Sunspots 678

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: A Relevant writer reminds us that contemporary worship style churches aren't the only viable options.

Christianity Today reports that former President Jimmy Carter spoke at the Liberty University commencement.

A Southern Baptist woman says that Jerry Falwell and Robert Jeffress stood up for her against abuse by her husband.

Politics: Benjamin L. Corey is not at all happy with President Trump referring to some immigrants as animals, not people, and Corey says this attacks the foundation of Christianity.

Science: Gizmodo reports that a study has found that chimpanzee beds are much less likely to contain germs or parasites than human beds do.

(or not) Gizmodo also reports that Mo Brooks, a congressman from Alabama, believes that erosion, and rocks falling into the ocean, are responsible for rising sea levels.

FiveThirtyEight discusses the relative intelligence of various kinds of animals. It's not sensible to rank animals by intelligence.

ListVerse tells us more than we knew about the Periodic Table of the elements.

ListVerse also reports on "10 body parts that are secretly awesome."

A BioLogos author tells us ways in which humans are unique.


Image source (public domain)

The origin of humans (and a little about the meanings of "evolution")

I have recently discovered a pretty good attempt to differentiate among the meanings of evolution, by Steve Martin, of "An Evangelical Dialogue on Evolution," and I commend it to you. I also have a web page that tries to do this. We say some of the same things, but there are differences. I have recently updated this web page, which has been on-line, with occasional updates, for a few years.

The main reason that I have updated, is because I decided that I didn't say enough about the origin of human beings. (Steve Martin doesn't deal with this much, either) If human beings came from some other type of organism through an evolutionary process, there is no good reason to suppose that there was anything special about this, any more than, say, the apparent descent of zebras and horses from a common ancestor would have been by a unique process, so there's a good reason for leaving it out of a discussion of the types of evolution -- it's not a unique type, if it happened. But the response of many Christians to the suggestion that humans may have evolved from some pre-human animal requires some discussion, in my view.

Why is there so often a response to the possibility that humans have evolved? There seem to be several answers, the most obvious being that we are human, and may not want to know anything "bad" about our origins, just as we might not want to know that we had an axe murderer in our family tree. (I don't see that origin from some non-human type, if it really occurred as God's way of producing us, should be considered a bad thing.)

Another answer is that the Bible indicates that the origin of humans was special. Genesis 1 and 2 do not describe the origin of any other species in detail, but the origin of humans is detailed. The process is described in such a way that, if it was meant to be taken literally, it leaves no room for an evolutionary process in human origin. The origin of humans is not only described, but we are also the only beings described as being in God's image, whatever that means, and as having some sort of control and responsibility for other living things.

It is also true, of course, that the Bible tells us that Christ came as a human, miraculously becoming a God-man. This, too, indicates that humans are special.

So it is no wonder that many Christians have a very hard time believing that humans came from some non-human species.

I'm not sure how to take Genesis on the origin of humans. I don't know enough of the original language. There are those who do know it, and believe that the Bible is God's word, divinely inspired, but disagree with one another about how literally to take the first part of Genesis. It doesn't seem likely that I can determine this issue in this life.

The Bible doesn't seem to allow for any doubt that God was involved in the origin of humans, however and whenever it came about. We are here because of God's purposes.

It is, of course, possible that other organisms came to be as they are through evolutionary processes, but that humans were specially created, as described in Genesis.

However humans came about, it seems clear that they have changed ("evolved," if you please, in one meaning of the word) since the first humans. Taken literally, Genesis teaches that the various races of humans all sprang from Noah's family, and there are differences between races. (These differences are insignificant, compared to the similarities!) Even to a young-earth creationist, who might be supposed to doubt that humans have been subject to evolutionary processes more than others, these differences must have come about in the few thousand years since Noah's flood. I have never read a scientifically informed young-earth creationist who doubted that natural selection, Darwin's main mechanism, works, or that it has worked in humans, at least since the flood. A person who believes that the earth, and humans, are more than a few thousand years old, will also accept that humans have changed since Homo sapiens first appeared.

Some Christians believe that the first part of Genesis was not meant to be taken strictly literally, and some of these Christians are willing to believe that God used some sort of evolutionary process to bring about the existence of humans here on earth. Billy Graham, for one, is on record as saying that this may have been true. Note that he doesn't say that it is true, but that it might be. I'll give Graham the last word:
". . . whichever way God did it makes no difference as to what man is and man's relationship to God."

Thanks for reading!

The Bible teaches that humans are special

The Bible indicates clearly that humans are special. Besides the evidence of common sense – humans write books, wear clothes, and concern themselves with fundamental questions. Chimpanzees, whales and dolphins don’t write books or wear clothes, and, so far as we know, don’t dispute about fundamental questions – the Bible indicates our special status in three important ways.

God appeared on earth in human form. This may have happened in Genesis 10, and in Daniel 3. If the Bible means anything, it happened when Mary became pregnant, and throughout the earthly life of Jesus. (John 1:14, Philippians 2:7-8)

Humans are the only beings created who are described as being in God’s image. Genesis 1 also describes us as being over all the other creatures, under God, and the first act that fulfills this is when Adam names the animals in Genesis 2. Psalm 8 repeats the idea that we are in God's image. (It also indicates that there are “heavenly beings” who are above us.)*

The arrangement of the first two chapters of Genesis indicates that humans are unique. Genesis 1 describes the creation of land animals as having been on the sixth day**. It also describes the creation of humans as having been on that day, but the description is set apart from the creation of the land animals. The phrase “it was good,” for each of the first five days of creation, except the second, occurs at the end of a category of creation. (It occurs twice in the description of the third day, each time at the end of the description of the category of creation.) In the description of the sixth day, the phrase occurs after the appearance of the land animals, and then there is a description of the creation of humans. Genesis 2 describes the creation of Eve as occurring after the creation of Adam. This is not done for any of the animals. Humans are the only creatures specially named in Genesis 1, and, of course, the male and the female are each given a distinct name. None of the rest of the living things created are even named by species or kinds, let alone individually. (The KJV uses “whales” in 1:21, but the NIV and other modern versions, including the NKJV, use a more generic term.) Genesis 1 and 2, then, seem to indicate clearly that humans are special.***

*It is possible that there are beings in God's image on other planets somewhere. I don't believe that the Bible completely rules out (or proposes) that possibility.

**As I see it, this paragraph makes sense whether or not the days of Genesis 1 were literal.

***This is true even if, as some allege, Genesis 1 and 2 were originally separate narratives.

You may wish to see this post for a more comprehensive picture of my view of origins.

Thanks for reading!