in response to
Ya know, this got me thinking about just why the creationists object so to evolution. And it’s not the central thrust of the theory that gets to them. The idea of evolution as a mechanism working is pretty much irrefutable on scientific grounds. What they object to is the notion that it contradicts creationism, which, in truth it doesn’t.
If god did his whole 6 days gig, evolution could have taken over from there, and modern day evolutionists would be none the wiser. A little revision of the fossil record here, a little there, and voila. And then the species in question can start there procreating and mutating and natural selecting and so forth and so on.
I imagine that that notion would seem about as sensical to most evolutionists as it does to me. (Put an elephant in a dress, and call it “Martha” if you like, but he’s still an elephant).
The unimaginably complex ‘just happening’ (over the course of billions of years) is a pretty hard notion to wrap one’s head around. Someone else (a most impressive Someone at that) ‘just doing it’ (over the course of a week) is somehow easier to accept.
So evolution and creation don’t conflict. What they purport to be true is easily reconciled.
Where evolution and creation conflict of course is in the head space of the people who would find one or the other important. If you are the kind of person to invest heavily in one of the idea-sets which surround creationism and science, you will most likely find the other idea-set and its followers repugnant.
This is muddied of course by the creationists who in this age of reason feel the need to map their subjective faiths onto hard facts, in order to seem more respectable. The science-believers are usually much more close-mouthed about any sort of projection of their faiths, and sometimes are completely unaware that they have any.
Conversation ensues with no real communication, and the majority of parties not even understanding what the conflict is even about, except that they sure are riled up about those idiots out there.