>There
>is nothing special about man, except he is in the image of God. I
>believe that God carried out similar "forming from the dust of the
>ground" (Gen 2:7) for all the major groups.
It seems to me that being made in the image of God makes _all_ the
difference. Physically man bears considerable resemblance to other
creatures -- either by design which directs an evolutionary process
overseen by God, or by more direct design -- but what makes _all_ the
difference is that God gave man His Spirit when He made man (Gen 2:7: Then
the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being) True, the
other animals were formed from the dust of the ground. But the second part
of the above verse, "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
man became a living being" applies to _man_, not the animals. I believe
it's quite significant that the Hebrew word used for breath here can also
mean spirit.
Earlier Stephen said the following
>I believe you are inconsistent here Terry. If God can "tweak" human
>biological history, why not other species' biological history.
>
Personally, I don't have a problem with God tweaking biological history --
if indeed that is what He actually did. Whether he tweaked the genomes of
creatures or tweaked other things at lower levels that braought about His
desires, He was and is fully in control at all times.
>>I am also very comfortable with your objection to the notion of "nature".
>>This is exactly the point I try to make when I say that the distinction
>>ought to be regular/irregular or ordinary/extraordinary rather than
>>natural/supernatural. It seems to me that you objected to this line of
>>thinking before. "Nature" is just as dependent on God as any supernatural
>>act. The term itself connotes a notion of autonomy; that something acts
>>according to its own "nature".
This is an aspect of YEC thinking that gives scientists considerable
discomfort. YEC's give the impression that they believe in an autonomous
nature that does its own thing except for what happens at discrete
instances when God steps in to bring about someth ng beyeond the
capabilities of nature. Personally, I don't believe that _any_ of nature
would function were it not for God's continuous oversight.
>
Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX)