"Nebraska Man" Debate

In 1922, Henry Osborn discovered a tooth in Nebraska that he said came from early human ancestors. The Illustrated London Times ran an article about the tooth with full illustrations as to how the owner of that tooth may have looked. They called the creature Nebraska Man. Later, it was discovered that the tooth was from a peccary, an extinct pig species. Creationists point to this instance as evidence of the evolutionists tendency to exagerate the truth about their fossils and discoveries. Evolutionists contend that this was an unintentionable mistake and was never taken seriously by the scientific community. Link to an evolutionists opinion of Nebraska Man: http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2008/02/the_truth_about_nebraska_man.php

My opinion of it all is this. What if the truth had been delayed? What if it had been 100 years before we realized the truth about this fossil? Would the scientific community have built a hypothesis around this fossil and would they have been as loyal to it as they are the theory of evolution? The answer is yes. They would have no choice. Their process requires it because it is the current and most accurate data concerning the matter. And the most current and accurate data is regarded as the truth.

That means we as a society would be building our opinion of our origins on false information. My question then is "What if we find out 100 years from now that all our deductions about the fossil record turn out to be false?" To the evolutionist I ask this "Since science continually proves itself wrong, is it logical that we at least admit the possibility that our deductions about events that happened many years ago, long before we were documenting life on this planet, could be as wrong as Nebraska Man?"

Article posted on Yahoo

This article talks about a pregnant turtle fossil discovered in Canada. The article claims that the fossil is 75 million years old. But what is interesting about the fossil is that it is of a turtle. Its not a different species that could have evolved into a turtle....it is a turtle. This fits perfectly with the creationist point of view that change over time within a species is possible and does occur, but change from one species into another is impossible.

Link to the article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080827/sc_livescience/fossilofancientpregnantturtlediscovered

The Beginning is Faith

Now, we know that all reasonable people believe the universe had a beginning either through a creator/designer or through naturalistic evolution. We know that no one saw this event nor can they replicate that beginning in a laboratory (and even if they could it does not conclusively mean that is the way it began). Therefore, we can not verify in a physical, scientific sense that either of these opinions is the way "the beginning" happened. They both require faith.

Although both require faith they do not require blind faith. Both evolution and intelligent design proponents will point to "evidence" in the natural world that supports their belief system. Both sides are equally passionate in their opinions. What I have found is that believers in both ID and atheistic evolution are sometimes unwilling to honestly consider the opposing viewpoint. There are exceptions to this rule of course, but those people are not the talking heads we see on television. The media wants sensationalism and they stack the deck with bloviators in order to get it.

At this point we must evaluate the data to see what our logic and reason would have us to believe about the origin of mankind. And the best advice I can give you in evaluating the data is to remember that there are more than two ways to look at a situation.

Both Intelligent Design and Evolution Require Faith?

In the last entry I mentioned that both ID and evolution require faith in order for a person to believe in them . Those of you that are new to ID are probably wondering exactly what do I mean. Believers in the theory of evolution would say that there is hard scientific evidence to support their belief system. This is not true. However, lets assume there is evidence for biological evolution. This is the change of one biological organism into another biological organism and ultimately into man. Ok, even if that were true it still does not explain where the biological organism originated. There is no evidence to support a claim that billions of years ago lightning struck the primordial soup and sparked a lifeform into existence. Belief in this requires a person to believe in something they can not see, touch, replicate in a laboratory, or hear an eye witness account of. It requires faith that their hypothesis is correct despite the lack of, or even ability for, verification. The origin of life ultimately falls to the point of "the beginning."

A brief description of Intelligent Design science and Evolutionary science

We know that this earth and everything on it had a beginning. There are two major viewpoints that try to explain how we came into existence. The first is Intelligent Design (ID). Proponents of ID believe the universe was created by a higher being. Most believe this higher being to be God. ID proponents believe this higher being created the universe, the earth, plants, and animals in much the same form as we see today. This belief is based primarily in faith because we can not test God by applying the Scientific Method. However, many of the discoveries being made by scientists today fit perfectly with the idea of a designer rather than the alternative. This alternative is the theory of evolution (when talking about the origin of the universe we are talking about cosmic evolution, not biological evolution). Proponents of this theory believe the universe began billions of years ago through naturalistic means. In other words, there was no creator or designer, only unguided random processes. These unguided, random processes continued for billions of years developing matter, plants, animals, and ultimately mankind. This belief is also based in faith because we can not know what happened 20 billion years ago, nor can we subject it to the scientific method.

Peace

First Day

"In the beginning...."

What a fitting first line for this blog! It is the first verse of the Bible. Genesis 1:1. And these three words are where almost everyone can find common ground. We all believe we "began" at some point. Whether it was millions of years ago or 6,000 years ago we all believe there was a beginning. Yes, I know, there are those that believe the universe has always existed, but they are an extreme minority and have no grounds for their theory, scientific or theological.

This blog will document my studies into the different beliefs about our origin. I will warn you now that I will be biased in what I post. I believe in the creation story told in the Bible in Genesis chapter one and I will be primarily posting findings that support that view. However, I will be posting new findings that support the theory of atheistic evolution worldview should I find any. But you should know that I have not found any thus far.

I hope you enjoy reading what I find as much as I enjoy finding it.

Peace