As an evolutionist I find this new idea from creationist scientists very interesting.
Can religious teachings prove evolution to be true?
Matt Walker
It is one of the great questions of the past 150 years.
Did God or evolution drive the emergence of life in all its resplendent variety?This blog, the US education system, and even American politics have to a degree all become dominated by the debate at various times, which goes to the heart of our world view and our ideas of where we, and all other forms of life, came from.But I’ve just come across an intriguing piece of research that may, to coin a phrase, put an evolutionary cat among the believing flock of creation scientists, many of whom believe in the literal account of Genesis.One scientist has decided to use creation science to test the validity of evolution.Because, he says, if it turns out that creation science proves evolution, then by its own logic, it will have to reject its own canon of research that previously denied it.It’s a clever idea, because it once again puts evidence, rather than faith, at the centre of the debate.Science cannot prove that God doesn’t exist, or that God may have once put in place all known physical laws and processes that shaped the universe and everything in it.Science cannot challenge faith, which by its very nature, does not require evidence (many scientists are religious people who see no contradiction between their faith and work and many people of faith see no contradiction with what science can explain).But science does require evidence, and this evidence allows us to explain, with increasing accuracy, how the world around us works.The power of this evidence-based approach may explain the rise of creation science, which to briefly summarise, seeks evidence supporting the literal interpretation of the biblical book of Genesis.
Extract: CMDS is derived from a branch of creation science called baraminology, which classifies organisms according to a creationist framework. Animals fall into types, or baramins, which were created independently, but have diversified since.
Dr Senter has no real issue with the methodology – as he points out in the 2010 paper, mathematics has no creed.But he argues that if CMDS shows that dinosaurs do show transitional forms, and are in fact genetically related to each other, then creationists are in a bit of a bind.Either they must accept that to be true, and therefore contradict their own position that these groups appeared without evolution. Or they must throw out the assertion, but also reject their own methodology, which they have used to validate their creationist claims.
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