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Discussions of whether one of these or another are consistent with the belief in a personal god is purely subjective, and depends on each individual's ideas of what a "personal god" is like. That isn't the heart of the debate between the theory of evolution and its cheap knock-off imitation.

What is at the heart of it is whether or not science will survive the attempts by the forces of ignorance to destroy it. If it doesn't, then our civilization will lose the single most important tool for survival that it has ever developed. Be careful what you wish for, people!

For beginners, the biblical idea of an orderly, integrated universe is the basis of all true science, whether discerned by the Egyptians and Greeks, Renaissance thinkers, or Christian scientists. The ideas of absolute morality, love of neighbor, and a purposeful existence are also key ingredients in a civilized, benevolent, and advancing society. Science seems to be better at making A-bombs and napalm for the old sin nature to make war with.

The bottom line is that NO ONE really knows EXACTLY what happened at the very beginning of all existence, or how the earth was formed, or how life came to be. Even the Bible gives only a brief, no-frills account of how things came to be as they are, focusing on the theological truths involved. It does, however, reveal that it was God Whom designed and created it all. It was no accident or quirk of nature; but an orderly, progressive and utterly magnificent act.

I thought the Padre’s criticism of how the eco-system operates, in terms of animals eating and displacing one another, was quite stupid. OF COURSE all these things HAVE to happen in order for the eco-system to reproduce itself provide for all its creatures. The idea that this shows a malevolent deity is absurd and very unscientific – a cheap shot, if you will. It’s simply the way it works! God is no old man in the sky or cosmic creampuff, but the supreme personal Intelligence that brings the universal order into being and completes His purposes for it – including the salvation and glorification of fallen man.

So it took billions of years. That doesn’t bother me any more than it bothers the eternal Creator. I think pure, macro-evolution is unsupportable. No matter how often the proponents of god-less evolution drag out their pathetically few “links,” they are really still missing – if their extreme gradualism is true. Links between stages of micro-evolutionary adaptive change, yes; but not full-fledged macro-evolution.

God created the various families, species and genera by His own omnipotent means – which I believe included micro-evolutionary adaptation: eohippus to horse, trilobite to horseshoe crab. God created the basic kinds or forms, and allowed them to develop in their environments using the genetic material HE infused in them. Whether He chose to do this in 50 thousand years or 5 billion years is irrelevant.

But one thing is for sure! No incredibly complex cell came into being by itself, or by chance. Life was divinely created, and variegated over time into the finished work of Genesis 1, at which time God “rested - NOT by strictly evolutionary means (which has no convincing or provable basis in fossil fact) – but by divine intervention, as at the very beginning of life. If divine fiat was necessary for a fully functioning, self-replicating cell to come into existence, then the MAJOR changes needed to form the varied species, etc. also HAD to be done by divine, creative intervention.

This guy would have been better off staying in his habit, lighting candles and kneading his beads. He brings nothing of God or biblical insight to the table, as far I can see; just more same-old, same-old.

Balderdash!

Creation means that man was created in the image of God, as set forth in Genesis. Man was created purposefully, and to have a relationship with God. We are set apart from the animals to enjoy a special relationship with God.

On the other hand, evolution stands for the proposition that we are all just a product of time and chance. We were not created, but merely evolved (from nothing, apparently). No god necessary. We are no more important than any other product of evolution, just different. There is no special relationship with God, after all, we are just here by chance.

Only a "theologion" could conclude that evolution is more consistent with a personal god than is creationism.

The most dangerous enemies of the Church have been, and always will be, those inside.