Mathematician Stephen
Leacock said in the New
Scientist 4.12.80 that
nowadays people say science, philosophy and theology
have all come together. So they have, but as three
people to a funeral. The funeral being that of Dead
Certainty. Mathematics was now added to the list of
mourners.
Creationists are
looking for certainty, but the only knowledge that is
certain, is knowledge of your own toothache.
All theories in
science have problems (e.g. in Quantum Physics, and
in sexual reproduction, a problem for Darwin as it is
so wasteful). But you don't
solve the problems in science with religious
fairytales.
The theory of
evolution will stand or fall by what scientists do,
not what Creationist fundamentalist Christians say. I
recommend people read Genesis (
it is mercifully not long ) to
see two contradictory stories, the P and J.
The P source Gen. 1:1
to 2:4 has men and women created simultaneously
as the final
creation from a watery
waste in the famous 6 days.
In the J source Gen. 2:4(b) to 25 man is the first
creation from the dust
of a waterless waste and
brought to life with Yahweh's breath into his
nostrils (Gen. 2:7). Then the Garden of Eden, then
the animals and birds and last
comes woman created out of
Adam's rib. No time is given. Eve seduced Adam to eat
the fruit of knowledge and her punishment was
childbirth pain. Then comes Noah's Ark to wash away
Man's sin.
Neither the P nor J
stories mentions the Second Law of Thermodynamics or
entropy.
There are internal
contradictions within each story e.g. in Gen 1:3 Day
1 "Let there be light and there was light"
but the Sun and stars only appear on day 4 in Gen.
1:14. Creationist Peter Sparrow said the
contradictory P and J stories were resolved by saying
the P story is God's Revelation but the J story is
Adam taking over. Another example of religious
infallible beliefs.
I wouldn't mind a
couple of lessons on Genesis in a standard science
course (more than two is a waste of precious science time) to expose biblical falsity and absurdity.
