No subject

intent into account, that those odds would be met was predetermined.  If we
can see God in everyday things like guidance and answers to prayers, it's
not unacceptable to see God in that sort of plan.  Science cannot observe
that using the known laws of nature, but if they claim there is no such
guidance beyond the laws of nature, they're stepping out of science and
promoting their own religion - atheism.  And that is then not science, just
a tendency of human nature.

> The Bible says that at one point, "God looked on creation and pronounced
> it good."  From this perspective, pathogens are pieces of a once
> benevolent ecosystem that have run amok and become destructive - not
> merely upstarts in a ruthless struggle for dominance of the planet
> (though they are that too in the new violent order).  Also note that
evolution
> of parasites to become more lethal is not only a degradation of the
ecosystem
> as a whole - but a long term disadvantage to the parasite.

Which raises a whole new question: what was creation like before sin?

Did lions have digestive systems designed for carnivores, or did these
change after sin?  If they changed after sin, then their entire genetic
system designed to code for relevant enzymes lacking in herbivores must have
evolved, or at least changed with a zap.  Who did that changing - God or
Satan?  If they were much like sheep before sin, surely they are really a
different species now?

What about dogs?  Did they have strong jaws?  And did cats have strong back
legs?

Did snakes have fangs, and the ability to coil around a prey and suffocate
it?

And man - did we have the digestive tract of omnivores?  Did we have a
defective gene for vitamin C, so that we can't manufacture our own, like all
other mammals do, apart from primates?  Did we have an immune system at all,
and if so, what purpose did it serve?  Did we have viral genes embedded in
our own genes, some of which produce essential proteins, and some of which
actually produce virus-like particles in the placentas of pregnant women?
(Baboons actually produce such viruses that can infect other primates.)  Or
did evolution first have to design viruses, then infect man, then cause man
to lose those functions, making the viral genes essential?  Did man have the
ability to produce steroids and adrenaline to cope with various stresses, or
was pre-sin life stress-free?  Did we have pain receptors, or was pre-sin
life pain-free?  Where did pain come from?  Did the part of our brain that
deals with things like pain, fear, etc grow in there only after sin?  Did we
have livers and kidneys to remove toxins, or were toxins part of the
pre-fall creation?  Was our appendix functional, like in other animals,
prior to the fall, or was it just taking up space?  Did we have temperature
control mechanisms that help us survive heat and cold, or, without death,
where these unnecessary?  Did we have mechanisms to repair damaged tissue,
or was their no injury prior to the fall?

In short, was creation made knowing that the fall would occur?

If man was even remotely the same creature prior to sin, these things make
little sense to me if there was a 7-day creation 6000 years ago, and the
effects of sin were present in only one direction in time.

God bless,
Stephen
--
Stephen Korsman
skorsman at theotokos.co.za
www.theotokos.co.za

IC | XC
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NI | KA