Re: Teaching Evolution

[jdharris@lust.isem.smu.edu (Jerry D. Harris)]

At 3:04 AM 9/10/95, WILLSCULPT@aol.com wrote:
>Anyway, during our conversation,
>while she was fondling the big sharks tooth, she actually suggested to me
>that God planted all this evidence, that He created the entire fossil record
>in place where we find them today, as a way to tempt us, or test our faith.
>  It was only when I heard this that I realized the extreme  narrow mind set
>of the creationist.  How does one argue with a statement like that?  More to
>the point, Why does one argue with a statement like that.

        I won't touch the "why" portion of your question, but the "how" to
argue that particular point is easy!  I've done it many a-time.

        Simply, they state "God put fossils on Earth to test our faith."

        I say, "If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then why does he
need to test our faith?  Doesn't he already _know_ what it is?"

        That usually shuts 'em up.



Jerry D. Harris
Shuler Museum of Paleontology
Southern Methodist University
Box 750395
Dallas  TX  75275-0395
(214) 768-2750
FAX:  (214) 768-2701
jdharris@lust.isem.smu.edu
        (Compuserve:  73132,3372)

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"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and
quacks like a duck, then it is the sister taxon to,
but cannot parsimoniously be, the direct ancestor
to all other ducks."

                                --  _not_ W. Hennig

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