The Evolution Question

Ok. Just so no one gets any wrong ideas about where I stand on anything, here goes:

I don't CARE about evolution. I haven't since 10th grade.

So whatever tentativeness I have about the subject is not due to the corrupting influence of an EVUL secular college or an EVUL Dr. Stevens. Blame Mr. Minish (my 10th/11th grade Bible teacher) if you want to blame anyone. Then blame C.S. Lewis.

I wouldn't be taking a Philosophy of Science class this semester in the first place if I knew I'd get uber-defensive at half the things discussed.

I don't think the truth and validity of Christianity depends upon literal 6-day creationism being true. I don't think evolution being true means that Christianity is false. I'm sorry -- I don't. And once that stopped being an issue, I found better things to worry about. There are more important hills to die on.

You can wham me upside the head with your 53-point comparative chart of how theistic evolution and Genesis 1 don't match. You can harangue me as much as you want about how the 4th commandment and the Adam-Christ comparisons in the New Testament demand that 6-day literal creationism be true. I don't buy it. (Or perhaps more accurately...I'm not persuaded enough by it to come down decisively on the matter). And here's my official below-the-belt comment about how heliocentrism didn't destroy Christianity, but merely incorrect interpretations. And my cheap shot about Augustine and his "Scripture shows us the way to the heavens, not the way the heavens run" deal.

I'm not a science major. I know next to nothing about how the whole evolution deal is supposed to technically work. I haven't looked at all of the experiments and tests and theorizing. When one doesn't know much about a subject, and doesn't have time to investigate it themselves, they tend to trust the leading authorities. Leading authorities say, "Yay evolution!" Be happy, (Christian) people -- I'm at least saying, "And they could possibly be wrong about a lot of this."

Precisely because I know virtually nothing about the science of this matter, and precisely because I'm not quite willing to go completely along whatever the leading authorities are currently saying, I'm not going say anything one way or the other about evolution. And a corollary: because I haven't conclusively decided one way or the other, I'm not going to use evolution or creationism as part of how I argue for a position. Don't look for me to, and don't ask me to.

If creationism vs. evolution ever becomes central to some very troubling issue I'm working through, and starts forcing me to take sides (whether I think it's possible or not)...maybe then I'll start hashing through lab reports. At the moment, however, it is nowhere near this level of importance.

However the universe and world were made,
a) God started it, at the very least.
b) Man is different and special -- "created in the image of God" in a way animals aren't.
c) There was a Fall. It screwed up people, and apparently screwed up creation up to some degree as well.

Don't ask me to come down hard on much beyond this. Things seem a lot more mushy once I start trying to construct anything beyond this core, and I've got better things to do worry about this particular mush. Again...I've picked my battles. Evolution vs. creationism isn't one of them.