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Bernal UCSP
A federal judge thought otherwise. But therein lies the rub: Which god?
When the founding fathers established the Constitution of the United States, they
chose to include the separation of church and state. This was to ensure that the
state-sanctioned religious persecutions that plagued much of Europe during the
16th century would not despoil the young, yet grand experiment in democracy
that was to become this Republic. Scientific research has come a long way since
Charles Darwin first posited the concept of “natural selection.” In the intervening
years, humanity has learned much about how we became the dominant species
on the planet, how the Earth and the solar system were formed and the very
changing development of the Universe. Over that time, how we understand the
theory of evolution has also changed. Scientists now think that there is an intrinsic
logic to our reality, that there are absolutes, laws of nature. Much remains a
mystery, and as one question is answerd, many others arise. Old-Earth creationist
hold that the sacred texts is an infallible account of why the universe, all life and
humankind came into existence, but accepts the days of creation are
metaphorical and could represent very long periods of time. While many aspects
of nature may be the consequence of direct acts of divine creation, at very
beginning of the universe, the origin of life and the origin of humankind are the
consequence of distinct acts of divine intervention in the order of nature.
Creation is the process by which God brings things into existence. Science is the
knowledge of God’s creation, imperfect as it may be. Science by its very nature
does not claim to know perfectly the workings of God’s universe. The reason for
this quite simple: the Mind of God from which all things ultimately originated is
past finding out.
On the seventh day God rest, contemplates his handiwork, and gives
himself a good evaluation. In the second story, God creates the first man, Adam,
from the earth. He makes a garden in Eden for Adam, but forbids him to eat fruit
from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Adam names the animals but
remains lonely. God anesthetizes Adam and makes one of his ribs into the first
woman, Eve. A talking serpent persuades her to eat the forbidden fruit, and she
convinces Adam to do likewise. When god finds out, he drives them from the
garden and makes man mortal. Some living things contain certain types of
complexity hat are best explained as the result of an intelligent cause. Some
aspects of the universe show positive evidence of having been designed by some
from of intelligence. The designer need not be God but most proponents of
intelligent design seem to have God in mind.