Hello Shuan,
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shuan Rose [mailto:shuanr@boo.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 10:20 AM
> To: Adrian Teo; 'Tim Ikeda'; asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: RE: Definition of "Species"
>
>
> hi Adrian,
> I think the data does show that all living things are related and that
> humans are geneologically related to other living things,
> specifically to
> the great apes, with whom we share a common ancestor.
That is certainly one interpretation of the data that makes sense to me.
However, I don't think that this is the only interpretation that fits the
data.
> Orthodox Christians believe(I believe) that the image and
> likeness of God
> refers chiefly to our spiritual capacities. Whether these spiritual
> capacities evolved, or are somehow inserted into us is an
> open question. I
> believe that God somehow guided the evolutionary process to
> create those
> qualities in Homo Sapiens, but I am willing to be persauded
> on this. I have
> no idea!
Christians don't agree on what the image really means. Berkower has an
exccellent volume that treats this issue called Man: The Image of God. I too
believe as you do that God's hand was involved in the creation of Homo
Sapiens (but others have also argued quite convincingly that Homo Erectus
and other Homos were humans as well), but God's hand in involved in ALL of
creation anyway. My point is not whether God was involved (He always is),
but that the creation of humans was a process discontinuous with that which
led to the emergence of other creatures. It was not necessarily an entirely
different process (although it could have been), but that at the very least,
MORE was involved than usual. That is what I mean by special creation.
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