We looked at the big issue of where life came from tonight - did living things gradually evolve from simpler living things through natural selection (as the scientific evidence suggets), or were they all created together by God (as the start of Genesis says) ?
We spent some time looking at examples of things that suggest (to me, anyway) that God wouldn't have designed them that way. The picture above is of a whale fin skeleton - note the similarity to a human hand. Why would God design those digits to be useless inside a fin?
Another example is the digger wasp, which made Charles Darwin lose his faith. The wasp chooses a caterpillar, then carefully inserts its sting into each of the caterpillar's nerves to paralyse it but keeping it alive. The wasp then lays its eggs inside the caterpillar's body, which provides fresh meat for the growing larvae. It seems strange that God would intentionally design something as cruel as this.
Other examples include the way that the human gullet and windpipe cross over, needing the epiglottis to seal the windpipe as we swallow, which sometimes goes wrong making us choke, and the strange remnant of a tail we all have called the coccyx.
We had a good discussion about why, if we evolved from monkeys, do monkeys still exist? We didn't evolve from the monkeys that exist today, but monkeys, apes and human all evolved from a common ancestor with similar features to all of us. Different species adapted to particular environments. It is unknown what particular environment caused humans to evolve like we are today, but one theory is that we lost most of our thick fur in order to swim more easily. Also, some animals have not changed much for a long time - sharks have been around for 400 million years, long before the dinosaurs - they seem to be perfectly matched to their environment so there is no pressure to evolve.
Many Christians believe in evolution - don't think that creationism/intelligent design is the only choice for Christians. Feel free to leave comments of course, let us know what you think or ask any questions you like.
very confuzzlingg
alice xxx
Last night's Runway was one of the most interesting ones ever for me. It really got me thinking about the whole evolution/creation thing. I loved hearing about how differnt animals ave evolved into others, and Katherine's question about monkeys and humans really interested me! We've recently done about evolution and creation in RE at school, and about Charles Darwin and Galileo. We were all told by our RE teacher that you either believed in creation, or you believed in evolution- you couldn't be somewhere in the middle. But that's exactly where I was, somewhere in the middle. I secretly believed that God created evolution, and that he meant for all these different creatures and plants to be made. After talking about this last night at Runway, and having Andy telling us that it is OK for Christians to believe in evolution, made me feel a bit more certain inside. Like Andy said, i don't believe that God created the world in 7 days, i believe that the first bit in Genesis in just a poetic version of how God created the world.
Lovin Runway guys!!
See you next sunday =D.. alex...
Thanks Alex - that's really nice to hear. You might find this interesting. I'll bring along that book next week.
I do have one question...
I know that we have evolved from animals similar to apes that were covered in thick fur, and like you said, we started catching our food in the water and so we lost all that fur because we didn't need it. People now say that the hair on our head is to keep us warm, but we have hats to keep our heads warm, just like we have clothes to keep the rest of our body warm. The rest of the hair on our bodies doesn't fulfill a particular purpose,(underarm hair, chest hair etc) so does that mean that in many years to come we will gradualy lose all our hair on our bodies and become completely 'hairless' just like we lost the thick fur that we once had??
it's just one of those things i've always wondered about... alex
Wow, that's a really good question - and its one that scientists don't agree on. Head hair and pubic/underarm hair are quite different, and they have different explanations. Theories for why we kept hair on the top and back of our heads include protection from the sun (my very short hair means that my scalp burns very easily in the sun) and the fact that when you swim these bits don't go underwater. The pubic/underarm hairs are much thicker and are found around a special type of sweat gland that only develops in puberty, so they seem to play some sort of role in transporting sweat away from the skin. They might also help reduce friction between the moving arms and legs and the torso. They probably have some kind of sexual signalling role too.
Another rival theory is that as humans we are like baby apes - we stop developing very early. Baby chimps only have hair on their heads, their bodies are nearly hairless. We also share their big eyes and flat chins.
There is a very good book by Desmond Morris called 'The Naked Ape' which goes into this in great depth - maybe get it out from the library?
As for whether we will continue to evolve and become hairless... Its very hard to say. Head hair has become a sign of attractiveness, so a mutation that caused it to reduce would probably be selected against, so I would guess not.
Keep the questions coming!
I have to agree with Alice and Alex.
Yeah it was confusing at first, but it definately makes you think. I suppose i have always stayed in the comfort zone in my faith and believed in creation. Maybe it is time to come out of it and really start looking into our beginnings and asking questions and listening to the answers! Katherine's question interested me too.
It was a good topic, think you will have to do a follow up!
Pat:o) x
thanks Andy! i probably will get that book out sometime =P
heloooo again!
thanks a lot for lending me that book andy! it's really challenging but VERY interestin- i'm learning a lot from it. I've just about finished the second chapter, i should have it finished by next year :D...alex
Well, you're cleverer than me, Al! I took one look at that book and (like most of Andy's clever-clogs books to be honest) thought "no way!"
Think I'll stick to 'Shopaholic Ties the Knot'. Who says I'm not an intellectual? ;o)
Good luck with the book! (:o0 (he's yawning)