Evolution, God and Intelligent Design
Now we have an organized group of reputed scientists and academicians, encouraged by a Presidential comment about allowing what they call "Intelligent Design" to be taught alongside Evolutionary theory in schools, pointing out that the bases of this latter theory are flawed; that they do not answer the major questions and that they do not offer an acceptable version of the origin of life, somehow suggesting that their Creationist or "Intelligent Design" theory is the right one.
As we listen to the scientists on the other side of the argument, backed by the world's scientific community and a wealth of scientific facts and evidence whose logic and legitimacy can not be ignored, we can not help but classify the "Intelligent Design" as a sophisticated version of creationism, which is of course closely bound to faith and religious beliefs. We wonder how this is going to affect or alter some of the more fundamental tenets on which our education and personal beliefs are based.
According to those sold on Creationism, the fact that a major debate is taking place about Evolution versus the so called Intelligent Design, this last introducing the presence of God's all-reaching hand, is proof that God exists. The opposite side argues that the simple fact of holding a debate on this matter does not advance evidence of the presence of God, adding that in this instance a debate is nothing more than a predictable reaction to differences of opinion.
Recurring to our sheep mentality, decidedly a product of an evolutionary cycle, we can easily side with one or the other facet of the argument; it all depend on the quality of the environment in which we exist and on the nature of the conditioning to which we have been exposed. Few of us devote time to use our mental processes, like thinking, to make an attempt to understand, or at least to become acquainted with the nature of the argument.
As the questions about this debate have become frequent and insistent, I decided to get a reading straight from the horse's mouth. I went to see GOD. Perhaps if I found him in a good mood, he might enlighten me.
GOD is what I imagine Him to be. My conditioning showed when I saw him. White, tall with a white beard, lovely smile with perfect teeth, dressed in a flowing white robe of a material resembling those Mediterranean weaves where silk, cashmere and cotton are ingeniously blended. His sandals were quite common and looked suspiciously like those on sale at Wal Mart. If approached by an Oriental, he would have Oriental features and wear a brocaded gown with silk lapels and shoes with upturned points. For a Latino he would sport a black mustache, carry a serape over his left shoulder and might even be carrying a guitar.
"What is it this time?" he asked, a bit annoyed. He was mixing a dry Martini and taking special pains with the lemon peel as he twisted and squeezed it over the surface of the divine liquid to coat its surface with that oil that makes the dry martini a therapeutic adventure.
"It is the great debate on Earth about Evolution and Intelligent Design, the new nickname for creationism, Sir. I am unable to explain this debate to my children. What can I tell them?"
"Listen, have you people in that crazy planet of yours nothing to do besides killing each other and engaging in useless arguments? How about practicing the charity and compassion that all your leaders preach every time they see a microphone or a TV camera? How about helping all those millions of poor and abandoned human beings in so many places? How about eradicating all those plagues, illnesses and pestilences that you seem to harvest regularly down there?"
"Sir, you probably know the answer to those questions better than I. I just wish to know if you created us humans, as it is claimed by the hordes of ministers, priests, preachers and religious fanatics? Did you actually set up a development lab and proceeded to create the universe and then all living things in a matter of a few days? "
"Are you nuts? I would not spend millions of years trying to produce infinite universes, hot solar systems, complex nervous systems, arrange for sunsets to set, monkeys to swing and cholesterol to clog your arteries. No way José!"
"That means that evolution is the answer. Is that right?"
"A relative question. In a way, creation and evolution, both as facts and as abstractions, are close relatives. To create you need a creator, n'est ce pas? To evolve you run into a starting point before you start evolving. Now who or what provided, created, set up or defined that starting point so that it could evolve? Who created the Creator?"
"I see"
"No you don't."
He paused to taste the dry martini and with his head gestured inviting me to join him. I had to refuse; dry martinis before breakfast are not my cup of tea, to quote a Chinese Emperor. Instead I asked him if he could create a glass of orange juice, a cup of coffee and a glazed doughnut for me. He smiled and reaching under the counter brought up a tray containing what I had requested.
Looking pleased with his dry martini creation and his dexterity as a host, he continued:
"Ah! Here is where you people reach your limit of wisdom and understanding! Your rudimentary thought processes did arrive at a comfortable conclusion regarding the origin of your existence. Some of you created a creator and others observed the development of the race and came up with evolution. You placed these ideas in a continuum, which you call the universe but know little about it."
He poured himself another dry martini, dropped a green olive in it and again proceeded to oil its surface. He said:
"What you call the universe is nothing but a combination of time and energy. Your present mental development does not allow you to understand the mystery of beginning and end, which is closely related to the time-energy binomial. Within this structure, the limits of accomplishment, evolution or creation, are infinite"
"I don't get it"
"I know you don't. Your people tend to measure things by current levels of enlightenment. And that is where confusion and uncertainty begin. Try this: your professors have found that it takes 5 million years to turn a few cells into a worm. But what happens if you fiddle with time, or ignore it entirely? If it is flexible you can make the worm in a couple of minutes. Now, is time inflexible? Does it go in only one direction?
I was lost. And I thanked him that he did not use sophisticated scientific terms to tell me all these things. In that respect, GOD is quite accommodating, other than being a great bartender. I said:
"Tell me about you, dear GOD"
"No problema. Somewhere in the process of evolution of the human species and once you people were walking on two legs and were able to distinguish day from night, some needs were identified. One of the most urgent seemed to be the need to know. The appearance of human intelligence with its complex baggage of reasoning, self consciousness, intuition, fear, hope, rationality, etc., plus the constant enigma of unexplained natural phenomena led to a major crisis of understanding and the obvious need to devise a reasonable explanation."
His smile this time was something to see. It combined a touch of impishness and was framed by those lovely serene eyes that had acquired a special shine. He continued:
"I can not say that I was created, or evolved from something. I am related to the beginning and end equation and its complements of time and energy. I just seemed to appear in this neck of the woods to provide the answers to those questions that confused and tortured the primitive races. You know, I became easy to invoke" A sip of the dry martini and then:
"Soon, I was providing the answers to every question that came up. I was quoted as saying this or the other, depending on the capacity of the speaker to convince and sell the goods to his eager audience. I was called many names and ascribed all kind of miraculous powers. Your mother in law was ill and you invoked my help. If she got well, it was thanks to me. If she croaked, it was in conformity with my wisdom that she departs for a heaven of delights and happiness. Such appearances satisfied or assuaged the people's thirst for answers that their own situations and discoveries provoked". Another sip.
"From then on, we created a few things. It was a process of cataloguing human qualities and blaming someone for those that could not be easily understood. Creating creeds, beliefs, ethos and even psalms has been part of GOD's job, inspired naturally by the evolution of the mental awareness of the funny beings inhabiting the planet. There is a simple answer, Tyrone. I am an article of faith. You people would not exist if from the very beginning you had not identified faith as the only way to answer questions that no one could answer"
"So?"
"Yes, I do exist with many names, shapes and forms. I provide humans with a reason to think and in some cases with a discipline to observe some principles that some of your more intelligent members dreamed up long ago. I do not mind taking the credit. But do not ignore that by using the idea of GOD, men's thinking has often expanded into ridiculous fantasies, judging by the fiction spouted by your political leaders and the religious peddlers I see on your television channels, not to mention some of the atrocities committed in my name throughout the ages!"
"You mean that other than your presence in the minds of people, you have no physical entity?"
"Right! I exist where I am needed, but I can not cure your illnesses, or make you win the lottery or predict the future or protect your grandson. Remember that the greatest force on Earth is the intellectual capacity of the bipeds that inhabit the planet! They were clever enough to invent things like a conscience, a soul and build into themselves some positive instinctual reactions like self preservation, maternal love and a few more. I fulfilled a need the moment you people started walking on two legs and noticed that you were doing so! I am a most convenient shield, excuse, blessing and escape goat!"
"Fine. That takes care of creation but what about evolution? It must have begun somewhere, somehow!"
"Back to beginning and end, to time and energy and the great accidental skills needed in making mountains out of molehills! The answer is there somehow"
"And you, GOD?"
"I am talking to you, aint' I?"
Related Tags: god, evolution, intelligent design
Throughout his writing career, the author has penned many profiles of famous people. They are quick touches generally humorous and occasionally true.
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