the science as it evolves
Science evolves in the general sense of the word meaning that as a system of knowledge, it grows in complexity.
The theories of which it is comprised, do not evolve; they are each discarded and replaced by another which is more comprehensive with better explanatory value.
Natural selection for science has to do with the theory’s fit with the data - a dynamic relationship.
The data remains the same and grows, but how it is put together becomes more complex.
The fact is that none of science is random; it requires inspiration and a lot of hard work.
Since we are made in the image of God, an analogy may be made between our science and God’s creation.
The Logos brings it all into existence and our capacity of reason enables us to understand it.
The theory of evolution is like the geocentric model of the universe.
The sun rises and sets, the seasons come and go in cyclical fashion.
We put it together in places like Stonehenge and in the Mayan calendar.
Ptolemy used a plethora of data to construct a system that showed how the sun, moon, stars and planets travelled through the sky.
He is astrophysics’ version of Darwin and his meticulous notebooks.
In their vision of reality, at the centre of both is the earth, matter.
The fact is that it’s the sun and what it symbolizes - being (the giving of existence), that is the central point around which everything revolves.
Consider that being is not an attribute of a thing, but its core.
Whether it is an atom or we ourselves, there is a being, comprised of many parts that become one whole, individual and within a greater whole.
Theories, pulling things together into something coherent, are like species.
Individually, we understand a theory in our particular way, just as each member expresses the nature of its species.
And, theories get tweaked and change a bit; they are adapted.
But for advances to happen, there is an overhaul.
It’s the same with the growing complexity we see in nature.
We came into existence not as a variation of a pre-existing animal any more than heliocentrism is a variation of geocentrism.
The data is reformulated into something new in both cases.
How this happens, I can’t honestly say.
Although creation occurred long ago, it is maintained, i.e. brought into existence, in the moment, here and now.
So the growing complexity we find ontologically and temporally could have happened any which way God chose.
My preferred version, for what it’s worth, is symbolized by a butterfly or a seed and sees Adam and Eve as having a belly button. That said we are not descended from non-human hominids any more than I would be descended from the chicken that laid the egg I hypothetically ate this morning for breakfast.
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