L
ltravis
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JP2Admirer;1629551:
I agree with all this. In fact, I don’t even think the advanced intelligence argument is necessary to the idea that humans are outside of evolution. If we discovered a new species, or a quality of an existing species, that proved it had a greater intelligence than humans, that doesn’t disqualify humans as being above the rest of creation, does it? In addition to mental capacity, isn’t our free will and capability for altruism (sacrificing ourselves wholly for the good of another) what truly sets us apart from the rest of nature? I can’t perform arithmetic as fast as my machine, and I certainly can’t communicate the way a colony of bees can, but does that mean I am made less in God’s image than they are? I don’t think so.
Absolutely. I agree that Original Sin is crucial to our Faith. I didn’t even think about it let alone consider it for my argument mainly because that is more of a theological nature rather than an apologetic one towards justifying faith with science. There’s no doubt we came from two human parents. The question remains is where did they come from precisely aside from God. Oddly enough, the precise missing link between humans and primates lies somewhere yet to be discovered. That’s not to say that it won’t be discovered nor does it imply that scientists won’t be able to determine exactly how it happened. At some point God infused souls into a couple of creatures and they were able to rationalize and deduce though. An atheist might attempt to explain all of that away by citing the complexities of the human brain that was challenged and grew bit by bit for the last million years until it reached the state it is in today. That may be countered by citing such species as the dog or porpoise who both have unusually high reasoning compacities. Primates such as the chimpanzee also possess a high level of intelligence as opposed to other members of the animal kingdom. It’s even speculated that extinct dinosaur species like the velociraptor may have been above average in intelligence based on the skull cavity where the brain would have been plus what facts can be determined about how they lived based on fossil records. All of these support that deductive reasoning can be developed by certain species of animals. However, only the human race has reached the level of intelligence that is as far beyond the intelligence of even the most advanced life forms. This abnormality doesn’t fit into the scope of evolution and would point to the possibility of a greater force at work. Does this undermine the theory of evolution? Absolutely not. God is omnipotent. God is greater than and beyond creation and even time. If that statement is to be held true, then why wouldn’t God create the highest best method in which to create and to set up laws of physics and biology by which that creation is governed?
LT