scientific eveidence and creationism:why the coincidence?

Trantor · #1 01-19-2006, 03:48 PM

Some creationists belief the universe etc was created substatially as it is.

It seems an incredible coincidence that the earth, animals etc were created to be exactly as science can explain could have happened over a great span of time according to natural physical laws as determined by scientific investigation.

Lestat · #2 01-19-2006, 04:56 PM

This makes no sense. The universe IS the way it is.

If you're 200 miles away from home dining in a crowded restaurant and look up to see a lady in a red dress who you've never seen before, do you think it's a coincidence that both of you happen to be there?

Borodog · #3 01-19-2006, 05:15 PM

That's not his question. His question is that if the universe and everything in it was specially created, like a watch, constructed from special parts, wound up, and set in motion, why does it have an appearance that can be spectacularly well explained by naturalistic mechanisms?

I think there are many answers because there are many flavors of creationists. The worst kind, the young Earth special creationists, claim that the Earth and the entire universe is only a few thousand years old and was basically created as-is. They can make these claims because they have little to no understanding of the sciences they criticize. Thus they can cherry-pick and make seemingly plausible pseudo-arguments against this or that bit of theory. They wave their hands about individual grains of sand on the vast stretch of beach that is the evidence for an old universe, an old earth, and a long and storied history of the evolution of life.

soon2bepro · #4 01-19-2006, 05:28 PM

There really is no coincidence. Science tries to explain what it knows, not what it doesn't.

Anyway, what's your concern or point here?

Lestat · #5 01-20-2006, 01:35 AM

<font color="blue"> His question is that if the universe and everything in it was specially created, like a watch, constructed from special parts, wound up, and set in motion, why does it have an appearance that can be spectacularly well explained by naturalistic mechanisms? </font>

I may have misunderstood the question and go easy on me here as my thinking may get fuzzy, but...

Even if the universe were specially created like a working watch, does that mean there would be no science? My point is, science would still find ways to explain what it could about the working watch. In time, discoveries would render some parts of that watch as understandable. The parts that wouldn't be understandable, well... Much like the parts of the universe is still not understandable today. And as with the watch, it is conceivable that we may never understand the watch as a whole, but only understand some of the basic reasons why certain things worked within it.

What I'm really saying is that regardless of what the conditions might, we will always try to understand and derive workable theories.

So by my comment about the chance encounter with the unkown lady in the red dress, I was pointing out that it feasibly might turn out to be an incredible coincidence if you knew more variables about how you both happened to be there. Without this knowledge it is nothing out of the ordinary. Just like the universe as we know it, whether it be a watch or as it is.

Borodog · #6 01-20-2006, 01:42 AM

I don't disagree with any of that. The point though is that a specially created universe that was created 6000 years ago does not require God to create light travelling from galaxies billions of lightyears away as though it had been travelling along for billions of years (for example). If God specially created all life, there is no reason for Him to have created it with the perfect-nested hierarchy that it exhibits, which can be perfectly explained by common descent.

Lestat · #7 01-20-2006, 01:49 AM

Got it. Yeah, I really I misunderstood OP's direction on this one. Thanks.

Trantor · #8 01-20-2006, 06:22 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I don't disagree with any of that. The point though is that a specially created universe that was created 6000 years ago does not require God to create light travelling from galaxies billions of lightyears away as though it had been travelling along for billions of years (for example). If God specially created all life, there is no reason for Him to have created it with the perfect-nested hierarchy that it exhibits, which can be perfectly explained by common descent.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice example! Thanks for covering my base!