Evolution

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I've been wanting to put my two cents worth into this thread for several days now but haven't had the time to read the whole thing, so I'll just do it anyway.  Sorry if I'm covering ground that's already been covered or refuted.

Can it be proven scientifically that God exists?  I maintain that it cannot.  The scientific method makes use of observations that are perceivable by the use of the five senses.  God is spirit (that's in John chapter somethingorother) and can't be perceived directly by the five senses.  Science is inadequate for studying God.  Knowing him requires understanding our own spiritual make-up.  Refusing to do so doesn't prove that he doesn't exist.  Carl Sagan believed that there was nothing beyond the physical realm, no afterlife.  If there is an afterlife, Sagan's disbelief didn't mean that there wasn't one.  It just means that he was suprised when he got there.  Just because John Lennon imagined that it would be possible to have no religion didn't mean that there really wasn't any God.  Imagine being murdered and finding out that you were wrong about God, both on the same day. 

As for whether God and evolution can both exist, Yes they can.  God could have chosen to create the life on earth by the use of evolution.  I don't happen to believe that he did, but he could have if he wanted to. 

As for the teaching of evolution in schools, that's more difficult.  It used to be easy when everyone was at least a nominal Christian.  Even most of the people who didn't go to church didn't object to prayer and bibles in school, and probably didn't believe in evolution.  The few athiests were in a closet not too far from the one the homosexuals were in.  Things are different today.  These people, and many others, have a voice, and need to be treated fairly, as does everyone else.  Wouldn't that be nice.  Unfortunately there is no way to satisfy everyone, and we probably ought to accept that.  Teach evolution as an unproven theory.  Teach creation as an unproven religion, just don't promote it, since the Constitution says we can't promote it.  At least that's what I've heard.  Where does the Constitution say anything about separation of church and state?

I'd better shut up now. 

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The Theory of Evolution draws a conclusion that our presense here is the result solely of natural processes.  It concludes that there is no need or purpose for introducing anything supernatural to explain why this corner of the universe suddenly came to be populated with intelligent beings with dreams and desires, who create art and music and war and literature and think of things that will never be.  It is the end of all religion.  The ultimate conclusion of the Theory of Evolution is that we are here only as a result of some blind cosmic accident, and there is no higher purpose to our existence.  That conculsion in and of itself constitutes a belief system - that of that of Orthodox Naturalism.

Actually, the idea that we are here solely because of natural purposes is an assumption of the theory of evolution, not the conclusion.

The fundamental problem some people have with science is that there is no place for God in it. Science is based on repeatable experiments yielding predictable results. If God was consistently stepping into our lives science would not exist.

Science and the church have had a very close history prior to the middle ages.

That's because the church controlled the scientists, or the scientists stayed within their beliefs, which happened to agree with the church, and they were both often wrong. 

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Sounds like Mr Spock talking about "some science that we don't yet understand."    But it's also impossible for an athiest or anyone else stuck in the material realm to prove that God doesn't exist to someone who has any experience in the spiritual.  It would be like trying to explain nuclear physics to a four year old.  The four year old wouldn't say, "Why is one uranium isotope stable and another one unstable?"  He'd say, "Huh?"

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Sounds like Mr Spock talking about "some science that we don't yet understand."    But it's also impossible for an athiest or anyone else stuck in the material realm to prove that God doesn't exist to someone who has any experience in the spiritual.  It would be like trying to explain nuclear physics to a four year old.  The four year old wouldn't say, "Why is one uranium isotope stable and another one unstable?"  He'd say, "Huh?"

All uranium isotopes are unstable.

Huh?