of Magic, then we have no further points for discussion, since such stuff is always proven to be OH SO VERY very fallible. And wishful and hopeful. And out of "synch" with all the other re-producible and observed and always-improving evidence at hand from so many independent researchers and disciplines (the geological evidence completely co-supporting the biological, the astronomical, the atmospheric, the physical and sub-atomic particle... and so on.)
The only" endpoint" of Evolution, it neither being "sentient" or "directed", is simply in its predictable response to chance mutations and other means by which the genome is either lethally, neutrally or beneficially altered, and only then do the organisms respond in an appropriate way.
"Science", that "entity" so many love to dispise but which is only a tool & acknowledged system of Q&A, cannot and will not ever be able to provide all the answers. It also changes it's mind from time to time when appropriate! OMG, huh? This is all constantly held against it! In that regard, I suppose if an individual must have ALL THE ANSWERS, then there is only one possible way to think & philosophize. And that, as you know, granpa, is to "go with religion". Thereby you will indeed have a convenient all-knowing, all-seeing, all-doing entity that no-one can actually disprove (since He won't ever show up and confess to us that he's just a Mork from Ork!) But, we then also have to accept the far more "evidenced" Flying Spaghetti Monster if we are to remain open-minded. (He graced me last night with a delightful & fulfilling "heavenly" pasta dish...)
But.... frankly, by the same open-minded token, you also then cannot just hand-wavingly dismiss the native American Coyote God or their Great Prairie Bear God, the Olympian Godz, the Egyptian or Turkish or Chinese or Japanese Gods, or the Mayan Sun God! All of whom were concocted when such Gods were in vogue and tacitly believable. (And when the concocter was, likely, under the influence of some 'shrooms )
All that stuff is potentially believable? Nope: not so much now, given our higher and always improving understanding of biochemistry, genetics, geology and interactive sub-atomic particle physics etc., et al... (can you imagine trying to explain a Higgs boson particle to the ancient Egyptians? Why, they'd have your hide for a bedspread, and all for simply speaking the truth!)
You are correct Rifleman, and let me add if I may, the Gensis myth drew some influence with earlly tribesmen from the pre-Moses Atrahasis Creation Epic, from which much of Genesis especially the idea of a creator God is derived.
What is important to note, and something none of our American fundies/evangelical realize, it is not meant to be an actual or true account of how the invisible man in the sky made the universe, but rather to teach a MORAL in this case setting up the Garden of Eden myth (the one about the two nekkid people in the Garden and the talking snake) These are not real events, they were never meant to be taken as real events, they have for the followers of their religions, a moral kind of like the morals of Aesop's Fables. (You know, like slow and steady wins the race or Little by little make a lot)
We know through science that evolution is atheistic (ref THE BLIND WATCHMAKER by Dawkins) we also know that we as humans do not know everything, that no one human (or anything any human wrote) knows everything, and that no one has all the answers, not even the late Great Jesus Christ. But we as humans love to philosophize and many need some hope and some outlet for the expression of fear and desperation in what might seem like an overwhelming world at times.
(For me I find comfort in freedom from religion and non-theism, but others may not) Like you said, I do well without religion, better than I ever did with it.
I also have no problem at all applying theoretical physics to the evolution of the universe and atheistic biology to the evolution of life, biochemically it is possible, and given enough time, probable as well, for which we, you and I, are the ultimate Proof.
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It still works, by golly! Brings 'em in to the big tent! Quick! Pass the plate!
) carnivorous or macro-herbivorous dinosaurs, or the other 3000+ known species (there were probably at least 10,000 species in total over the course of their time here on earth, before the catastrophic termination event, also not mentioned in the bible...).
)
