Rain

I want to write a letter to my son Nathanael. The thing we disagree most about is science- specifically evolution, much of which I do not dispute, but much of which I do.

1. Scientists play dot-to-dot with missing links. There are way too many missing dots, like 99% missing, and university-paid scientists connect the dots they do see. The picture you get is one you'd get if you connected the dots with 99% of them missing- a picture which barely resembles the truth.

2. In a science magazine today, a writer went over all of the needless organs and broken DNA fragments that we no longer need, and of which some people have none, such as neck ribs (supposedly from reptilian ancestors), appendices, extra muscles we could use for walking on all fours, and more. You can see it in Discover. I don't dispute the fact those organs are there. However, I dispute some conclusions scientists draw. For example, the little toe. Do scientists not realize that we are all born with prehensile toes (including that one)? Anyone born without arms learns to use their toes as deftly as fingers. Since I cannot believe that armlessness isn't random, it seems to me that we are all born with prehensile feet. The fact that we put shoes on our feet and do not train our feet this way, does not mean we could not have done so. Some muscles for climbing trees- now why is it that people do not climb trees? I mean, who is to say that people should not climb trees? Actually there are people who build whole towns in trees, who climb up and down the ladders and branches every day, who spend most of their time in trees. That it is not a particularly useful skill for stockbrokers or waitresses or buffalo hunters does not mean that it isn't a valuable thing for our species. There are other examples- wisdom teeth, appendices (vegetable, not animal, diet)...not to mention wisdom teeth could replace molars that are decayed.

3. Scientists are well-paid by people who pay them to say what they want them to say. Changing the shiny textbooks is not an option. Science has somehow ceased being a science. One has to take it all and not question it. True science will have you questioning things. I have learned a lot this way. I have figured out a lot about humans just by observing them. More on that later.

Anyway, I want to write a letter to Nathanael, that he can take with him, that isn't rambling like this epistle, but that has a point- and I want him to grow in Christ and no matter where that takes him scientifically (I tend not to see things in terms of just two sides, as in the either/or world of the Scopes monkey trial, but I do believe God and His word)...there is so much we don't know, and I do know, too, that there is much potential in us that we do not use, both in organs and in great swaths of unused gray matter as well, which to me represents our brokenness from what God has created us to be- I think without that initial brokenness we'd be in good command of all our "unused" parts. Trust me on this one. Science, when it approaches truth, puts itself more in accord with God's truth (aka, Truth, since all truth by my definition comes from God). We are not using some organs and parts of the brain and parts of our DNA to certain things are "turned off", because we're not living in exact harmony with how God designed us as a species. Many call it The Fall. Rebellion. A break in that harmonious relationship. This is why all peoples in all cultures have essentially the same questions and concepts about soul, afterlife, the dead- there is a God concept actually biologically built into our brain, which is designed to be in communication with God, but which was broken, so now is seeking that reconnection. Yes, that is what Christ did for us, on the cross, and upon his rise from the grave.
Most scientists reject the classic Darwinian model of slow change, and talked about the punctuated equilibrium as a partial explanation, and maybe that explains a couple of isolated events, but everyone's still in such a quandary about those darned missing links...and the fact is punctuated equilibrium could not possibly explain them all...they're always looking at the obvious intelligence of God and His designs of species. When REAL science catches up they'll see it.