Creationistic Hoo-Ha

Daniel Florien over at Unreasonable Faith recently wrote a post entitled 'Creationism In the Jaws of the Lion' (very much worth reading; it's not a very long post) and it echoes exactly something that I was planning on talking about here at some point anyway, so I might as well do it now, while it's fresh in my mind. I've mentioned a couple of times that, when I was still a believer, I was having questions that I wasn't getting any satisfactory answers for. This is one of those questions. And it's not a bogus question, either, some abstract thought experiment to 'prove' that God doesn't exist (Do [insert made-up word/nonexistent entity here] exist? No? Then that's proof that there's no God, because if there was a God, then such and such would exist!) It's not like that at all. Awhile ago I mentioned that at one point towards the end of my faith, I decided to read the Bible from start to finish as if I'd never read it in my life, as objectively as possible. It's amazing, absolutely amazing, the kind of perspective you gain when you do something like that. No preconceived notions about anything, no making excuses for difficult problems that arise. And one of those problems that I had was that I used to think (had always been taught...) that life was 'designed' (and by only one Designer, of course); I remember going on a hike up Katahdin one time with a group of guys from church, and was talking with one of them on the way up and I said how it just seemed so obvious to me- there's design, there must be a designer. I mentioned how every single animal has some sort of defense mechanism against predators; even if it's insignificant, they still have one (looking back, I don't see how that's any sort of evidence for the existence of a deity- so animals have a defense mechanism for avoiding being eaten- so what? All that really proves is that they don't want to be eaten by predators). Well, putting aside the fact that probably not every single animal has one (I don't want to make definitive claims here and say that no, not every single animal has one- sheep come to mind; if you consider the cold to be a predator, then I guess they do, but that wool doesn't really do much to protect against wolves and coyotes) there's still the problem of death by 'design' and the struggle for survival. If we're to take Genesis literally, as mainstream fundamentalist Christianity teaches, then there was no death anywhere in the world until after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. None. Everything was 'designed' to live forever, and supposedly would have if only the First Couple had just listened to God and not ate the fruit. But if nothing died, what would the carnivores have eaten? As Daniel points out, 'If lions were designed, they were designed to be killing machines.' I actually read somewhere that Answers in Genesis and their creation museum teach that some dinosaurs that we know to be carnivorous, were actually vegetarian (before the Fall)! Really! (I think they said that animals like the T-rex used their strong teeth and claws to crack coconuts.) So before the fall, there were no carnivores? Everyone and everything that eats ate plants and veggies? What about sharks? Squid? Barracudas? All vegetarian? Well, I guess if you take Genesis literally they'd have to have been. Granted, God did say he gave us all the seed-bearing plants as food, and as I recall, Genesis doesn't mention that food being for sea creatures, only 'every living thing that walks on the ground.' So maybe the sea creatures could be carnivores, but not the land animals. But still- the Creationist camp (Intelligent Design, as they prefer these days) teaches that death entered the world through Adam's sin- before that, no death. But then there's this problem: plants are living things too. Not in the way that people and animals are, but living nonetheless. And plants die, so which is it? Well, I guess we'll have to 'clarify' the no-death teaching to mean death of sentient beings, or humans and animals, as we know them. Plants don't count, since God did say he gave them to us as food (even though the bible also says 'death entered the world through one man...'). But what counts as 'sentient?' The bible doesn't exactly clarify such things. Are mosquitoes sentient? Bacteria? Who knows?
Ok, let's set aside the whole idea about plants dying, and fish being exempt from the 'no death' rule- let's just talk about land animals. They weren't supposed to die, but according to the ID'ers, it appears God designed them to eat other animals, and in turn, be eaten by other animals. Take a field mouse and an eagle, for example. The eagle has eyes that are 'designed' to be able to see the mouse hiding in the field up to a mile away. But the mouse has fur that generally matches the color of it's environment, to better hide from predators and not get eaten. Lots of other animals have their own unique 'designs' for catching prey/avoiding predators, from color-changing octopuses to the cheetahs that can run 70 mph to the owls that can see so well at night to the razor sharp teeth and powerful jaws of the great white shark that can cut a seal in half with one bite. So even though death supposedly wasn't part of God's original 'plan,' he outfitted all the animals with the tools they'd need to catch food/avoid getting eaten- so after Adam's Fall, they could fight for their lives, literally. Yet it's not a perfect system, as the mouse sometimes gets away, and sometimes gets eaten. Seems God wanted life to struggle for its survival. All of this, and so much more, makes so much more sense in the light of unguided natural evolution. Yet, can you be a Christian and accept evolution? Not with the Christianity I was part of, which is why I mentioned earlier that it wouldn't even matter if I did come back to some sort of faith- I'd be labeled as one of those who 'think they are [Christians] but are not.' I do know of some Christians who can reconcile evolution with their faith; not sure how many of the ones I know personally do because it's never come up in conversation, but I've come across many others through their writings online who do- one example being the author of The First Morning blog over there in the links section. These are people who have the same faith in Christ as the folks I used to count myself among, yet they also accept the findings of modern biology, and other sciences. Yet, according to those in the ID community, there can be no reconciliation- those people are simply 'deceived.' And folks like myself, who don't believe at all, are part of a vast, Left-wing conspiracy to suppress the truth, because we hate God. See, we promote evolution, not because a multitude of science supports it, but because we know that 'according to the Bible,' you can't believe in both God and evolution together, and we want to eradicate God from society completely. So we've infiltrated many branches of science- not just biology, but paleontology, geology, physics, and astronomy. We've infiltrated them worldwide, and over many generations, not just passing down our teachings to the next generation, but completely brainwashing them to believe whatever we say. And of course, we control all major universities and science publications, filtering out as many God-believing teachers and professors and their research papers as we can. Why? Because we hate God. (That's what Ben Stein, Ken Ham, Phillip Johnson, and others would have you believe.) You'd think the fact that there are those people who do believe in God, and even identify as Christians, would kind of shoot that idea down completely- they don't hate God, they worship him. So see? We can all just get along and work together to continue teaching and promoting science- us atheists without saying, 'God did it,' and the Christians saying the opposite. Oh but wait, I almost forgot- those Christians who believe in evolution have been 'deceived.' Probably because they just accepted what the atheistic college professors taught them without question. Well here's a question- if someone who identifies as a Christian who accepts evolution- and there are many- who reads the Bible and sincerely prays for God's guidance, fellowships, goes to church, 'seeks truth' in everything, and does all the other things that 'real' Christians do- if someone like that can be 'deceived...' then how is it that they are the one who is 'being deceived,' and never the other way around? You have two camps of people who are the same in every way, except one accepts evolution, and the other does not, so naturally the ones that do are just plain wrong. It's inconceivable that it could be the other way around.

Getting back to the idea of 'design...' Creationists would have us believe that we're 'designed'- and that it's blatantly obvious. It used to seem obvious to me. Our bodies seem to work just right to do the things we need and want to do, so they must have been 'designed' by a 'Designer,' right? And when they don't work 'right' it's because we live in a fallen world and those are just the effects of sin, the decay that started after Adam and Eve decided to disobey God. At first glance, it seems so obvious. But then when you start to think about it a little more critically, it doesn't seem so obvious at all. What would things have to be like for us to think that we weren't designed? Suppose all humans were normally born with just one eye, with no eyelid or protective cover, on the tops of our heads, so that we had to 'look down' in order to see ahead of us. Suppose that we had only one ear, but without the 'ear' part that channels the sound into our heads- just a hole somewhere in our heads for hearing purposes? Suppose also that we had two arms, like we do now, but only one hand, and that hand had only two fingers (and no thumb)? And the arms were straight, with no elbows to bend? Suppose also that we had no nose to smell with or breath through, but only our one mouth. And suppose that one of our knees bent in the opposite direction that they do now, so that walking would be so different from what we know it as today that you really couldn't even consider it 'walking?' As long as we humans could have adapted well enough to survive as a species (and we probably could have) then you could still say, 'Oh wow, look at the wonderful, amazing design, there must have been a Designer!' It absolutely does not matter what our bodies, as a species in general, are like- we could all have no skeletons, like jellyfish, but as long as we could adapt to survive as a species you could point to that and say, 'designed!' But we do have skeletons (internal, as opposed to external like other species) and we do have two eyes, in the front of our heads, and knees that bend in such a way as to facilitate walking and running, and all that. So don't you ever wonder why God designed us in the way that he did, and not some 'other' way? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? The way he chose was the best way for us, of course. If it wasn't, he would have done it in some other way. Right? I mention all this, because for me, and for a lot of other people, it's not so damn obvious. Seems like he could have done things different, and better. The reason we have things like birth defects and failing eyesight is because of 'the fall?' Eagles have some pretty amazing eyesight; 'the fall' doesn't seem to have affected their eyes all that much. Surely God could have designed us in the same way so that we too could see so well. Maybe also given us excellent night vision like cats and owls have. And instead of protecting our most sensitive organs inside of a skeleton made of bone, which can break relatively easily, surely he could have given us a skeleton made of steel, which can withstand much more force than bone. Or maybe originally, before the fall, our bones weren't breakable. Maybe the fact that bones break is simply a result of the decay that entered the world through sin. Another thing that seems not very well thought out to me is the fact that our trachea and esophagus are so close together; and since we take in food and air/oxygen through the same hole(s) in our head, our nose and mouth, and since we can't breathe and swallow at the same time, it's actually very easy to choke to death. If I was going to design a living being, I'd make it so that they can breathe and swallow at the same time, so that if some food or foreign object got stuck in their throat, they'd at least have a couple of days to try and remove the blockage before they died of thirst. Hell, I'd make it so they could eat and drink and breathe all through different parts that didn't conflict with each other; that way if they got something stuck in their throat, they could survive for a very long time before suffering any ill effects. But, I'm not God, and since he's supposedly perfect and has infinite wisdom, I guess his way was best after all, right? But since choking is such a real threat for all humans, and presumably has been ever since the fall, the least he could have done was given one of his prophets divine instructions for performing the Heimlich maneuver, instead of leaving humanity to wait until the mid-1970's when Henry Heimlich first published his article outlining the procedure. Surely many thousands of lives could have been saved over the years had people just known about the move.
Can I even say any of this? I mean, basically I'm calling into question God's wisdom, saying I could have thought of something better- me, a lowly human being with (very) finite wisdom, thinking I could have built a better mousetrap. Is that blasphemy? Am I losing brownie points with every question I raise, edging myself even closer to the pit of hell than I already am? I certainly don't think so. I think anyone and everyone should be able to ask any questions they want of God, without being afraid that they've crossed some line, without being afraid that, 'Oh now you've gone and done it, you asked the 'wrong' question and done made him mad.' And I think we all deserve honest answers to those questions, answers directly from God. Not from people, claiming to speak on his behalf, saying, 'Well, that's just how he chose to do it, and since he's all-knowing, all-powerful, infinitely loving, etc., etc., etc., it must have been the 'right' way, so you have no right to question, doubt, or say otherwise.' That is not an answer. That's just saying that 'however things happen to be, that's how God chooses to work.' Which seems like an awfully big coincidence to me (not to mention a major-league cop-out). And since most Christians I know emphatically do not believe in coincidence, that last saying is what I'll be talking about in my next post.